How this PEI-based chef shops for ingredients for West African dishes | Canada Voices

When Ghanaian chef Ian Mensah Bonsu moved to Canada in 2017, it was difficult to find West African food or grocers where he lived: Charlottetown.

Compared with Canada’s multicultural hubs such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, the population of the Prince Edward Island capital has been relatively homogenous. But, spurred by provincial efforts to boost PEI’s declining population, there has been an influx of immigrants to the island in the past nine years.

So, by the time Mensah Bonsu began his restaurant, the Jollof House, in 2021, he had more options when it came to ingredients. He now shops at Junco Market, which provides him with the produce and spices to make the Ghanaian dishes he sells at his restaurant.

The store carries balut from the Philippines, Jamaican soursop and fresh and powdered plantain, which Mensah Bonsu uses to make fufu, a West African dough enjoyed with soups or saucy dishes.

Jollof House is still one of a small number of restaurants in Charlottetown selling African food, and the majority of his customers are white, South and East Asian and Nigerian, Mensah Bonsu says.

Through the restaurant, he’s helped introduce Charlottetonians to jollof (rice cooked in a tomato sauce with a base of onion, garlic, ginger and flavoured with broth); kelewele (plantain seasoned with a peanut sauce); and peanut butter soup (chicken thigh cooked in a rich tomato soup finished with peanut butter, and eaten with fufu).

That exchange of cultural dishes has worked both ways, Mensah Bonsu says. When the Jollof House was just starting out, the chef of Shaddy’s Restaurant let him park his food truck outside. The local Lebanese restaurant is where Mensah Bonsu tried his first shawarma.

“He said he could see himself in me,” Mensah Bonsu says of the chef.

Here is how Mensah Bonsu shops for groceries.

How I save money on groceries: I usually cook about three meals for myself throughout the week, and make enough so that I can eat each of them twice. It saves me time and money.

How I splurge on groceries: I eat out about once a week, usually at this Jamaican restaurant that I really enjoy, called BooNooNooNoos. I hadn’t tried Jamaican food until I moved to Canada. Jerk chicken and jerk pork are now my two favourite takeout items.

The hardest shopping habit to keep up: Since I grocery shop at multiple places (African groceries from Junco, and I go to Walmart and Sobeys for staples), I try to get as much as I can so that I’m not grocery shopping too often.

How I’ve changed my eating habits recently: Moving to PEI changed my eating habits in general. Since I moved here, I’ve tried Chinese food, Jamaican food and Lebanese food. There’s definitely more variety here since I moved here in 2017, and I’m not sure if I would have tried all these cuisines in Ghana.

Five items always in my cart:

• Plantain powdered fufu – Neat Food – $12.99: I mix this with water and put it on the stove, let it cook for a while. It becomes solid, you stir it until it’s fully solid. It’s different from back home, but it tastes similar.
• Canned corn – Green Giant – three for $5: I usually fry it up with jollof rice. Cole slaw on the side, cucumber and nicely seasoned chicken.
• Whole tilapia – $6.68: When I eat fish, I like tilapia. I usually make it grilled in the oven, and marinated in a Ghanaian blend of scotch bonnet pepper, ginger, garlic and onion.
• Scotch bonnet peppers – $15 worth: I add scotch bonnet peppers to the base of my recipes. They can be really spicy, so I adjust depending on how spicy I want it. It adds a great flavour.
• Curry powder – Gino – $25: I get this shipped from Ghana, along with nutmeg. It’s hard to find in Charlottetown, and the one from back home tastes better than what I’ve had here. I use curry powder for almost all of my meals. It goes well with tomato sauce for jollof, and sometimes I put it on my eggs.