African cuisine is underrepresented in Chicago and Oak Park restaurants. Nando’s Peri-Peri (1138 Lake St.), which opened just a little over a week ago, serves food from South Africa. The cuisine at Nando’s is influenced by the indigenous population, of course, but also by the waves of Portuguese, Dutch, Indian, Malaysian and French visitors, who over the centuries have colonized and traded with South Africa.
Nando’s signature dish is Peri-Peri Chicken, which seems to have been developed first in either Mozambique or Angola, where Portuguese traders brought chili peppers from the New World. Peri-peri, or “piri piri,” means “chili pepper” in Swahili, the native language of Mozambique and a few other African states. Piri piri sauce is generally made from the chilies (usually African Birds’ Eye Chilies), citrus, onion, pepper, salt, lemon peel and juice, basil, oregano, tarragon, paprika, pimento and bay leaves. A key step in the preparation of Peri-Peri Chicken is to allow the bird to marinate for 24 hours; then it’s flame grilled (which is a good way to make most meat more tasty).
With over 1,200 outlets in 30 countries, Nando’s Peri-Peri Chicken is obviously popular, and don’t let the chilies scare you: the chicken can be prepared medium, hot or extra hot. If you’re heat-averse, you can have the chicken without any chilies at all, just plain or in lemon/herb or mango/lime seasonings. There are also hamburgers, salads and a few other menu items you can get instead of chicken, but when you go to Nando’s, especially if it’s your first visit, you should probably get the chicken, the food they’ve pinned their reputation upon; it’s pretty darn good.
Last week for dinner, we had a whole chicken, quartered, with different seasonings on each quarter, which is a good way to add some variety to the meal. The Portuguese rice on the side, slightly spiced, is a good foil to spicy sauces. However, I found that even the extra extra spicy sauce was not stupid hot: it was still very possible to taste the chicken through the sauce, which provided a warm burn that dissipated quickly. The chicken was meaty: all the birds are delivered to the store, fresh, never frozen, so they have a tooth sometimes lost with frozen meat.
Most of the menu items are made in-house from fresh ingredients, except for the peas, which pretty much have to be frozen. Still, the minty peas are an excellent side, though I found it curious that a British item like this would be on the menu. “It’s on the menu,” said Patrao (or General Manager, in Portuguese) Hector LaPorte, “because Britain is our biggest market.”
Nando’s does serve beer and wine. To pair with our chicken we had a carafe of sangria, which was perfect: the cool, sweetness of this fruity wine plays off the heat of the sauces, very refreshing.
We don’t usually order dessert, but we enjoyed the natas, which are light pastry with a custard center. This was just a little sweet to end the meal, crisp, creamy, not too much of a good thing. Natas are Portuguese which, like African, is a type of cuisine I’d like to learn more about (the way I learn is by eating).
I wondered why Nando’s chose Oak Park for its newest location. Sepanta Bagherpour, Vice President of Marketing for Nando’s USA, told me “Oak Park had the right residential and commercial mix for us, with the kind of close-knit community we always look for. That’s why we were so happy to support Oak Park and River Forest High School during our opening. We were able to raise $19,189.68 for the high school to help mentor local students and help them prepare for college.”
Nando’s is a casual restaurant: you walk up to the counter, order, and your food is brought to you. It is, however, kind of a new category, maybe call it “classy casual.” There has been a lot of thought put into the design. Though part of a larger international restaurant group, Nando’s seems to make an effort to create a unique look for each of their locations. Across all their locations, Nando’s has put on display the world’s largest collection of South African art. It’s worth a visit.
