Taste of Sacramento: Watt Avenue’s Chulla’s, Touch of Britain give big flavor

There’s a fun guessing game at Chulla’s Café: Name That Spice.

Chulla’s, a new Afro-fusion restaurant in North Highlands, offers first-time customers a complimentary 16-ounce hibiscus tea. It’s a sweet tea, served iced, and flavored with a secret blend of spices. If you can name just seven of those spices, you win free hibiscus tea for a year.

The restaurant opened in June. But the concept was years in the planning, according to owner Tamba Keifa.

Keifa is from West Africa. He was born in Guinea and grew up in Sierra Leone. In 1998, he escaped his war-torn country, seeking asylum in the United States.

He moved to California, enrolled in a community college, then transferred to UC Davis, where he earned two bachelor degrees: one in political science and the other in African American and African studies. Then he moved on to CSUS for his masters degree.

Throughout Keifa’s college career, he noticed something was missing. Specifically, something was missing from the campus food courts. There was plenty of food at the student commissaries, but it was mostly from chain restaurants. Keifa craved culinary diversity – a place you could order cuisine from anywhere in the world.

“That’s why our menu is very dynamic and versatile,” said Keifa. Chulla’s Café blends coastal flavors from around the world, and the menu has something for everybody. Eventually, Keifa is hoping to bring his concept onto university campuses.

Popular menu items include the Afro Wings, a 12-wing plate that blends a South Korean recipe with coastal African ingredients.

Seafood dishes include the Veracruz Bagre (breaded catfish in coastal spices) and the grilled red snapper.

Chulla’s also offers several stews, including tanjier stew with choice of beef, pork, chicken or whole fried red snapper.

For the American palette, there’s a selection of hamburgers. The Hungry Lion Burger ($12.99) comes with two meat patties. The Hungry Lion King Burger ($16.99) has three meat patties. Both options come with tomatoes, avocado, two slices bacon, two onion rings, along with cheddar and provolone cheese.

Touch of Britain

Touch of Britain is located just a few minutes drive down Watt Avenue. It’s part tea room, part grocery shop, with business divided pretty equally between the two.

Owner Lilian Monceaux is from Warrington, a town in Cheshire, England. She moved to the United States in 1951, and opened Touch of Britain in 1985.

“Our tea room menu is strictly limited because it’s British,” said Monceaux. “You cant get a hot dog or a hamburger here.”

But you can get British bangers. Bangers are a pork-based sausage, just a bit longer than a typical American hot dog, and served with chips, or french fries. Other menu items include fish and chips, British pies (steak and kidney, flakey pastry pastie), along with some other options “from the grille” (beans on toast, spaghetti on toast, egg and chips).

Tea comes in regular and decaf, and it’s only served hot. In England, tea is served with milk, according to Monceaux. The milk is poured into the cup first, to mix it better with the tea. But it’s an acquired taste here in North Highland. Some take milk; others don’t.

Dunking options include a scone with butter, jam and clotted cream, or a crumpet with butter and jam. Contrary to popular belief, crumpets bear only a passing resemblance to English muffins, Monceaux said.

British meals include breakfast, dinner, tea and supper. Dinner is the main meal, but it occurs mid-day, when the Americans would eat lunch.

Aria Afghan Restaurant

The Aria Afghan Restaurant is a small place, with about six tables. These days, it’s mostly counter-serve, although table service was provided pre-COVID-19.

Afghani food is a little less spicy than Pakistani food, but a little more spicy than Persian cuisine, according to owner Sayed Haidari.

The food is often flavored with ingredients like black pepper, onion, garlic, cumin, turmeric and ginger. Popular menu items include Qabili Palaw, which is lamb shank cooked with special seasoning and served with rice topped with raisins and carrots.

One of the restaurant’s best sellers is its mantoo. Mantoo consists of Afghani-style dumplings. The dumpling dough is stuffed with ground meat, spices and onion (boiled, not raw). The dumplings are then steamed, plated, and topped with garlic yogurt, split pea sauce and mint.

For those who prefer vegetarian food, Aria-Afghan also serves a vegetarian mantoo, made with cabbage, mushroom and spices.

Adventurous meat-eaters might consider a dish called Pacha.“It’s basically the cow feet, so we cook it in a thick broth for a very long time,” said Haidari. “More than 10 hours — slow heat.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2020 at 8:42 AM.