Food has the power to connect the histories of where we come from to who we have become. For Ameneh Marhaba, owner and chef at Little Liberia, sharing Liberian food is a connection not only to her Liberian heritage but also to the other cultures that have influenced her.
After years of running her pop-up kitchen, Marhaba is opening up a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Detroit, and was recently awarded an $80,000 grant from Motor City Match for the development of her restaurant.
Chef Marhaba joined us on Stateside to discuss this new venture and what Liberian food means to her.
Mealtime in Liberia
In reflecting on what mealtime looks like in Liberia from the time she spent living there, Marhaba emphasized how fresh meals are in Liberia. She said that meals are often cooked fresh because “most people in Liberia don’t have the luxury of having a stove or a fridge.”
“We would go to the market in the morning, get the food, come home and cook it, and everybody would sit around and eat together,” Marhaba said. “Food was always something that you looked forward to in your household because it was special every single day.”
Marhaba described these meals as “very colorful” and “very flavorful.” She noted the unique flavor Liberian cuisine has, as she said it is influenced by South African and indigenous cuisines. She noted the similarities between Liberian and Caribbean cuisines, with shared foods like plantains and stir fries.
“I think all the contributions that we had from all those other countries [are showcased] in our food, and it makes it even better than it was originally.”
To-die-for dishes
Trying to pick dishes that she has most enjoyed sharing with people is a tough choice for Marhaba. She detailed a few customer favorites, starting with one of Little Liberia’s appetizers: pepper kala.
“It's kind of like a sweet dough that you dip in our hot sauce. A lot of people love that one. It's a Liberian street food that we brought to Detroit,” Marhaba said.
Another favorite is cassava leaf, which Marhaba is looking forward to bringing to Little Liberia.
“You ask a Liberian what they want to eat, they will tell you ‘cassava leaf’ before they list anything else. That's how much we love it back home,” Marhaba said.
In Liberian cuisine, these leaves are often paired with rice and cooked with red palm oil, spices, and a choice of protein. Marhaba said that this dish is so cherished in Liberia that people will save some of the dish to reheat in the morning, which is called cold rice. When reheated, a hard crust forms around the cassava leaves.
Put simply, “we die for cold rice in the morning,” Marhaba said.
Adapting Liberian cuisine
While Little Liberia will not be a breakfast or brunch restaurant, Marhaba said that they will offer banana bread in the morning, which has its own roots in Liberian cuisine. Marhaba said that there are not a lot of breakfast options in Liberia, and that rice bread, which is what banana bread is called in Liberia, is a popular breakfast choice. In Liberia, it is made in the morning, and is often sold in buckets.
“All you see sitting at home is people walking past with the bucket. They would … cut them into little pieces, put them on the bucket, and you just see this bucket walking past you with just steam in it. And when you're sitting there and you're looking like, ‘Oh that's banana bread.’ Everybody would run and go buy banana bread. And that would be our breakfast,” Marhaba said.
Bringing this Liberian favorite to Detroit has required some alterations. Marhaba said that, while banana bread is made with rice flour in Liberia, she makes hers using cream of rice, which is easier to use. On top of recipe changes, Marhaba has also had to alter the way some Liberian favorites are typically made to the cooking tools in the U.S. In the case of banana bread, an hours-long process of baking in a coal-base stove turns into a simpler process.
“I think sharing these stories and the reason that I share them is just so people can understand where these recipes originated from and how much effort that it took to simplify it, to bring it to them just so they could try that same thing that we had as kids back home," Marhaba said.
What it takes to open a restaurant
Marhaba keeps her grandmother, who lives in Liberia, and her mother up to date with her restaurant and cooking through the phone. She said they both wish they could be there to experience this process with her.
“They're living the dream through me communicating with them over the phone. ... I pray one day that they will be here and be able to experience Little Liberia and help me,” Marhaba said.
While this restaurant is a dream of Marhaba’s, she was candid about the amount of work and preparation that goes into a project like this. She’s completed her design for the space, and is waiting for approval to start building. Marhaba is in the process of getting licenses, developing products, and working with vendors and attorneys to get all the aspects of her business set up.
“[It’s] a lot of work that I love doing because I'm bringing something so big and so good to Detroit,” Marhaba said.
She expressed gratitude for all of the people and organizations who have helped and continue to help her as a solo business owner throughout this process.
Cooking as a means of wellbeing and cultural connection
For Marhaba, cooking is about more than the dishes she makes. She described cooking as her form of “mental therapy,” and as a way to share her culture.
“It's about sharing my culture, because I love what I'm doing, but also I'm bringing something that is not even in … Michigan. And that's very, very big and very important to me, that that little small country in West Africa is going to have a place on the map in Detroit,” Marhaba said.
Marhaba estimated that her brick-and-mortar restaurant will be open for business by mid to late summer. In the meantime, to hear more about this endeavor and Marhaba’s Little Liberia, listen to the Stateside Podcast.
GUEST ON THIS EPISODE:
- Ameneh Marhaba, chef and owner of Little Liberia
[Get Stateside on your phone: subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify today.]
