To Go to Togo

Wednesday, February 24

Everyone has a little quirk in their brain.  Some of us have more than a few.  One of mine has to do with the words “to go.”  Every time I see that, I think it says “Togo.”  As in the county in West Africa.

And I think I know why.  First, we had dinner from Capasso’s 2 Go.  And the 2 Go part of the name got me thinking of Togo.  The country.  Because when I was in 4^th grade, we studied Africa.  And each kid had to pick a country to study.  And I picked Togo. 

I really dove into the project, and most probably knew more about Togo than any other kid in school.  I might just remember enough to beat you at a Togo trivia challenge today.

I promised myself in 4^th grade that one day, I would go to Togo.  Well, that promise has not yet been fulfilled – but I’m not dead yet!

Back to Lansdale.  So we had take-out cheesesteaks and fries from Capasso’s 2 Go.  And didn’t have to go to Togo to pick it up.  Because it’s on Main Street.  You may remember back on January 16^th when I first visited this place.  And promised to keep patronizing this new business.  Well, at least I have kept one promise!

Lansdale Shopping Score:  1

But this really got me thinking.  We have so many places in town to get cheesesteaks from.  Not that it’s a bad thing!  I do love a good cheesesteak, as do many people.

But is a proliferation of pizza joints, cheesesteak emporiums or Chinese restaurants going to be the thing that puts Lansdale on the map?  Now I’m not saying we should go full quirky – I’d sure miss pizza, cheesesteaks and Chinese food – but should we collectively wish that our town had more unique restaurants to visit?

Like a Togolese restaurant?

Well, that might be a stretch, even for Lansdale.  Togolese food might not suit our palates that well.  But their cuisine does sound interesting! (From Wikipedia):

Togolese style is often a combination of African, French and German influences.  The cuisine has many sauces and different types of pâté, many of which are made from eggplant, tomato, spinach and fish. The cuisine combines these foods with various types of meat and vegetables to create flavorful dishes. Roadside food stands sell foods such as groundnuts, omelettes, brochettes, corn-on-the-cob, and cooked prawns.

Additional foods and dishes include:

·         Agouti, known as ‘grasscutters’.

·         Baguette bread

·         Chili peppers are often used as a spice

·         Fufu is very common, and is made from peeled and boiled yams which are then pounded with a pestle until reaching a dough consistency.   Fufu is typically accompanied with sauces.

·         Select goat meat portions.

·         Koklo meme, grilled chicken with a chili sauce.

·         Kokonte is a pâté made from cassava.

·         Pâté, a commonly consumed cornmeal cake.

·         Peanuts

·         Riz sauce d’arachide, a rice dish made with groundnut sauce.

·         akume which is a solid food prepared from ground maize.

Fufu and Light Soup.  Looks good!

The Koklo meme sounds good, as does the Fufu.  And that one would be fun to order.  Go on.  Say it out loud.  It’s a fun word.  Almost as fun as Togo.  “I went to Togo and had fun eating fufu.”  Try saying that without smiling!

Anyway, my point is that we will become a magnet to visitors when they have something to visit that they cannot get at home.  People won’t flock to Lansdale for cheesesteaks.  But they do if they want Lebanese food, as The Oasis is a restaurant you won’t find in many places, but you find in Lansdale.

We are a wonderfully diverse area.  With people from all over.  Wouldn’t it be nice for Lansdale to be known as the international dining mecca of the Philadelphia region?

That way, I wouldn’t have to go to Togo for my fufu.

So the recap:

ONE opportunity to shop/eat in Lansdale met.

Let’s see what today brings!