Multi-cultural influences abound on Tawakal East African Restaurant’s tasty Somali menu
Fardowsa Barkadle, owner of Tawakal East African Restaurant, says she trusts in God for everything she does, including running a Somali restaurant with her mother and brother. Photo by Emily Kemme.
By Emily Kemme
In Arabic, Tawakal means putting everything in God’s hands. “It doesn’t mean just the food,” Fardowsa Barkadle explained. “It’s trusting in God for everything you do.”
At age 28, Barkadle is the newest owner of what has been a series of East African-focused restaurants inside a yellow brick, one-story building on 10th Street in downtown Greeley. Barkadle, along with her mom and siblings, moved here ten years ago after immigrating to the United States in 2006. They spent their first five years in the U.S. in Minnesota. Her family left Somalia during the 1991 civil war, emigrating to Ethiopia — where Barkadle was born — before eventually immigrating to this country. Tawakal East African Restaurant provides a daily reminder of what guides her.
Speaking with quiet purpose, Barkadle details her busy schedule. After graduating from the University of Northern Colorado in 2018 with a degree in speech and audiology, she worked with Greeley-Evans School District 6 for a short time but is now an interpreter for Banner Rehabilitation Center. She also works with Lutheran Family Services as a community navigator, mentoring students who have been in the country less than five years. Throughout the pandemic, she’s used Zoom to meet with students from Somalia, Congo, Myanmar (formerly Burma), and the Rohingya, checking in to see how they’re doing in their classes.
Barkadle decided to open a restaurant here in Greeley because she wanted to share Somali and East African food with both the local Somali community and people outside that small cultural circle. Her mom, Shukri Farah, loves to cook; her brother, along with Farah, work in the kitchen every day. Barkadle joins them when her other work duties permit.
The menu features East African foods with an emphasis on Somalia. But as so often happens, foods developed in a multicultural vacuum benefit from the opportunity to draw from many flavors and cuisines, in that way intensifying the taste experience. Influences from Arab, Persian, Turkish, Ethiopian, Indian and Italian cuisines create an enriched interaction of multiple cultures — as if they were cooked sous vide — a microcosm of traditions infused inside a metaphorical sealed plastic bag. The taste fusion ends up intensifying the flavor.
A mixed plate from Tawakal East African Restaurant: rice with goat; spaghetti with beef; and sambusa, a fried dough triangle stuffed with minced beef and vegetables.
Barkadle is just beginning her restaurant voyage and is developing the menu slowly. The offerings are hearty, simple, and sustaining.
Most of the year, Tawakal opens at 10 a.m. and serves breakfast, including beef suqaar (pronounced sooh-car), a stew prepared with beef and diced vegetables. Served alongside canjeero (fermented pan bread ), malawax (sweetened pancakes ) or chapati (a thin, unleavened flour-based bread cooked on a griddle, similar to a flour tortilla), it’s a sustaining meal to get you through the day. For vegans, substitute with a spinach stew.
Because it is currently Ramadan, a month-long religious observance during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Tawakal isn’t open until 2 p.m. daily. During Ramadan, Muslims are required to fast from sunrise to sunset so they may concentrate on prayer, charity, and self-improvement. After May 14, the restaurant’s hours will return to their regular schedule, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For lunch and dinner, staples like rice with braised goat, chicken, or beef are served with a side salad. Meats are halal, meaning they have been processed according to the dietary laws of the Qur’an. Spaghetti can be substituted for rice; pasta is one of the sustaining influences of the Italian colonization of Somalia and other territories in East Africa from 1889 until 1941. The Somalian take on spaghetti sauce, which also uses ground beef, is similar in its rich taste to bolognese. Minced meat is simmered with garlic, onions, and spices, creating a dense sauce that coats thin strands of pasta.
Ethiopia’s staple dish, injera, describes both the meal and the bread upon which it's served. Injera is a flat, fermented sourdough bread. It’s traditionally topped with lentils, vegetables, and salad, and can be ordered with chopped beef, called tibsi. It’s eaten with your hands and shared. Courtesy photo.
On weekends, the Ethiopian specialty, injera with tibsi is available. Injera is a food staple of East African countries. The leavened sourdough bread is fermented for several days before cooking on a flat surface into a thin pancake. The top has small bubbles and the pancake is used both as serving plate and utensil. It’s customary to tear off pieces of injera and use them to scoop up whatever is placed on top of the flat pancake — lentils, vegetables, and a salad are vegan standards. If ordered with tibsi — chopped beef — that will be placed in the center. The dish is meant to be shared.
Other don’t miss menu items are the sambusa, fried triangles of dough filled with minced beef, carrots and onion, and spiced with cumin, paprika and crushed pepper. Most lunch and dinner orders are served with shidni, a sauce prepared with tomato paste, tamarind, jalapeño, and cumin. Shidni adds steady heat to any dish.
A final note: to edge into the beautiful tastes that comprise Somalian cuisine, order a chai. Laced with freshly ground cloves, ginger and cardamom, it’s a taste from heaven. It’ll also go a long way towards sweetening your day.
The details
Location
811 10th Street in Greeley
Menu
Dine-in or order by phone for take-out.
Breakfast; lunch; and dinner.
The classic Somalian dish, Ethiopian injera with tibsi or veggie combo is available Friday through Saturday.
Beverages
Somali chai
Black tea
Mango, watermelon, and passion fruit juice
Hours
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
During Ramadan (in 2021, that’s April 12-May 12), hours are limited, opening at 2 p.m.
Contact
(970) 356-4444