The Fish Lady Comes to Stranger
The Fish Lady @ Stranger
3 Hakeem Dickson Street, Lekki One, Lagos.
FOLLY: A little bit of housekeeping to start: The Fish Lady at Stranger is a pop-up and I don't know how long it will run for. They don't open every day (Saturdays only for now). I also don't know if they do deliveries.
NOSA: She definitely doesn't do deliveries right now. Maybe in future.
FOLLY: I just needed to get that out of the way cause I know someone might ask and I feel like being prickly.
FOLLY: The menu here is very simple: it's two fish options Croaker or Tilapia with a selection of sides. Not knowing the particular merits of each fish or feeling strongly about any, we ordered Tilapia as it was a smaller fish and there's only two of us.
NOSA: Lagos restaurants should go this route more often. More streamlined menus.
FOLLY: The sides were plantain, misondo (sp? either way it's cassava), fries and coleslaw.
NOSA: It's"Miondo"
NOSA: Miondo is the thing that looks like eba on the plate. According to Google, Miondo is a local favorite in Cameroon, a bit like how we love akara in Nigeria. It's made from cassava and most of the time, it's a substitute for bread.
FOLLY: The plantain was fried plantain and the chips were chips. I want to talk about the miondo. The texture was similar to cold eba/a gummy bear.
NOSA: As far as texture goes, it definitely reminded me of gummy bears for some reason.
FOLLY: On its own it has no distinct flavor, much like eba or white rice but takes on the flavor of what you eat it with e.g. the pepper sauce.
NOSA: A bit like tofu in that regard. It's definitely not for me, but I found it interesting nonetheless.
FOLLY: The coleslaw was different than most that I've had because it had onions. I really like onions so this absolutely worked for me but I'll understand if it doesn't resonate with you.
FOLLY: Now for the main event, the fish. I thought it was a very well made fish. It wasn't overcooked and dry rather, it was moist and flaky. I also really liked that every bit of the fish was very flavorful, no bland sections.
NOSA: The Cameroonian approach to grilled fish is pretty different from ours
FOLLY: It wasn't just a heavy hand of pepper (which I find to be a very lazy way to season food aka you just pour ata rodo on it and call it 'peppered fish'. If you do this, I'm judging you)
NOSA: Exactly, our "Point & Kill" is usually loaded with pepper because it's our signature. Theirs isn't.
NOSA: We got to try Cameroonian soda too lol.
POSTSCRIPT
FOLLY: Absolutely great value for money.
NOSA: I'm not the biggest fish person, but if you are, you'll love this.
FOLLY: A bit of background on the cook, she's part Cameroonian and part Nigerian so there's a distinct Cameroonian flair to the way she cooked the meal.
NOSA: And she's a super pleasant person.
VERDICT
DAMAGE
Sides - N500
Tiliapia - N3000
Drink (Bottle) - N500
PARKING
Ehhh.