T's Cafe

T's Cafe

15608 Springhill Ln. #102, Pflugerville, 512/251-4432, 512/913-1095. Mon-Fri, 10am-9pm; Saturday, 8am-9pm

Owner Tosan Mogbeyi Eruwayo, of the River Delta state of Nigeria, and his wife met in high school. He is of the Itsekiri tribe, while she is of the Effurun tribe. Normally, the two tribes fight like the Capulets and the Montagues, but these two lovebirds worked it out and moved here in 1985.

He has opened T's Cafe in the Pflugerville Plaza strip center. It's a spare dining room, decorated with African handicrafts and LP records. The menu features burgers, sandwiches, fried seafood combos and platters, and Amy's Ice Creams, all there for the locals. But it's the last page of the menu that piqued our interest: the Nigerian dishes.

Since Esther quit serving her Ethiopian fare, and World Beat Cafe shut down, African cuisine has been absent in Austin. Tosan has put together a menu of some 20 items that needs further exploration. We started with a bowl of Gwongwon ($5), a pepper pot soup of goat meat and chitterlings. The flavor was richly exotic and spicy but could have used a few less chitterlings and more of the excellent goat. We could have had it spiced up even more with some ata chile sauce, but it's probably got enough zip for most.

For our "small chop" (appetizer) we wanted some Suya ($2.50), which are ground meat (mixed with ground peanut) skewers with Northern Nigerian spices, but they were out at the time. We opted instead for a side of Dodo ($2), six stocky, delicious slices of fried plantain. There are other small chop options to be tried: Moi Moi ($2.50), a baked, spiced black-eyed pea loaf; Chin Chin ($3), the savory Nigerian equivalent to the Mexican churro; Akara ($2.50), six fried fritters of spiced black-eyed peas.

Our entrée of Rice and Stew ($8.50) was a slightly chunky blend of fried tomatoes, onion, red bell pepper, chile, and spices with any meat (beef, goat, fish, or hen). We opted for the beef, which was a little tough, but the flavors of the stew were striking and very appetizing. It comes with a large side of iresi (steamed white rice). Recommended.

We also had the Stew and Okra ($8.50), which had similar ingredients but a totally different taste and texture, and again, delicious. It is served with pounded yam, which resembles bread dough in appearance but has a very light texture and makes a perfect partner. The procedure is to pinch off a small ball of the yam and use it to soak up the juices of the stew (with finger bowls provided, of course).

We also tried a royal dish of Obe Enyen (Banga Soup, $16.50), which is served in a clay pot, with a rich and very flavorful sauce made from palm fruit juice and spices, bathing a thick steak of tender catfish, with shrimp and periwinkles. It came with a cassava starch that no doubt delights Nigerians (too glutinous for us), but we preferred to eat it with the pounded yam. We had hoped to try the Congo meat (land snails, $5 each) in fried tomatoes, but it was sold out.

Tosan is an engaging host, doting on his customers (he replaced the soaps on the TV with some Fela Kuti tunes for us). We enjoyed the experience and definitely want to return for some of the other dishes, such as Owo (a salt cod stew from the south), Egusi soup (a melon stew), Epuru (a stew with yam, plantain, and chicken), and the elusive Congo meat!