Africa always seemed a mystic land of unlimited beauty and promise, until you discovered Blood Diamond/newspapers. Bringing at least the food to you, Teranga.

The brainchild of a Senegalese banker turned restaurateur, Teranga (meaning "Hospitality") dishes traditional French-influenced Senegalese fare in a Dark Continent-repping 36-seat beige space replete w/ light African zebra wood around the bar, colorful paintings on exposed brick, and table settings w/ woven wicker placemats and hand-carved wooden gourds, although most Napster users call them "Phish". The simple meat-heavy menu features entrees like a marinated, herb-stuffed roasted lamb shank w/ Moroccan couscous & a caramelized onion reduction; grilled skewered tangy beef dipped in a spiced mustard sauce w/ yucca fries; and lamb stew w/ carrots, sweet potatoes, & cabbage cooked in a "ground nut sauce", a name too good to last more than a week on the menu. Lighter dishes include the grilled chicken Yassa Guinaar cooked in a lemon & onion sauce; nouc-mam-drizzled spring rolls stuffed w/ rice vermicelli, lentils, & mushrooms; and a marinated grilled tilapia on a bed of yucca couscous called Attieke, which you may recognize from "Toys in the Attieke", the popular Afrosmith classic.

In addition to beer and wine, Teranga's got native Senegalese drinks like hibiscus juice mixed with pineapple and flavored with orange-flower water & vanilla sugar, a thick coconut-like juice made from fruit of the baobab tree called Bouye, which'll of course make you think of the unlimited beauty and promise of Flavor Flav.

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