Polish, African, and Caribbean flavors collide at Yum Village in Detroit's New Center area for Fat Tuesday on March 1.
To celebrate, Yum Village chef Godwin Ihentuge is rolling out a new menu of traditional Polish paczki with Afro-Caribbean-inspired flavors. Those include Kuli Kuli (a sweet peanut cake) mixed with a dash of Suya (a spice rub with a kick used in barbecue), plantains, hibiscus, and sweet potato.
Ihentuge says that while this is the first time his take on paczki is available to the public, it's a concept he's been tinkering with for a while.
"We play in the kitchen all the time," he says. In culinary school, he says he learned to cook through a European lens and didn't have the opportunity to experiment with the flavors of the African diaspora.
"But now I'm experimenting and doing things," he says. "One of the first nontraditional things I did was a Jollof rice arancini ball, and then I started playing around with doing things like Jollof rice sushi rolls." On Friday, Ihentuge will serve up African-inspired pizza at Hazel Park's Frame, where the paczki will also be available to purchase at a discount.
Ihentuge says the Afro-Caribbean-inspired paczki are a way of putting a Detroit spin on the Lent holiday.
"In this particular case, this is all about us taking a unique twist on a timeless tradition that comes every year," he says. "We're all united for Paczki Day."
Ihentuge also revealed to Metro Times that Yum Village is working to acquire the former West Village Detroit Vegan Soul location, which announced its permanent closure in January.
Ihentuge says he's working on getting a liquor license for the spot, and hopes to open in May. It would be a second Yum Village location, in addition to the New Center area location. Ihentuge says the second location will allow Yum Village to extend its delivery radius.
The acquisition includes the nearby beer garden, which is where Yum Village got its start as a food truck.
"That's where we got our roots, in the West Village, with the food truck," he says. "So we'll be returning with that same energy for the summertime."
Yum Village is taking paczki orders online starting on Friday, Feb. 11.
The Afro-Caribbean paczki will also be offered at the recently opened Yum Village sister restaurant in Cleveland. The Ohio spot is run by Godwin's brother, Carasai Ihentuge.
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