- 47 minutes ago
West Africa or East Africa: Who has the better plate? This week, Fatou and Sulemani face off in a friendly culinary showdown while sharing stories and traditions, behind some of Africa's favorite dishes.
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00:05where are you sure you have to learn I'm not a chef I'm not a chef so I do not
00:09know the science
00:10of cooking well join us of course have you ever heard of green fufu or pink ugali but today this
00:25is not just about fufu we are in the kitchen to talk about food but make it healthy I am
00:31Fati
00:31Elika Moloshi and I'm here with my East African colleague Suleimani thank you so much for having
00:36me welcome to my kitchen Suleimani this is where all the roast happens have you seen those videos
00:41by those videos you're cooking politicians well you can literally say that I've got quite a couple
00:46of them um in those episodes your president was also I've seen my president in your video yeah
00:52I'm happy to be here today in your kitchen Fatou and I'm going to show you my East African spices
00:59oh come on look at him saying East African spice we all know that when it comes to food West
01:03Africa is
01:04unbeatable you know Africa has the best food ever where I am from we don't do a lot of we
01:10just show
01:11are you ready to show me what is on let's do this what are we cooking today I've got something
01:18very
01:18interesting here we are going to be cooking chicken yassa you can already see the chicken and we've
01:24got some veggies on the sides as well parsley we've got spring onions over there and the main
01:30ingredient here is the chicken chicken that we are going to season and put in the oven a lot to
01:36be
01:36having today here yes what can I help you then um you're gonna obviously start with the chicken
01:40because we're gonna have to cut this into pieces they're actually large pieces yes and um yeah
01:47along the line I'll also learn about what you do in East Africa and how you prepare your food tell
01:52me
01:52what makes your food special in East Africa Ugali specifically I have a long story with Ugali because
01:58um we were too young me and my little brother yeah our mother was troubled and then that day my
02:05father
02:05said okay you guys you are all alone today yeah and that day I had to learn the hard way
02:11on how to cook
02:11a garden a few moments later wow that day changed my whole life that's the reason why I also want
02:23the followers the listeners also to get to know the easiest way on how to cook a garden I think
02:29it's
02:29now time to go and see what Samson has for us because he's right there in the heart of Lagos
02:42in Lagos Nigeria you wake up hungry at six in the morning there is already something off right waiting
02:50for you akara cocoa plantain fish barbecue fried yam I am in Lagos Nigeria and for the next seven days
02:59I
02:59am going to eat my way through the city street food culture but with one mission to find out if
03:07I can
03:07actually eat healthy on the streets of Lagos voila mama is preparing akara and momoi akara momoi are both
03:16made made from blended beans the beans are soaked peeled and blended with pepper onions and other
03:23ingredients the difference is simple akara is shaped and fried into hot oil while momoi is wrapped and
03:32put into a container and then steamed until it's cooked guys akara gives me protein from beans while
03:40pap gives me carbohydrates so on paper this sounds like a reasonable breakfast but the akara is deep
03:48fried and the oil as same things my first lesson is simple healthy eating doesn't necessarily mean
03:54removing the food you love sometime it's how much you eat and our oven you eat it one thing you
04:03quickly
04:03notice about Nigerian food is that we don't always keep teens separate this rice gets its color from
04:11hibiscus leaves first the leaves are boiled then the beans and rice are added and cooked together across
04:19West Africa you will find similar fashion watching in Ghana and atasi in francophone West Africa today is day
04:29three and I am starting to understand something Lagos food isn't necessarily unhealthy but Lagos has a
04:37way of making everything more tempting but you need to be careful of how and where the food is being
04:45prepared and that is why I am here today to see for myself I want to buy beans oh this
04:51I'm planting at
04:522,500 nutritionally this gives me plant-based protein and fiber which helps muscle maintenance
05:02digestion and keeping me full the whole day plantain also gives carbohydrate for energy plus some
05:09vitamins and minerals but because it's fried the oil add extra calories so portion size still matters
05:18today I'm entering some serious Nigerian street food territory because as you can see preparing some of
05:26these Nigerian street meals is truly a team effort someone is washing plates someone is cooking another
05:33person is preparing the fish while others are busy with amala it will do and bakery and the interesting
05:41thing is this places like this can close around 10 pm and start again by 7 am while we are
05:49thinking about
05:50what to eat and how to eat healthy there is a whole team working from morning to night to keep
05:57Lagos felt
05:59variety here can honestly be confusing the Eweru gives me some vegetables and the fish gives me protein
06:05and the amala gives me carbohydrate so the ingredients can actually work together to give me a more balanced
06:14meal but once again portion size still matter Nigerians don't just want to eat we want to confirm
06:22that we are eating because if I can still see my plates somehow I feel like I have not tried
06:30enough
06:32it's today is day five and the sun is going down gradually Lagos traffic is building up and the
06:39grills are already coming alive here they are preparing native barbecue chicken fish and guinea fowl
06:47marinated with seasoning and grilled over hot charcoal the smoke the aroma everything is pulling me saying
06:57something come and eat and guys I am definitely going for this native fish with yum plantain and then
07:06potato let's go there today is this is and I want to try something different fruits there's hardly any street
