Iyanze

Photo: Martha Williams

IVORY COASTIN’ If you’ve eaten African food in Chicago, chances are you know berbere, wat and injera. Ethiopian cuisine is definitely more common locally, but you don’t know fufu about West African cuisine until you taste what Emmanuel Abidemi and his mother, Beatrice Remi-Hardnick, are cooking up at their new restaurant, Iyanze. Fufu (a general term for boiled and mashed starches like cassava, fermented dried corn and yam flour) make up part of Iyanze’s menu; the rest is a collection of dishes hailing from Nigeria, Ghana and various Francophone African countries. The restaurant’s name means “mother who cooks,” and Remi-Hardnick fills that role, turning out breakfasts of fried eggs and plantains (with French-press African coffee to wash it down); snacks like Scotch eggs, meat pies and skewered suya kebabs; and staples such as tripe, cow skin and goat eaten alongside saucy vegetable stews. The bare-bones menu descriptions cater to Uptown’s West African population (regulars at Abidemi’s restaurant Bolat, reopening in July), but this mother-and-son team hope you’ll experiment just the same. 4623 N Broadway between Wilson and Leland Aves (773-944-1417).

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