The Luddite's Manifesto: Food culture

This past June, when I visited my aunt and uncle in the Netherlands, one of the most memorable parts of my visit was cooking with them in the evenings. As we talked about the day, they taught me how to peel white asparagus, stuff apples with ginger and cinnamon, and slice herring. Then, when we visited Madrid together, over some oysters and horchata we met a man from Moscow who works for Lego, an Israeli man from New York who was temporarily assuming all foods were Kosher, and a couple from the Philippines who had just ditched their tour guide group to find some real Spanish food. During this trip, I realized just how integral of a role food plays in our lives—eating brings us together with others, people that we already know and also those that you don't.

So, naturally, I wanted to know more about the food Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up with and mentions in her works.

In Nigeria, there are a variety of tribes that have their own culture. But overall, the eating habits look like this: In the early morning—around 5 or 6—a small breakfast of rice, fruit (mangoes, bananas, oranges, grapefruit), and soybeans is eaten. Around 11 am lunch is eaten. This is the most important meal of the day, and there will usually be a stew or soup served, like the onogbu soup mentioned in The Thing Around Your Neck. Dinner, another soup or stew, tends to be served much later in the day.

Also, while some of the main foods of Nigeria are native, such as rice, millet, and lentils, others like beans, cassava, and maize, were brought over by European settlers.

There are foods that are also more specific to the different tribes of Nigeria. For the Igbo, yams are the staple food, and main dishes are made up of a starch, a soup, and a meat—usually chicken, fish, beef, or goat. Dumplings and pumpkins are also commonly used in dishes.

Nigerian yams

Adichie also mentions a few specific meals in her stories. Garri, the familiar food made in the narrator's uncle's home in The Thing Around Your Neck, is a starchy paste that comes from the root of the cassava plant. The root is dried and ground up, and then mixed with water or milk.

Garri, in powder form, before it's mixed with water or milk

Dry garri on the left, cooked garri on the right.

Jollof rice, what the mother in Cell One uses to bribe the policemen, is a type of rice cooked with meat, spices, tomatoes, and peppers. It’s usually eaten alongside meat.

Jollof rice

Onugbu soup is soup made with bitterleaf. The leaves are washed and squeezed to get rid of the bitter taste, and is then mixed with palm oil, beef, fish, and cocoyam.