Sweet Chicken at Big Black Cook
© Entrée to Black Paris

Read Part I of this Art and Food Pairing™ article HERE.

Using Google, Tom and I identified a Senegalese restaurant near Semiose Gallery and were looking forward to having lunch there after visiting the Lopsided exhibition by Philemona Williamson.

It turned out that the listing was completely erroneous – we not only found no restaurant at the location indicated but also discovered that the address didn’t exist!

I pulled out my cell phone on the spot and did another search for African and Afro-Caribbean restaurants in the vicinity.

We found that Big Black Cook on rue Tiquetonne was a ten-minute walk away.

Remembering that we had enjoyed a meal there a couple of years ago, we headed there immediately.

On the way, we realized that it was only a five-minute walk from Semiose Gallery.

The original address of the restaurant was 7, rue Tiquetonne.  We walked there, guided by a large vertical sign that hangs above this address, and found the interior completely gutted.

We were understandably disappointed and were ready to abandon the second leg of our Art and Food Pairing™ adventure when we saw a sign in the window that referred customers to 5, rue Tiquetonne.

Walking back to that address, which we had passed without noticing because we were focused on the vertical sign at Number 7, we found Big Black Cook open for business with several tables already occupied.

Big Black Cook façade
© Entrée to Black Paris

Tall, pressed wood tables and black lacquered stools line the cream-colored stone wall on one side of the restaurant’s single dining room. 

Tall tables and chairs
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The dark pressed wood tables on the other side are of normal height, and the chairs and stools around them are made of metal.  The words “caribbean madness” in pink neon adorn the wall there.

 “caribbean madness”
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Perusing the menu, which is printed in French and English, Tom and I decided to purchase Sweet Chicken as our main dish.

Big Black Cook English-language menu
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Described as a “family recipe of boneless chicken thighs with sweet & chili sauce and peanuts,”  it arrived on ceramic dishes containing a mound of long grain rice topped with shredded chicken in a sweet sauce that was dusted with crumbled peanuts and garnished with chopped fresh green onions.

Sweet chicken
© Entrée to Black Paris

We decided to split side orders of vegetarian accras (served with a small container of sauce chien – a condiment containing onions, garlic, vegetable oil, water, chile peppers, salt and pepper) and fried plantains, and we ordered Caribbean blond beers to wash everything down.

Vegetarian accras
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Fried plantains
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Lorraine – a blond beer from Martinique
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Sweet chicken is noted on the menu as being spicy, but we could barely detect the chiles used to prepare the sauce for this dish.  We also found the sauce chien to be quite tame.

Still, we enjoyed our meal.

I ordered a bottle of Lorraine beer from Martinique, and Tom ordered a bottle of Corsaire beer from Guadeloupe.  We agreed that we preferred Corsaire to Lorraine, as we found this blond brew to have more flavor.

Neither of us ordered dessert.

Tom finished his entire meal, but I became full quite quickly and elected to take the remaining portion of my food home to enjoy later.

As we paid the bill, we inquired about the renovation at Number 7 and were told that the restaurant still occupies the property and will open a “new concept” at that address.

The dining room at Big Black Cook is wheelchair accessible, but access to the toilets is not possible.

Big Black Cook
5, rue Tiquetonne
75002 Paris
Metro:  Etienne Marcel (Line 4)
Hours: Sunday through Saturday 12:00 pm – 10 pm (sit down and takeout)