on tuesday, theresa and i ventured out to get some food in an area of Accra called Osu. we were specifically looking for a lebanese restaurant which theresa was absolutely sure she’d seen before.

we spent at least an hour walking up and down the street, dodging taxis, open sewers, and people cooking fish over makeshift grills. it became obvious that there was nothing on this street except chinese.

out of hot, sweaty desperation, we stopped at the last option we saw, called the “tycoon restaurant.” it just happened to serve middle eastern and continental cuisine (the latter I’m discovering is code for boring obruni tourist fare). we ordered a combination of several small portion dishes. my favorite were these half circle pastry dough pockets stuffed with sweet and savory spiced ground lamb. that and the hummus made me very happy.

yesterday night, we took a taxi out to a recommended lebanese restaurant called “la bouquet.” this place looked fancy. we ordered 5 dishes, hummus, falafel, fattoush, sambousek, and safiha.

the fattoush came first with the hummus, and it was awesome. it had more lettuce than i’d seen in fattoush before, diced tomatoes, cucumbers, strips of white onion, crunchy pita “crutons” and a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, and cinnamon. so tasty!

then i tried the falafel, which i’ve felt pretty neutral about previously. i took a bite, and it was almost creamy inside and moist and flavorful—even better with the yogurt sauce they brought us. theresa said it was the best falafel she’s ever had.

the sambousek was just like what i had enjoyed the most on tuesday. perfectly seasoned, almost sweet tasting ground lamb inside a soft golden dough semicircle. perfectly complemented by the yogurt sauce.

while we were enjoying all these “taste explosions” they brought out the fifth dish, the safiha arayis, which i’d describe as a lebanese quesadilla, except without cheese. the filling was a seasoned ground lamb similar to the sambousek. mmm!

i sat back, eating a little bit of everything and drinking soda water with lime. this time the food was so good we actually left some hummus behind.