I have always said that everyone should work in food service at least once in their lives. There’s nothing I hate more than seeing a cusomer mistreat or feel somehow superior to a dining establishment’s waitstaff. I’d like to think that my five summers of working in a Cape Cod seafood restaurant, coupled with two years waitressing in a Dublin café have equipped me with a modest amount of empathy for the people who now wait on me here in Dakar. I’m not exactly a patient person, but in this regard I think I do a little better than others.
It’s a nice looking menu, but you’ve got to remember that most of the advertised dishes are on there for decorative purposes only.
So now that I have prematurely absolved myself of any reproach for writing this blog entry, I would like to complain a bit about dining in Dakar.
Don’t get me wrong- the array of eating establishments in this city is pretty great. I know that many of you still have an image of me walking on dirt roads that separate shacks with corrugated rooftops (well, those are here too). But Dakar is a land of tragic opposites, and while your toubab privileges will gain you access to exotic cuisines like sushi, the poor will position themselves outside and wait for you to finish your meal. Begging aside, the point is that dining options are not limited to the big stainless steel bowl served on the ground with soup spoons for scooping implements.
Since my two main activities in Dakar seem to be eating and working out, I can tell you that I have frequented a lot of restaurants. For those of us who are able to afford the more expensive dining options of this city, the running joke is that just because the menu is offering you a list of dishes doesn’t mean that they are really available. I’ve had a busy week, and as such have been to three restaurants in a row where I have been told that my eating or drinking selection was not available. Il n’y en a pas is the phrase that you are loathe to hear.
After awhile this can drive you a little crazy.
Here is how the game is played: you check out the menu and see what looks good or interesting. If you are new and naive then you set your heart on a certain creation and are excited to discover a new culinary adventure. You place your order with the waiter and then continue your conversation with your dining guests. Between three and eight minutes later the conversation suddenly stops; you look to your right and see that your waiter has returned and is looking at you with a kind of nervous smile.
“Oui?” you ask, if you have not learned to translate this expression.
“Je suis désolé, mais il n’y a pas de X.” (Sorry, but we’re out of what you want)
Damn. No matter- if you’re a seasoned diner in Dakar then you saw this eventuality coming- especially because you could tell from the menu that it was way too ambitious to be sustainable on a daily basis. You shrug your shoulders and give the waiter your backup choice, because you already had one prepared in the eventuality that he’d be coming back to take you order again. Two times is usually a charm.
Since my two main activities in Dakar seem to be eating and working out, I can tell you that I have frequented a lot of restaurants. For those of us who are able to afford the more expensive dining options of this city, the running joke is that just because the menu is offering you a list of dishes doesn’t mean that they are really available. I’ve had a busy week, and as such have been to three restaurants in a row where I have been told that my eating or drinking selection was not available. Il n’y en a pas is the phrase that you are loathe to hear.
After awhile this can drive you a little crazy.
Here is how the game is played: you check out the menu and see what looks good or interesting. If you are new and naive then you set your heart on a certain creation and are excited to discover a new culinary adventure. You place your order with the waiter and then continue your conversation with your dining guests. Between three and eight minutes later the conversation suddenly stops; you look to your right and see that your waiter has returned and is looking at you with a kind of nervous smile.
“Oui?” you ask, if you have not learned to translate this expression.
“Je suis désolé, mais il n’y a pas de X.” (Sorry, but we’re out of what you want)
Damn. No matter- if you’re a seasoned diner in Dakar then you saw this eventuality coming- especially because you could tell from the menu that it was way too ambitious to be sustainable on a daily basis. You shrug your shoulders and give the waiter your backup choice, because you already had one prepared in the eventuality that he’d be coming back to take you order again. Two times is usually a charm.
I have learned that the restaurants which are least likely to disappoint (in quality and availability) are the ones offering only one or two things on the menu at maximum.
Honestly, I can gripe about the restaurants, but I will let you in on a little secret (don’t tell anybody that this came from me). If you want to have the best dining experience in Senegal, the restaurants will not be the places to provide you with the best atmosphere. That communal silver bowl with spoons that I mentioned up above? That’s really where you are going to walk away feeling the most satisfied. Granted, you’ll be full of more rice and fish than you thought you could ever consume in one sitting, but you will never hear il n’y en a pas of something when you are a guest in the home of Senegalese family.