Tuwo and Suya and Egusi, Oh My!

Photos by Troy Fields

Think of tuwo like a giant, jolly ball of dumplings.

Despite Houston's wealth of ethnic food -- and even its wealth of African food -- eating Nigerian cuisine can be intimidating. Unfamiliar words, unfamiliar ingredients and unfamiliar foodstuffs all combine to make for a potentially confusing meal.

We're here to help.

This week's cafe review of Suya Hut, one of Houston's best examples of Nigerian food and one of its most accessible, is meant to encourage exploration of the cuisine. To that end, it offers helpful hints on ordering and eating the food.

A platter of suya makes for an instant party.

But a condensed version could easily go like this:

• Bring a table of friends.
• Order some suya. It's really spicy, so get some beer, too.
• Also order a bowl of egusi soup and some cassava tuwo, if they have it.
• Eat the suya off the stick. If you ordered it with jollof rice and plantains, all the better.
• Pinch pieces of your doughy tuwo off the main ball of pounded cassava and use it to eat the soup.
• Triumph!

It's the best kind of meal: one that encourages personal interaction with your tablemates and one that makes you work just a little bit for your food -- the Nigerian equivalent of a crawfish boil, if you will. And it's just as spicy, too.

If that's piqued your curiosity about Suya Hut, read the review and then check out this behind-the-scenes slideshow to see exactly how those suya and tuwo come to be. Then grab a couple of friends and head south to Missouri City.

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