Balafon

#52−2016:
It pains me to be going against all my predecessors (including my fellow ethnic venturer @Fla R.).
To be fair, I had chosen this location as part of an ongoing Unilocal dare within the Milan community. One chooses a location and then a «victim» that would most likely NOT have chosen said place to review.
Being that my friend is a bit skeptical about ethnic (aka spicy) food, I thought it best to try an African-​oriented cuisine (which lacked recent reviews).
So, on a Friday night we made reservations for 5 and headed on out to Balafon.
The Mami is ever so cheerful and nice and patient in explaining how things were supposed to play out. But she made things clear at the very beginning: «I don’t like spicy». Call me stereotypical but, my eyes widened and my mouth dropped… How can anyone south of Milano NOT like spicy food???
Anywho… on we went to order 2 out of the 3 appetizers options:
— shrimp samosas (phillo dough filled with shrimp, baby peas, celery, carrots, onion and sweet paprika) 5 €
— rosemary akra (arancini-​shaped fried croquettes made with balck-​eyed peas, rosemary, basil) 5 €
Then… on to the main dish (17.5 €)
The options varied quite a bit (Mozambico, Mali, Eritrea, Egypt, Congo, Guinea and Senegal) as far as sauces, accompanied by either meat or fish, with a side dish of steamed veggies. One could choose to accompany everything with either couscous or perfumed rice (don’t ask, no one at the table dared order it…)
I chose Soupikandia (Guinea) which listed: okra (though I could neither taste nor spot in the sauce), zucchini, eggplant and baobab seeds.
My friend opted for Mafe (Mali) which listed: peanuts, rosemary, tomato sauce and leek.
We both opted for the meat (beef chunks) and couscous.
Though it was seasoned quite nice, it lacked the zing and I was also looking for the zang!!!
So, Mami brought this «really really spicy sauce» in a tiny bowl the size of a peanut. I jumped for it and… NOT the ÜBER — SPICY I was looking for (my friend, who isn’t a huge spicy fan was gulping it down no problem).
The little bowl was gone along with our appetizers and Mami promised she’d bring more (she never did).
I felt weird to use fork and knife to eat… and I felt out of place NOT being able to burn my tongue with spiciness…
At the end of the meal… opting for either ginger tea or a mix of ginger, rhum and forgot what else cuz I was too busy gulping it down… that was the highlight of my evening.. along with burping my head out all through the ride home… I’ll have to try the recipe at home next time I have digestive problems or I wanna get an alternative rhum-​based ginger filled drink.