And now for something completely different....

This Fun Frank Friday starts off at Shooter's World.  After a long week of work, there is nothing more relaxing than ripping a few bullets through something.  It just relieves the stress.  Shooter's World offers a Ladies' Night on Fridays which allows Patti to shoot for free and they will provide free gun rental, eye and ear protection.  They are also supposed to provide additional instruction if wanted but Friday they were short handed so Frank assisted the lady in the lane next to us by answering her questions and being all around helpful.  It is a challenge to keep up with Patti as she is such a "dead-eye" with the .32 cal and .40 cal handguns.  We probably fired off approximately 100 rounds and you see by the picture above, we almost shot the targets head off.

 

 After we left, we headed to Camelback and 35th Ave in Phoenix.  Just around the corner almost from Shooter's World.  Where we arrived at "Fu-Fu Cuisine".  The restaurant seemed empty with plenty of tables, there was only one other table that had customers when we arrived.  This usually tells you one of two things: either the advertisement hasn't been done well or the food hasn't been done well.  The place itself was homey with African artwork and interesting African music videos.  We really enjoyed the atmosphere and immediately felt comfortable here.  Our hostess was also our waitress and by the strong accent I could tell the food was going to be authentic.  Despite the accent, there was no doubt that she understood us perfectly and we had no concerns asking her questions about the menu.

We were happy to hear that they served Coke products so guess what we had to drink and no it wasn't water with lemon!  The first thing that had caught our eye on the menu was Pof-Pofs.  The menu describes it as  :"Fried sweet dumpling: one of my favorite items made with flour, sugar and butter and deep fried"
We figured you can't go wrong with deep fried sugar and butter so we had to try an order of 6.  Surprisingly these are very addictive and an order of 6 was not enough.  We ordered another set of 6 to go home with us.  After much discussion we decided that the best way to describe them is similar to a doughnut but not as airy.  I do recommend them as a dessert rather than as an appetizer as described in the menu.  After eating four of the six by myself, I started getting full and had to stop snarfing them down or there would have been no room for the rest of the meal.

 

We also decided to try an order of the  "Chicken Shish kebab"  Cubes of marinated chicken with red and green bell peppers and onions on skewers.  The chicken was moist and the vegetables were grilled to perfection.  The marinade was a nice "jerk" style that did not overpower any of the flavors on the skewer at all.  I was actually impressed with this as most marinades will overpower everything else and you are unable to taste individual ingredients.

 


Now for those who are brave in the culinary arts, where texture does not rule the day, I would recommend the goat curry.  That's right, I said goat!  I know that most people are used to having cow, lamb, pork or even boring chicken but I went with the goat.  This consists of marinated goat meat mixed with peas and carrots and served on top of white rice and surrounded by slices of fried plantain.  I asked for a medium spice but she initially brought me mild.  She remember later and offered to bring the additional spices to me but I told her it was not necessary.  For those who have never had goat, it is a chewy meat.  The other thing to watch out for is the tendency for small bones to still be present.  Be cautious.

Patti was not as brave as I and settled on the more familiar chicken meat but chose it in the form of the "Yassa Chicken" entree.  She asked if it was from the African or the Caribbean style of cuisine (see restaurant logo) and was informed it was African.  It is a yellow mustard marinated chicken breast served with sauteed onions and red peppers on a white rice.  It was surrounded by green olives with pimentos.  Surprisingly, the green olives made a great compliment to the flavor of the chicken and vegetables.  Overall the best dish of the evening.

This was actually a fun adventure in dining.  I enjoyed the unusual cuisine even though the presentation of the food on the plates wasn't glamorously garnished.  The flavors of the food and the mix of the textures made this a "Fun Frank Friday".  We are looking forward to trying this restaurant again soon.

So if you haven't tried goat, try it now!