Back to the Fufu

Here is the foodstuff of the day: fufu . Fufu , at least as served at the splendid Crenshaw-district Liberian restaurant Kukatonor, is basically mashed cassava root, a big lump of the stuff, that is slightly shiny, slightly sticky, and closer to the consistency of Silly Putty than any other foodstuff I could name. Fufu is very filling. If you are West African, as are about half of Kukatonor’s customers, you roll a bit of fufu into a pigeon-egg-size ball with your fingers, then dip it into a bowl of stew and use it to maneuver the food toward your mouth, much as Arabs use pita or Ethiopians use injera. If you are not West African, you will probably scoop out some stew with a spoon and knead it thoroughly into your fufu before eating it with a fork.

Fufu isn’t much by itself--in fact, the lemony pucker of the fermented cassava can be a little unpleasant straight--but eaten like this, the fufu’s acidity is rather refreshing, cutting through the richly flavored Liberian vegetable stews the way a crisp Muscadet does through a dozen Hog Island oysters. Plus, it’s fun to say: fufu. Fufu-fufu. Fufufufufufu . There.

Kukatonor is a pleasant place, painted in pastels, Bob Marley playing softly, flowers everywhere, walls decorated with crocodile signs advertising Ngok beer from the Congo (which tastes uncannily like Mickey’s Big Mouth), dim-lit and romantic at night. Kukatonor is where African families eat lunch on Saturday afternoons, unself-consciously wearing flowing West African robes. Kukatonor is also a date-night destination, a community hang, and a place where groups of schoolteachers come to try out the exotic foods. It’s open for breakfast, too.

With the fufu there is interestingly spiced palm-butter stew, made by pounding palm kernels and separating off the oil, which is mellow and tasty; or ground-nut stew, made with peanuts; or big mounds of sauteed okra. (All stews come with a choice of fish or chicken or beef; most of them are surprisingly light.)

Egusi is a startlingly delicious dish of spinach stewed with chiles and the ground seeds of a West African melon, which tastes the way you always wished vegetables tasted when you were a child. There is Liberian-style stewed broccoli and a potato-leaf stew that has the odd, sharp flavor of raw potatoes, which is not unpleasant when tempered by chile and spice. Kukatonor’s menu also lists the Liberian specialty of stewed cassava leaves, but the restaurant always seems to be out of the stuff.

Of course, fufu is not the only starch: Stews can be served with big plates of chewy brown rice and fried plantains instead. Kukatonor also does a wonderful version of the West African pilaf jollof --rice cooked with chiles and herbs and stock. Jollof is often served as a daily special, topped with some swell chicken cooked in a spicy peanut sauce, for about five bucks . . . by far the biggest bargain in the house. Usually you can also get a dish of oxtails for that price, cooked to a melting tenderness in a molasses-flavored reduction sauce and served with something very much like a West African equivalent of the Salvadoran rice-and-beans dish gallo pinto.

In old atlases, Liberia is sometimes designated as the Pepper Coast, and Kukatonor’s food can be blistering-hot if you ask for it that way, as spicy as anything from Thailand or Sonora. The dish that is always fiery here is pepper soup, which resembles the hottest green salsa you’ve ever tasted, salty, intense and delicious, and a lot more innocuous-looking than you might think.

One evening a friendly policeman, smiling at just about everybody, making funny faces for the kids, took his first bite of the soup and did a double-take that looked like something out of an early Chaplin short. (I half expected to see smoke billowing out of his ears.) His eyes watered. He started to make a funny half-coughing sound and grabbed for his glass of water. He began to sniffle.

The waitress hurried over. “Is everything all right, sir?” she asked, sure that it wasn’t.

“Ummm,” he said, “The soup is good all right. But it’s spiii -cy.”

For dessert, Kukatonor serves something called “jubilee,” a hot sort of cobbler with fruit, nuts, toasted coconut and sort of a crisp cookie thing on top, that is pretty sweet, but somehow quite refreshing after a Liberian meal.

Kukatonor African Restaurant

2616 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 733-3171. Open daily, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Beer and wine. Takeout. Lot parking in rear. Catering. MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $10-$25.