On a rainy Saturday afternoon, Brooklyn’s DeKalb Market Hall is bustling with people seeking lunch. There are croissants, hummus, doner kebabs—near endless possibilities. But I’m on the hunt for something very specific. And suddenly, there it is: a mini tropical oasis, centered around a larger-than-life image of ripe yellow plantains. Behind the counter, a petite Black woman with long brunette locs scoops red red (black-eyed peas stewed in a tomato sauce) from an Instant Pot onto whole roasted plantains. This is Rachel Laryea, owner of Kelewele.
Like Laryea’s, my parents are Ghanaian immigrants, and I grew up eating all variations of plantains, a starchier cousin of bananas. Kelewele (pronounced keh-leh-weh-leh, unless it’s 1998 and you’re me, a Ghanaian American child obsessed with those movies about a whale, in which case it’s “killy willy”) is a fried plantain dish often sold roadside in Ghana. In my house, it was always a favorite—but I’d never seen it at an American restaurant. Now, gazing up at Laryea’s menu, my eyes widened at the familiar ingredients: “shito,” “chichinga.” Was this place real?
Laryea, born and raised in Virginia, moved to New York to attend undergrad at NYU. Fondly known to customers as the Plantain Lady, Laryea got her start just down the street from DeKalb selling plantain-based desserts at the 2018 International African Arts Festival in downtown Brooklyn. “The reception being as warm as it was, and people being really excited about the innovation and the cultural aspect, really gave me the fire to keep going and dig into this,” she says.
By spring 2020, Laryea knew the festival circuit was untenable. “Oftentimes, we were selling out really quickly, within two or three hours,” she says. “There's only so much that I could bake or make out of my Brooklyn apartment kitchen.” Demand was growing and Laryea, a double Ph.D. candidate at Yale University, was already stretched thin. It was time to scale up. Laryea got to work forming an advisory board and enrolled in small business accelerators. Through board member Delroy Levy, also a co-owner of DeKalb Market’s Likkle More Jerk, Laryea found a potential home for her business. The pandemic opened the door for market ownership, allowing tenants to negotiate in new ways when it came to rent structures and relief, Laryea says. In July, she opened Kelewele’s flagship food stall—and the market’s only entirely plant-based concept.
In the early days, Laryea was known for her plantain ice cream, decadent brownies, and extra-soft chocolate chip cookies. The sweets are still front and center at DeKalb, and the expanded operation allows Laryea to offer up many more dishes, in addition to online ordering of her cookies and brownie mix with nationwide shipping. The menu at Kelewele evokes Wonka-esque innovation: the signature soft-serve churned from housemade plantain milk, frozen roasted plantain pops dipped in chocolate, and “placos”—hardened plantain taco shells loaded with veggies. And, of course, there’s the kelewele.
Your standard kelewele recipe calls for chopping an overripe plantain into bite-size pieces and coating it in a blend of garlic, ginger, onion, crushed red pepper, and other spices before frying it in sizzling oil. The softer the plantain, the more crispy-crunchy-caramelized bits will cling to your teeth as you chew, which is a good thing, and a delightful departure from my mom’s recipe. At Kelewele, each sweet, sumptuous bite bursts with flavor and heat as it melts in your mouth. It’ll be served piping hot, so resist the immediate urge to dig in with your hands (though no judgment here if you ultimately decide to forgo the fork).
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November 02, 2021 at 05:13PM
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If You Love Plantains, You'll Love Everything at This Brooklyn-Based Shop - Bon Appetit
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