From the pass
The journal
What the kitchen writes down between services: what the market did, how a thing is actually made, and what we are still arguing about.
Read the menu
July 2026 · Long read
The jollof argument is not about rice. It is about stock.
Every country in West Africa cooks this dish and every one of them is convinced the others do it wrong. Having cooked all four versions in this kitchen over a fortnight, the difference is not the grain, the pot or the heat — it is what the rice is asked to drink.
Read the pieceMore from the pass
Six more, from a kitchen that argues in writing.
Six in the morning at Makola, and why the board is written there
Nii has done this run four days a week for nine years. What he brings back decides the menu, not the other way round — and it is the reason tilapia sometimes simply is not on.
Our green shito, given away in full
Kpakpo shito, ginger, garlic, a little oil and a great deal of patience. People ask for the jar at the end of dinner, so here is the whole method instead.
Why we have never put in a gas grill
It would be cooler to work over, faster to clean and cheaper to run. It would also make everything taste like a hotel, which is the entire argument in one sentence.
Palm nut from the fruit, not the tin
Two hours of work for a soup nobody would complain about if we had used the tin. Here is the difference, described as honestly as we can manage.
Four hundred people have now learned the pepper base
What six people at a counter on a Saturday morning taught us about how badly most recipes are written, and what we changed about the class because of it.
What we write
Three standing columns, and nothing sponsored.
Weekly
The market note
What was good at Makola on Thursday, what it cost, and what it means for the board that evening.
Monthly
One recipe, in full
No withheld ingredient, no “our secret blend”. If we cook it here you can cook it at home, and we would rather you did.
Whenever
Arguments
Palm oil, pepper heat, whether banku should be sour. Kitchen disagreements written up while they are still unresolved.
Tonight
There is a table with your name on it.
Two to twelve people, seven days less one. Tell us when, and whether anyone at the table is frightened of pepper.
Book a table