AFRICAN FOOD:For a taste of authentic food from Africa, join the throng of diners and drinkers at Decency African Cuisine, writes Eoin Butler
"IF YOU WANT to taste real African food in Ireland," advises a Nigerian acquaintance, "there is one place you have to go." For almost three years now, Decency African Cuisine has been serving up authentic homemade dishes in the heart of Dublin's north inner-city. It functions as both a restaurant and a general hangout for the area's burgeoning expatriate community.
When I drop by on a balmy Wednesday evening, it's packed to the doors with customers watching soccer on television. Some are eating, others just enjoying a beer.
Most are Nigerian, but the ethos here is Pan-African and Decency is equally popular with Kenyans, Ugandans and Tanzanians.
Proprietor Regy Kanu ushers me outside to talk through the menu in the relative quiet of the street. The most popular dish here is the grilled fish with fried plantain (€15), which is a favoured dish in west, central and east Africa, where the plantain - similar to the banana, but bigger - is native. However, if you were feeling a little more adventurous (well, a lot more adventurous) you could sample the Isi Ewu (€25), an African delicacy comprising a goat's head served in pepper soup.
Also popular is pounded yam. Presenting this with Ogbono or Onugbu Soup (served here for €10) to a guest is considered to be a great act of hospitality amongst the Edo people in Nigeria.
Not that eating is compulsory at Decency African Cuisine. "We have a beer licence," Kanu says. "So a lot of people just come here to hang out and drink."
Among the African beers available by the bottle are Star Beer (from Uganda), Gulder (Nigeria), Tuska (Kenya) and, of course, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout - a strong stout brewed in Dublin specifically for the African community.
Decency African Cuisine, 40 Mountjoy Street, Dublin 7