African $ $$$ Behind Carlisle Street, abutting a scrappy Coles carpark, the old factory space that houses Glass Merchants cafe by day turns into Malewa City, a Congolese restaurant by night. It’s unexpected, in the way that fumbling around in the back of your wardrobe and finding a nightclub behind your coats would be unexpected. Mother and son duo Yvette Nyanguile and Jedidia Zaka have been here for a year serving central African food three nights a week, with extended hours and music in summer.
It’s a true find. Congolese food is extremely varied but it tends to circle back to cassava, sweet potato, plantain, peanuts, tomato, chicken, goat and freshwater fish. The ingredients make sense when you realise the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Yvette and Jedidia are from, spans jungles, rivers and grasslands.
This huge country is rich and beautiful but the region’s story is troubled, riven by violent conflict, and the family arrived in Australia as refugees in 2010. Yvette is a registered nurse but she’s also a cook of long standing: her mum was a chef back in Africa and she is passionate about introducing Australia to lesser-known flavours. We have a lot of Ethiopian and Eritrean food from east Africa (hello, injera!) and there are more and more west African places (hi, jollof rice!) but central African food is rarely seen.
‘Fufu has gone ballistic’: Five West African eateries (and their signature dishes) to try Yvette’s health background comes through in her .