Ponia's Palace

🇬🇭 GHANA
📍 2250 E. Palmdale Blvd., Palmdale, Antelope Valley
🅿️ Ample parking in plaza
🥤 No Alcohol

It will take the average person a few moments to understand there is not a Chinese restaurant inside these red doors in the Towne Square, one of Palmdale's largest shopping plazas. Leftover from previous tenants, the green pagoda-style roof on the exterior of this corner has been repurposed to be the new shrine to Queen Ponia and her brand new palace that opened in June of this year.

In smaller print the facade now advertises African cuisine, but the big picture menu panels around the side are the only hint that this will be West African food, more specifically from Ghana. Palmdale and Lancaster have grocery stores with the same name that import West African goods, but this is the area's only restaurant for now.

When you open the doors, there is still a sense of the old tenant inside with banquet rooms full of red fabric chairs and dark wood detailing. But some of the surfaces now have a much wider range of color like you might see in Ghana, with colorful tablecloths and placemats being the most vibrant. On a recent Sunday when this meal took place, a table of about a dozen people were decked out in their colorful Sunday best, with even the children wearing traditional clothing.

Often in a West African restaurant the daily menu is limited and may not even be written down, but Ponia's Palace is much more formal and the amount of options seems like a Chinese restaurant as well. Expecting some things to be unavailable, the restaurant proved to be aspiring to different heights and had all six dishes that were eventually ordered.

If you are new to West African or Ghanaian food, a good place to start is with the country's ubiquitous egusi soup ($19.99 with fufu, above), a stew made with the namesake melon seeds, onions, palm oil, chilies, and plenty of seasoning. A bitterness from various leaves gives the soup its unique taste, and a choice of meat is available like most dishes at the restaurant.

A full complement of silverware is given to each diner, but leave that on the side and unwrap the ball of fufu. This staple can be made from various items like cassava and plantain, but the basic version here is pounded yam and should be used as a utensil to scoop up various soups on the table.

A waakye plate ($17.99 with fish, above) is another good introduction to Ghana, a mix of rice, spaghetti, fried sweet plantains, and salad in addition to the meat of your choice and red stew. A small dish of toasted cassava root called gari is served with the dish to mix in as desired, as well as a fiery and fishy pepper sauce called shito.

The fish is cooked well here and is also a good option when ordering the Ghana jollof plate ($17.99 with fish, below), which features the rice that has started so many wars (of words) with neighboring Nigeria. Interestingly, the restaurant also offers a Nigerian jollof if you prefer, possibly the only place on earth to cook both versions in the same kitchen.

Ghanaian jollof is thoroughly full of tomatoes and cooked with onions, ginger, herbs and spices before adding the rice. There is meat stock and what seems like a dozen more tastes all hidden within the resulting sticky red rice, and goes perfectly with whatever meat you choose to pair it with. Feel free to add a little of that shito to spice it up if you desire.

The menu has a really long list of soups that at first might seem to be overwhelming. Ghanaian and West African soups can come in many versions, from broth-y meals that would get the name in other regions, to thicker stews like the egusi above, so allow your definition of the word to be open. So far none of them seem to be bad orders, no matter what the consistency.

The goat pepper soup ($14.99, above) is a terrific way to get your taste buds fired up, maybe not as spicy as the version served in Nigeria but still up there. Meaty tender hunks of goat remain on the bone until you pull them out with your fingers and teeth. This soup can also be eaten with fufu or on its own, although that might not be so common back home.

The peanut butter soup ($14.99, below) should not be avoided by people who do not like peanut butter, as it has little relation to that sweet spread. The soup is peanut-y and butter-y, but in very different ways that have been infused with scotch bonnet peppers and many other herbs. You have your choice of meat again, the one here is shown with cubes of beef.

The restaurant also offers a wide range of soups you will find in various parts of Ghana like palm nut, cassava leaf, spinach, and many others. You could come to eat here more than a dozen times and not duplicate your soup of the day.

One of the most surprising items on the menu for anyone that has not traveled in West Africa is a dish simply called Indomie ($7.99, below). These packaged ramen noodles from Indonesia were introduced to Nigeria in the late 80's, where they became an instant success and led to the creation of quite a few factories to fulfill the demands. Before Indomie arrived, noodles were not part of the Nigerian diet but nowadays any generic noodles might be referred to as Indomie like most tissues are just Kleenex.

While Nigeria may have the largest instant noodle factory in all of Africa thanks to all of this, the brand has also caught on in Ghana and a good portion of the business is exported there. Families cook it in various ways, usually something like the version served here with onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, and eggs. It may not be as full-flavored as many of the soups and other dishes, but it is a fun addition to a larger spread.

As you can see from just a couple meals, Ponia's Palace is one of the most ambitious West African restaurants in the country and can probably cook up just about anything a homesick Ghanaian might be missing. Palmdale and the Antelope Valley are especially lucky to have the new spot, but all of Los Angeles County and anyone that might be passing through the area should definitely make plans to check it out.

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