Branching out when dining out in the Pioneer Valley

When it comes to food, college students tend to stick to the familiar. Sometimes it’s laziness, or the fear of unfamiliar dishes in the dining hall. Sometimes they don’t want to waste the money when dining out. What if they tried this new thing and they ended up hating it?

Whatever the reasons, Amherst offers some good restaurants to break this habit. College is about experimentation, after all, and Amherst has restaurants ranging from Mexican to Polish and everything in between.

This week, try a new world of dining out (or ordering in if you prefer). Below is your launch pad. These restaurants are tried, tested and certifiably awesome.

You may have walked past Baku's, Amherst’s Nigerian restaurant, and never gone in, but it’s worth a stop. Owner, Pat Ononibaku, is as warm and inviting as her restaurant. The walls are a vibrant pink adorned with African murals, while African music sets a comfortable ambiance.

Pat opened the restaurant in 2005 because she wanted to provide authentic, quality food and serve as a community resource.

“In the media, people hear negative things about Africa … AIDS and famine,” said Pat. “I’m not saying those things don’t exist, but I want to showcase the positive aspects of African culture. Good food, good music, warm, cozy, bright.”

Pat says she serves strictly traditional Nigerian food, as opposed to Colonial style Nigerian cuisine, influenced strongly by the British. While the colonial style is heavily wheat based, Baku’s Nigerian dishes are made gluten, lactose and sugar free.

“I wouldn’t know what to do with it,” Pat said when asked about using sugar in her cooking.

Although much of the food is high in starch, Nigerian food uses fresh ingredients, and is unprocessed.

The food served is as colorful as the walls, usually containing rice, meat, diced onions and a combination of up to 20 spices, ranging from curry to nutmeg.

Each dish is an explosion of flavor, with meats such as beef, lamb and goat mixed with grains and a carefully calculated blend of mellow and bold spices.

“There is a myth that all African food is very spicy,” explains Pat. “Our food is very flavorful, but I cook it mildly and spice it according to customers’ preferences.”

If the food alone was not enough reason to try out Baku, Pat says, “The easiest way to experience other cultures, in my opinion, is to try their food. Without traveling there you have a sense of their culture.”

The menu features items that range from $3 appetizers to $10 entrees. Baku’s is open from 12 p.m. – 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 12 p.m. – 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 4 p.m. – 8 p.m. on Sunday.

Miss Saigon is an authentic Vietnamese restaurant, that opened last September in downtown Amherst. Vincent Tin says it was his dream to open a restaurant. It has been a long road for Vincent, who moved from Vietnam to France and then to Boston to pursue his culinary education before arriving in Amherst.

“I love Amherst,” he says, “I don’t think I’ll ever leave.”

The restaurant has a Vietnamese feng shui, with deep crimson walls, paintings of Vietnamese women and flowers adorning the walls, and bamboo place mats on every table.

While you will recognize many of the vegetables and meats on the menu from your experiences with Chinese food, Vincent explains that the differences lie in the Vietnamese’s use of fish sauce, little use of MSG, spices such as curry and far less soy sauce and oil.

“Vietnamese is more flavorful and more healthy,” he said.

The Vietnamese are famous for their hearty soups and noodle bowls, using choy, a type of Vietnamese cabbage, cubed meats such as beef or chicken, egg or pho rice noodles, an assortment of vegetables including broccoli, bamboo, peas and carrots, as well as cilantro, scallions, onions and curry for flavor.

Vietnamese is the definite choice for vegetarians with impressive use of vegetables and tofu in many of their menu options. 

The menu has infinite options and is moderately priced with a hearty noodle bowl for just under $10. Open from 10 a.m. – 10:30 p.m. daily, it is the perfect stop for lunch, dinner or a late night snack.

Just down Route 9 on Railroad Street there is a Polish Deli/Restaurant that will leave you stuffed to your ears and planning your next visit. Sofia’s, named after owner Kristina Beudry’s Polish mother, opened in May 2007 to serve Hadley’s large Polish community.

Kristina and her son Matt spend every day in their kitchen cooking pierogis of different varieties, golumkis and kielbasa among many other dishes from scratch and from memory.

“I learned how to cook from my mother,” says Kristina, “but she never wrote anything down.”

“It’s like a pierogi sweatshop,” says Matt who is constantly experimenting with his cooking to create new recipes.

Polish cooking uses ingredients such as cabbage, cheeses, potatoes, rice and hamburger. Pierogis, which Kristina and Matt say are their biggest sellers, contain no meat and are the perfect choice for a vegetarian meal.

“It’s important to try new foods. It gets your taste buds going,” says Kristina.

“You’re definitely full when you leave here,” says Matt. “It’s good, home-style cooking for three or four bucks.”

The deli style of the restaurant leaves a relaxed and open feeling. With the bike trail running right through Sofia’s backyard, they say people who are curious about Polish food wander in all time and aren’t afraid to eat by themselves.

Sofia’s is open Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. for lunch and dinner and weekends from 8 a.m.– 5 p.m. for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

These are just a few of the numerous ethnic cuisines available in this area. It’s a good start on this path of food exploration. Take a chance on something new. Become a seasoned, eclectic and wise food connoisseur.

Rebecca Babin can be reached at rbabin@student.umass.edu.

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