Bala’s Bistro

At a new location, Bala Tounkara shares his West African food and heritage with Memphis.

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Bala Tounkara has a big smile on his face when we sit down at his restaurant on Elvis Presley Blvd. It’s been a tough couple of years for everyone in the food service industry, but Tounkara is celebrating the opening of a new and much larger location for Bala’s Bistro, one that should make his capacious menu of West African and American dishes more accessible to Memphians.

“It’s really exciting to be open,” says Tounkara. “I think the move was necessary for the business to grow. It’s a much better location here in Whitehaven, and I’m hoping it’s one that can put us on the map.” But if getting the restaurant noticed is one of Tounkara’s main goals, then it might be easy enough to say “mission accomplished.” During my two hours at the restaurant on a Wednesday, a long line stretches from the door to the counter, with new customers steadily filing in after others finish their lunches.

Inside, the restaurant offers plenty of space to settle in for a meal, and on nice days, a huge outdoor patio beckons. But perhaps the biggest change from the old location on Raines is the inclusion of a hot bar. Customers can still order dishes à la carte, but Tounkara’s most popular specialties — like jollof rice, seafood okra stew, or chicken pepper curry — are now available to order by the pound. One of the more popular dishes is chicken maafe, a rich and creamy peanut butter stew prepared with cabbage and carrots. It’s a staple of the cuisine of West Africa, specifically Tounkara’s home country of Mali, and one that he hopes can get diners to choose something a bit out of their comfort zone.

“Many people come in, and they’ve never had African food before,” says Tounkara. “If they’re hesitant, I’ll ask them about things they like and see what might be a good starting point for them. A lot of people like peanut butter, it’s a very familiar ingredient, it feels safe, so I’ll point them towards the maafe. It’s an ingredient that many people know, but it’s used in a completely different way to create this very good, thick and creamy stew. It’s a great way for people to explore new things, and that’s something I’m really excited for.”

Be warned — some of the hot bar meals are so popular that the Bistro might run out. The curry goat, braised bone-in and smothered in a curry pepper sauce, had been gobbled up when I swung by, but that gave me another excuse to go back.

If some people are nervous to try new cuisine, there’s no reason to be hesitant at Bala’s. The first dish I tried from the hot bar was the braised lamb, cooked in a light oil and perfectly tender, each morsel sliding quickly and easily off the bone. It came paired with yellow jollof rice — the long-grain side dish normally spiced up with onions and tomatoes, but prepared differently in various countries — and a savory spinach blend, cooked with palm oil and mixed in with its own lamb chunks. Customers can choose from several versions of the jollof rice, which has to be my favorite side at the restaurant, although they can also pick couscous, plantains, attieké (a side dish made from cassava pulp, with a similar texture to couscous), or mixed vegetables to round out their meals.

But Tounkara had some more outside-the-box dishes for me to try, too. One menu addition is egusi, a thick Nigerian soup made from either melon seeds or peanuts. Offsetting the seeds’ natural bitterness requires them to be cooked together with the rest of the ingredients for at least a couple of hours to balance the flavors, but the willingness to undergo that long process is another example of the passion Tounkara has for sharing some of his favorite foods. The mixture lines up more as a very thick stew, the ground seeds providing a satisfying granular and nutty texture, and an overall flavor that brings out the best of all the ingredients that go into it. True to his word, the bitterness is almost imperceptible. “We have spinach, palm oil, smoked turkey neck, cow feet, beef tripe, and some lamb in there, all mixed together,” he explains. “You need to put so much flavor in there so you can balance out the bitterness. If you try the seed by itself, you’re going to have a hard time! It takes one and a half to two hours to cook, but it’s worth it, and really brings out all the flavors. It can be done with fish, too.”

Tounkara traces his maximizing of ingredients to his time growing up on a farm in Mali. “Anyone who’s lived on a farm, they know that you don’t let any part of the animal go to waste,” he says. “So 99 percent of the time, we’ll make use of everything left over and let it cook overnight so it’s ready to go. So you’ll see here at the restaurant, for example, sauteed lamb liver, a fish stew, or cow feet with lamb.”

As if the menu weren’t large enough already, Tounkara recently expanded, both in terms of food and entertainment. Breakfast and brunch options will see a continued fusion of West African and American staples.

Plenty of new things may wow adventurous diners, but Tounkara’s extensive menu includes many traditional American dishes for milder palates. Think hamburgers, grilled cheese, hot wings, and even a Memphis barbecue sandwich. Point to anything on the menu, though, and there’s a good chance that Tounkara has whipped up a vegan version.

“At the old location, we had a lot of people coming in asking if we had vegan options,” he says. “So we started doing special orders, but they became such a large part of my customer base. We started doing vegan maafe at first, and then that just took off. I’d say about half of our menu is vegan now.” All of the vegan options are just as hearty as the originals; after my visit, I took home two orders of vegan curry, and the thin spicy sauce, chock-full of vegetables like potatoes and carrots, meshed beautifully on the plate with a side of jollof rice.

As if the menu weren’t large enough already, Tounkara recently expanded, both in terms of food and entertainment. Breakfast and brunch options will see a continued fusion of West African and American staples, like a lamb omelette, or a fish stew that Tounkara likens to jambalaya. Don’t overlook Tounkara’s chicken and waffles, the light and fluffy base propping up the crunchy, sweet, honey-glazed poultry. And beyond food, expect to see more festive events at the restaurant from time to time.

“We’re going to do karaoke nights,” he says, “where you maybe pay a cover and can enjoy the food and singing, and we’ll also bring in DJs. I also have an African Afrobeat night in mind, where you can come and dress up and enjoy yourself. The new space really gives us an opportunity to host nights like this.”

His restaurant’s new success is a just reward for almost two decades of cooking experience that Tounkara has gathered since he arrived in Memphis in the early 2000s. He cut his teeth working for Kelly English, and later Jimmy Gentry, at Horseshoe Tunica; he credits the two chefs for helping him realize his potential. “I arrived here and didn’t speak much English, but working in those kitchens really allowed me to explore new types of food, and also to see some dishes that didn’t seem too different from what I’d grown up with. They both really helped when I decided I wanted to open my own restaurant.”

For now, business is booming at Bala’s Bistro. If diners don’t come for the chicken yassa or vegan maafe, they’re picking up a bottle or a gallon of the house ginger, hibiscus, and tamarind juices. These can also be made into refreshing frozen slushies, perfect for a hot summer day, or the odd 70-degree Memphis winter afternoon. But be warned, some of the hot bar meals are so popular that the Bistro might run out. The curry goat, braised bone-in and smothered in a curry pepper sauce, had been gobbled up when I swung by, but that just gave me another excuse to go back. And with the sheer variety of exciting West African dishes to try, there’s always another reason to return. And when you do, make sure you order everything with an extra side of jollof rice.

Bala’s Bistro is open for lunch and dinner at 4571 Elvis Presley Blvd. Open Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. 509-3024. balasbistro.com