Which nation has the perfect jollof rice? A touring pageant goals to seek out out : NPR

One of essentially the most well-known dishes throughout West Africa is Jollof Rice — aromatic rice cooked down with spices, tomatoes and meat. But which model is finest? A touring pageant goals to seek out out.

Transcript

ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:

One of essentially the most well-known dishes throughout West Africa is jollof, aromatic rice cooked with spices, tomatoes and meat. The dish is a supply of delight throughout the area, however each nation prepares it a bit of otherwise. Some are smoky. Some are vivid. All of them are scrumptious. But after all, each nation swears theirs is the perfect. Here within the United States, touring pageant is placing the perfect to the take a look at. NPR’s Durrie Bouscaren studies from the Washington, D.C., Jollof Festival.

DURRIE BOUSCAREN, BYLINE: For many, the perfect jollof is the one you grew up with.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing, inaudible).

BOUSCAREN: But for those who actually need to get scientific about it, you may carry hundreds of individuals to an outdoor market in Washington, D.C., and make them do a blind style take a look at. That’s what the organizers of the Jollof Festival did right here this weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: But it bites you on the finish.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yep. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: It’s very gradual. It builds up, after which on the finish you are like, whoo.

BOUSCAREN: Two mates, Shakisha Coleman (ph) and Julia Agbasi (ph), decide up a field of six color-coded taster cups and examine notes.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: My heritage is Nigerian, so we used to eat jollof rice nearly on a regular basis. And it is scrumptious, however there are different areas that I’m actually wanting ahead to consuming.

BOUSCAREN: The cups themselves vary from vivid crimson rice to an earthy one with herbs.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I believe the inexperienced cup has curry in it.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Between pink and crimson, I’m going to go along with crimson.

BOUSCAREN: Red was made by a neighborhood chef from Sierra Leone. Maggie Duncan August (ph) says she prefers Ghana’s jollof. It’s spicier, smokier.

MAGGIE DUNCAN AUGUST: You know when you might have good jollof, and when you do not have good jollof (laughter).

BOUSCAREN: And there’s Liberian jollof, which is a favourite of Virginia Richards (ph).

VIRGINIA RICHARDS: There’s meat. There’s veggies. There’s taste. There’s a bit of little bit of spice. Like, we’re not afraid to make it extra than simply, like, rice or tomato sauce.

BOUSCAREN: Watching all of it from his perch on a meals truck is 27-year-old chef Mamadou Coite (ph). He and his mom are the cooks behind Senegal’s submission to the Jollof Festival. They began cooking at 5 a.m., grilling the lamb and the hen, getting ready the tomatoes and peppers.

MAMADOU COITE: The secret is love, actually. That’s actually the perfect factor I can let you know. The secret is simply love and simply cleanliness and simply happiness. When you make it, you need to be completely satisfied. You need to be joyful. So folks going to style that once they eat it.

BOUSCAREN: Modern-day Senegal is probably going the place jollof originated within the 14th century. But Coite says the pageant is just not about profitable or shedding. It’s extra about bringing folks collectively to understand West African meals.

COITE: It appears like we’re actually placing ourselves on the market as an African tradition, as a African. I really feel like persons are actually getting in tune and in contact with our tradition, what it’s to be African.

BOUSCAREN: At the top of the night time, D.C. voters selected Ghana’s spicy entry because the winner for the third 12 months in a row. The pageant now heads to Atlanta, South Carolina and Texas. So the jollof rivalry lives on.

Durrie Bouscaren, NPR News, Washington.

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