Linda Falkenstein
Yassa, a spicy, lemony Senegalese stew, features tender marinated chicken pieces.
Kingdom is a sort-of Gambian/Senagalese/soul food restaurant in a gas station on East Washington Avenue. If that sentence makes your heart beat faster, make tracks to Kingdom.
I have written before about my affection for scrappy restaurants operating out of gas stations. I suppose it’s the thrill of the unexpected. You can go to a bistro like Graze and fairly expect to get a fantastic meal. Finding home-cooked African food at the Capitol Petro on East Wash seems like more of an achievement.
Like the Middle Eastern spot King of Falafel (located in the Amstar station on South Park Street), Kingdom also serves American dishes: fried chicken and fish baskets, burgers and cheesesteaks and gyros. Signage on the exterior of the gas station doesn’t tout the African menu. This might fall under the category of hiding one’s light under a bushel, but Kingdom does serve up a decent fried catfish meal (although the filets were a little thin) and good fried chicken.
The french fries and burgers are nothing out of the ordinary. The order area doubles as an ice cream counter. There are no frills in the presentation, no place to sit down to eat.
But what you have come here for is the small corner of the menu called A Taste of Africa, featuring fufu, benachin, domada and yassa. Stews are served over a bed of white rice or couscous, with a choice of chicken, beef or fish. (This fact isn’t always specified in the menu descriptions; just ask.)
Proprietor and cook Mahamadou Tunkara briefly operated a similar American standards/African spot in the food court at West Towne Mall; that stand closed in 2017. Kingdom opened in January of 2018.
Madison hasn’t had another eatery devoted to West African food since Africana Restaurant, on Atwood Avenue, closed in 2010. West African cuisine differs from East African (as found at Buraka), though both rely a good deal on rich stews. East African tradition often has these stews served on injera, a spongy sourdough-like pancake that doubles as the eating utensil. West African tradition serves stews over rice or couscous, or sometimes fufu, a dish made from one of several mashed starches.
At Kingdom, the menu describes the fufu as “a yam dumpling,” which is not quite the case. Don’t expect anything like bright orange sweet potatoes; this is made from white yams, mashed into a comfort food that is perhaps better described as gummy mashed potatoes — but in a good way. If you like sticky rice and you like mashed potatoes, you will in all likelihood love fufu.
Here it’s topped with what the menu calls “African sauce” and a choice of either beef or chicken. As the kitchen was out of beef that day, I ended up with catfish, topped with a spicy, peanutty, tomato-based sauce. Though catfish was not a listed option for the fufu, the pairing between the nutty sauce and the earthy fish worked perfectly.
I confess, the sauce for the fufu tasted very similar to the domada, or Gambian peanut stew, which I had with chicken — marinated and cooked to fall-off-the-bone tenderness. In turn, that chicken tasted quite similar to the jerk chicken, also on the menu. Yes, the dishes do tend to run together, flavorwise. But they are all delicious.
Most distinct from the domada is the yassa, described on the menu as “juicy tender chicken in a peppery sauce, served over rice or couscous.” Traditionally, yassa stars marinated chicken with a sauce made from vinegar or lemons, onions, mustard and super-hot scotch bonnet peppers.
All these flavors pop in Kingdom’s yassa. It features the same delectable fall-off-the-bone chicken. This dish is greasy. It is spicy. It is rich. And the day I had it, it was topped with hot giardiniera. I assume that’s not an authentic African presentation, but it is tasty.
All the African stews come in huge portions for $11.
The meat pie, also from the African menu, is made from obviously homemade crust, hand crimped into a turnover and fried. It’s filled with white meat chicken, and is not really, as the menu describes, similar to chicken pot pie. There are no vegetables or gravy inside. It’s just shredded white meat chicken in pastry. But ask for some African hot sauce (the squeeze bottles of hot sauce on the counter are just Tabasco-style, for fries and catfish) and Tunkara will bring some from the kitchen, to add some zest. The meat pie comes, weirdly, on a bed of french fries.
Mahamadou Tunkara’s little restaurant isn’t itself charming. Tunkara, however, is (he asked if I was “the fufu girl” one day when I came to pick up an order). You may find that the kitchen is out of beef, or not serving benachin that day. Just roll with it. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.
Kingdom
2702 E. Washington Ave.; 608-709-1150;
11 am-10 pm daily; $2-$12
