At several West African restaurants across New York, swallows are holding steady as an essential companion to soups and stews. Swallows, a term for starchy doughs like fufu and eba, are served as pliable mounds meant to be pinched and dipped. On Wednesday evening in Harlem, diners at Accra Restaurant paired pounded yam with a bowl of egusi, using their hands to scoop up the nutty, spiced soup.
Swallows are made from ingredients like cassava, plantain, or yam. The dough is cooked until smooth and elastic. At Buka in Clinton Hill, a weekday lunch plate comes with a choice of swallow alongside okra stew. The menu lists fufu and amala at $7 per portion, a price that has held steady since spring despite rising costs elsewhere.
In the Bronx, chef Nana Serwaa of Papaye has noticed an uptick in requests for swallows on hot afternoons. She notes that regulars opt for lighter soups—like light soup with goat—when the temperature climbs. The swallow, she explains, “fills you up without weighing you down.”
Some diners are new to the form. On a recent Saturday, a group of students at Bronx Community College stopped into Ebe Ye Yie for a late lunch, learning from staff how to use pieces of banku to pick up groundnut stew. The restaurant encourages first-timers to try different swallows with a range of sauces.
Swallows remain largely absent from mainstream menus outside of West African enclaves. But as summer brings more outdoor gatherings and communal meals, some chefs say they see broader curiosity. For now, these doughs are most popular at lunchtime and after sundown, when street life is busiest and kitchens stay open late.