On March 4, join us at Brooklyn Brewery for our latest event in our “How To” series: How to Prepare an African Feast. We’ll learn how to make dishes from some of New York City’s African food experts, including specialties from the north, west and east of the continent. Tickets are just $5 and FREE for subscribers.
- Mitch Bloom of WOÉZÕ (who we wrote about back in the fall) spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo in Western Africa. For Mitch, one word, more than any other, captured the feeling of hospitality and neighborly caring — “woézõ,” (pronounced way-zoh) means “welcome” in Ewe, a West African language spoken in Togo. Upon his return to the U.S., Mitch started WOÉZÕ to bring that same sense of hospitality to Brooklyn through Togolese dishes. Mitch will present dishes that remind him most of his neighbors and close friends — people and food that represent the feeling of woézõ. Bloom will soon be setting up a WOÉZÕ counter within Bed-Vyne Cocktail, a forthcoming Bed-Stuy cocktail bar from the owners of Bed-Vyne Wine and Bed-Vyne Brew.
- NYShuk draws on Middle Eastern and North African market culture and strives to “bring part of the shuk — the bold flavors, colors, smell, abundance and most importantly the magic that exist in those places — to each and every part of our business.” Key to these marketplace flavors is harissa. Like Italians with tomato sauce, home cooks across North Africa and the Middle East are serious about their harissa. Each cook has his or her own special method for grinding the chiles and blending in oil, garlic and spices. We’ll sample the NYShuk harissa at the event, but you can find more of their products here.
- Hiyaw Gebreyohannes was born in Djibouti and craved his mother’s Ethiopian home cooking after settling in New York. Though it may feel like New York City offers endless food options (we are home of the croissant-donut hybrid, after all), it’s actually hard to find Ethiopian here; so Gebreyohannes sought to fill the niche himself. Taste of Ethiopia was launched out of the Hot Bread Kitchen Incubates program, and now distributes packaged meals full of aromatic, traditional Ethiopian flavors across the city and country.
Guests must be 21+ to attend; valid ID required for entry.
