Perfect Pitch

Ghana vs. Australia 6/19/10
Meytex Cafe
545 Flatbush Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11225
(718) 941-1093

If you're looking for a wild and crazy World Cup experience, I highly recommend taking in a game (especially for an African team) at the Meytex Café. Thus far in my World Cup cultural tour, the Ghanaians take the cake as the biggest party animals, heaviest drinkers and all-around total mad men. They danced, blew on vuvzelas, made ridiculous predictions about their team and cranked music, with cheek-to-cheek smiles on their faces the whole time. The crazy aspect of this to me is that this was a match in which Ghana did not look particularly good and ended in a draw. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if Ghana had actually won.

It began for me when I arrived at the Meytex Café at 9:30 a.m. for the Ghana vs. Australia match-up. I was exhausted and direly needed coffee on my way there. But as soon as I walked in, there was a tactile energy in the restaurant that lifted me of my sleepiness. The Meytex Café is a great representation of the archetypal Mom-and-Pop ethnic restaurant that I have mostly been visiting.

The owner is referred to by all the African patrons, very lovingly, almost as if she was their surrogate mother. They raved about the authenticity of her cooking and how she created a homelike environment for all displaced Ghanaians. The restaurant’s ambiance also has that very authentic feel. The walls are decorated with commemorations to famous people and events from Africa. The bar, which wasn’t really a bar at all, seemed like it had been built in a couple hours. The feature that

immediately catches your eye when you walk in is the Ghana flag hanging down as the centerpiece of the restaurant.

Even before the game started, I noted how much the Ghanaians were drinking. At the rate and the manner in which they were sucking down Ghana Stars, Ghana Guinness and various hard liquors you would've thought it was 10 p.m. instead of 10 a.m.

The other prominent aspect of the bar’s atmosphere was the music. Loud Ghanaian dance music was blaring whenever the game wasn’t on. Even during the national anthem, they blared their nation's song from the bar’s speakers. I got the impression that no matter what happened during the game, things would remain festive.

As for the game itself, Africa’s best team was slightly disappointing. Despite their having the one-man advantage for almost the entire game, they seemed to match evenly with the Australians. But all the Ghanaians I talked to remained overly optimistic saying they were going to “win it all,” “bring the cup to Africa,” and generally just shouted how they were the best team around.

The food was an experience all to itself as well. I have not had much African food, and because of this it’s really hard to verbalize what Ghanaian food tastes like. It’s similar to Ethiopian in the fact that it's hands on, but at the same time extremely different in its tastes and textures. Since I was so clueless I pulled my typical new ethnic food move of asking what they recommend. They brought me the Banku with the Okro (okra) soup. The Banku is a ball that looks like mashed potatoes that is

made of yuca and corn. The ball itself is an interesting texture that is very dry yet sticky as well, almost like a dough. The flavor of the Banku is pretty bland, but that’s where the Okro soup comes in. The whole point of the Banku is for you to rip off little balls and then dip them into the soup. As you can imagine, it’s a very sloppy yet fun experience.

The Okro soup was very flavorful. It was a thick soup with vegetables, okra seeds and beef. The meat in the soup consisted of all parts of the cow. In fact at one point, I was eating this thing in the soup that almost looked like the inside of a beehive or the outside of coral. It tasted really good despite a chewy texture. I asked the woman sitting next to me what it was, and she said it was

tripe or the inside of a cow's stomach. Her description didn’t phase me as I am an adventurous eater, but I could see how most people would be turned off by this. A new first for me. What's outstanding about the tripe and the other cow parts in the soup is the fact that you can have different textures in every bite. Overall I really liked the food. When you eat something with your hands, it completely gives you a different spin of your perception, relationship and idea of how the food tastes and what it means to you.

Leaving the Meytex Café, I was truly satisfied. I had tried some authentic Ghana beer, some new, delicious and intriguing food, and met some wild and crazy party people. The Ghanaians that I met



had this happy energetic radiance about them that was truly contagious. As I mentioned before, despite the somewhat disappointing play from their team, this spirit seemed to shine through and get people to dance, drink, smile and laugh. Truly a great and worthwhile experience.

-- FRANCISCO SIERRA