Tasty Terenga - Boston

I am astonished that I lived down the street for over a year and never managed to uncover this hidden gem. The diminutive, nondescript storefront is lost to the gimmicky, commercialized neon signs of Laz Café, and the overpriced, never-enough-inventory-to-fill-the-store wine shop, and they’ve probably turned me, as well as other inhabitants of South End, off to the fabulous food in between.

So let’s commence with serious props for the fabulous food in between. Let me laud Terenga’s luscious lip-smacking meaty menu, matched only by Terenga’s vegetarian menu, an equally extensive plethora of dishes for hungry herbivores. Even bigger props for making veggie dishes that match the meat dishes in content and flavor.

To start, I drank the Bouye after being told that it was what heaven tasted like. Sadly, I found that godliness cannot be created with an overload of cream and vanilla sugar, which buried the flavor of the bouye. The Accara appetizer is a tasty small plate of perfectly fried ovals of black-eyed pea batter, which leaves a Fergalicious crispy-sour aftertaste.

I failed geography as a child, but after the Thiebou Yap entrée, I think Senegal might be closer to China than I thought…maybe that Pangea/continental drift hypothesis has some truth behind it after all…Think Senegalese fried rice. Think uniquely-flavored comfort food, replete with rich lamb and broken jasmine rice. The lamb is a bit dry and the caramelized onion topper can be a bit salty and overwhelming, but all of it meshed into an amazing combination of textures and complementary flavors for a delectably unique polish. My previous love in life was torn between jasmine rice and a well-made orzo. Both have been indubitably usurped by Terenga’s broken jasmine rice. Think couscous on steroids. Lots of steroids. Think couscous with Cushing’s. Except it’s good…Unlike Cushing’s.

The Thiou Legumes, a sharp tomato stew with perfectly balanced veggies, has me delightfully confounded. The sauce and the veggies are beyond reproach, but it’s hard to say how much of my delight was the dish and how much was the mere presence of sweet potato. Now THAT is a veggie worthy of divinity.

Final thoughts: Terenga masters the art of cooking simultaneously simple and rich food that I can only describe as something I’ve never tasted before. I only tried two dishes this time, I intend to try more, and even stretch marks couldn’t keep me away from the couscous with Cushings.