Yesu Adom Restaurant at Ghanaian Way Grocery

GHANA 🇬🇭

Less than ten years ago, the Dream International African Market was born in this afterthought of a building which used to house some kind of shipping company. Eventually they renamed the street Ghanaian Way (technically it is still Victoria Street, but a real sign has been put up!) and the grocery store followed suit. Now Ghanaian Way Grocery stands proud with bright flags of Ghana and Nigeria painted on the side, as well as the pan-African tricolor.

The geography of the market is almost like a deserted island, stuck between the Interstate 78 and Highway 22 overpasses and the main high-speed rail lines leaving New York to points south. Across Highway 1 on the other side is Newark International Airport, and the sounds of planes taking off are constant.

With so many West Africans in the southern portion of Newark, the market seems like a hub, with satellite TV pumped in and a whole array of products available from back home.

It is not advertised from the outside or even visible when you open the door, but hidden within is the wonderful Yesu Adom Restaurant, which may just be called Ghanaian Way Restaurant on other signs. Pass by the counter where people send money back home, take a left when you find the fufu mix boxes, then a right at the fresh yams imported from Ghana and you've found the dining room.

The restaurant will have an undecided amount of dishes on any given day, which can be paired with freshly made fufu, banku, or white rice. On this day, besides waakye they had a goat meat soup (above, with fufu) and another chicken and fish combo in red pepper soup (below, with white rice). Any meal here costs $11, and is entirely too much for a mortal human to finish. That being said, all the West African men completely demolish their plates and make the rest of us look foolish with all the waste we create.

Both dishes were excellent, full of heat and complexity.

Peruse the refrigerated cases for drinks, and come back with some extremely spicy ginger juice and some incredibly fermented palm drink. Premier quality though.

They will not run out of yams anytime soon.

The grocery is worth checking out as well. When I am in another country I am always fascinated taking a look at the shelves of a grocery store, and this feels exactly the same. It seems that this would be the place to come for anything and everything that can be imported from Ghana.

MSNBC was on during this meal, but the mark of any good African restaurant is the satellite below which offers channels from almost every country.

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NEWARK New Jersey

57 Victoria Street