Robust flavors and warmth at an African bistro
Long story short: Immigrant opens African restaurant.
Same story, longer version: Alle Thiam comes to New York, finds work as a dishwasher, shows cooking talent, becomes a chef, moves to L.A. and goes on to be executive chef at Kass Bah before opening his own restaurant on a quiet stretch of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the Crenshaw district.
It’s your basic Senegalese American chef success story, of course, but it also explains why everything at Bistro 4040 shows such polish and confidence.
Still, this is a friendly, intimate place with just 13 tables. The walls are decorated with bright Senegalese fabrics; the air is filled with the warm throb of West African pop music.
Three West African entrees are available on a given day, one of them changing according to the day of the week, and sometimes joined by an off-menu special. The rest of the menu is American dishes, ranging from fried chicken to blackened salmon.
You could start a meal with pastels: little empanada-like pastries filled with a bit of salmon. They come with a “spicy tomato chutney” which is actually a homemade hot sauce, full of rich, fresh chile flavor and really pretty hot. Thiam ought to bottle this stuff. You can ask for it with anything.
Most of the salads are entrees. The Jamaican jerk chicken salad, one of the best things here, is chunks of satisfyingly spicy grilled chicken in a honey-mustard dressing piled on romaine.
The two Senegalese dishes available every day are in the dibi style, which Thiam compares to jerk or tandoori. Aziz medina dibi platter is thick lamb chops with a bit of peppery tomato sauce; the even better Mareme chicken dibi comes with fried onions on top. Both dibis are strongly seasoned with black pepper.
On Saturday you find the Senegalese dish that has spread everywhere in the region, Jollof rice (Thiam spells it Diolof), originally a dish of the Wolof people. Call it something between a pilaf and a lamb paella enriched with the meat-like flavor of palm oil. It includes black-eyed peas, fried onions and, surprisingly, a couple of green olives.
Tuesday is the night for the Senegalese national dish, chaabu jin (Wolof for “fish and rice”). It’s like a Louisiana-style fish Creole -- a big mound of rice mixed with a tangy, slightly hot tomato sauce and topped with a thick slice of poached fish, except that it includes a boiled manioc root (surprisingly tasty) and some luscious, barely sweet braised cabbage leaves. For that California cuisine touch, it comes with a salad of baby greens with a mustardy dressing.
On special you might find mafe, a luscious, soupy dish of meat in a rich, subtle peanut butter sauce spiked with tomato paste and browned onions. I’ve found it here on two nights, once with lamb and once with chicken. Thiam is obviously thinking of switching this crowd-pleaser into the regular rotation.
The American dishes might not sound so interesting, but Thiam does well by them. His blackened turkey meatloaf has an appealing crumbly texture and one of those toppings of fried onions that show up so often here.
The best side dishes are garlic mashed potatoes and very flavorful red beans. Soft drink choices include bissap (like the Mexican agua fresca de jamaica) and lamzo, a pineapple punch with a ferocious dose of ginger.
For dessert, try tiacri (also spelled chagri), a soupy pudding-like couscous mixed with yogurt and cream, flavored with nutmeg. Long story short: You don’t come to a Senegalese restaurant for New York cheesecake.
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Bistro 4040
Location: 4040 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 290-0988.
Price: Appetizers, $3.95 to $5.95; main dishes, $6.95 to $11.95; desserts, $3.
Best dishes: chaabu jin, mafe, jerk chicken salad, blackened turkey meatloaf, tiacri.
Details: Open 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 3 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday. No alcohol. Street parking. All major credit cards.