07:16in Lagos where you won't find an aboki man selling fruit apple bananas watermelon oranges pineapple grapes
07:26berries just name it you will find them there fruit gives you vitamins fiber and anti-dousant
07:36even though it's dark everywhere but right here in Ikeda the night is just beginning and now I am
07:45starting to wonder do people in Lagos ever stop eating after seven days of eating my way through Lagos
07:53here is what I have learned is the place clean is the water safe is the food being prepared in
08:00the
08:01hygienic environment you don't have to give up on Nigerian food but you have to make better choice
08:08now I handle about you guys in the studio
08:15seven days of eating
08:17I can imagine one cannot eat all of that in a day can you
08:20in terms of for example specifically where I'm from is you have chapati do you know chapati
08:25oh I do know chapati I've tried that and I kept craving yes okay we have mandazi also and also
08:32vitumbua so those are the lights thing and but I was also impressed to see like Nigerians they go
08:38harder for food in the morning and I'm wondering to like how is it unknown for this is just a
08:44breakfast
08:45what would you eat for lunch yes good question I think he raised very important points and one of
08:50those is that where you're getting your food how that food is being prepared it's very important
08:55that when preparing food health and hygiene are at the center of that preparation process and so I
09:01mean at this point also for West Africa Suleimani one thing that's important in our cooking is our spices
09:07but also our magi cubes hey Fatou and Suleiman today I want to learn some new recipes and my go
09:15-to source
09:15for cooking inspiration is social media so let's see what the internet has for me today I have some
09:21onions we have some lettuce some cucumber eggs I love eggs and what bullion is that bullion cubes
09:30yeah of course bullion cube she put in the salt and then she added the bullion cube unbelievable you
09:38know at this point I'm starting to wonder is it even possible to find an African cooking video
09:45without bullion cubes when exactly dead bullion cubes becomes such a fixture in African cooking
09:52to be fair there's a reason they are popular they add what's known as umami that rich savory flavor
09:59to meals but it's another ingredient hiding inside many of these cubes sodium a single bullion cube can
10:08contain up to 900 milligrams of sodium that's almost 40 percent of the recommended maximum daily intake for
10:16an adult so if you are cooking for the family and throw in two cubes you're already getting close to
10:23an entire day's worth of sodium before considering everything else you might eat since their invention
10:29in 1886 bullion cubes have become a staple across Africa but all is not lost you don't have to choose
10:37between tasty food and healthier cooking there are lower sodium alternatives available and ingredients
10:44like onions garlic ginger herbs and local spices can add depth and flavor without relying entirely on
10:53bullion cubes so it's about understanding what's inside the bullion cubes and making informed choices
11:00so let's see really what the jollof is usually about because this is a huge competition always in our
11:07region in ghana and nigeria and senegambia even if i'm not from the west i've seen a lot of videos
11:12on
11:12social media like on instagram on tiktok people asking like who made the best jollof we all know where
11:16it originated from and who always wins the battle but we did something at the 77 percent some years ago
11:23let's take a look at that what's your favorite african food um i would go for my gana jollof i'll
11:28go for
11:28my fufu and some peanut butter soup or light soup so you know the fact that you think you can
11:35beat nigerian
11:36jollof
11:40is already a problem i am going to show you how we make our master piece which is known as
11:46benachin
11:47oh chair look at the fish alone this is clearly not a simple dish what you saw in our video
11:52yes
11:53was just was not a very real thing but you're about to see this conversation happen like almost every
11:58year yes it happens every single year in a particular west african country and i'll tell
12:03you what has been happening over the years but let's now see what the actual chefs those who understand
12:08the science of cooking uh what they actually battled against and how they were actually crowned winners
12:15i'm not sure if nigerians and ghanians are lazy at this point and i'm sure they are also working
12:22really hard to get the trophy
12:27nigeria we make the best jollof in the world
12:54all of us do because there are different and various types of jollof
13:00although we like challenging ourselves to push beyond the limits and saying let's come together
13:06let's compete let's bring the flavors together and let neutral people judge to know which one should
13:12we focus on which one should we add to the menu of jollof
13:19you guys you are always talking about ghana nigeria i don't know why they're always on this
13:24competition because every single time this is the third time my country has won
13:28okay we did the competition in ghana we did it in nigeria and finally we retain the title at home
13:33next time it might be for another country also okay now she gave me an opportunity to help her with
13:39the with the onions yes you have to tell me like what the reason behind thank you so much um
13:44you know
13:45the thing about the yasa is and you can see i've already blended um the vegetables that is going to
13:49form the base i'm going to put it in the chicken and put the chicken in the oven a part
13:53of that is also
13:53going to go into the onions and um i was just wondering do you have a similar jollof in your
13:58country i mean we have different story maybe pilau initially i thought we're just showing the styles
14:04of food now she's making it into a competition now i'm going to tell you that if you go to
14:09east africa
14:09you try pilau because this is the best dish ever to be found in africa anyway guys let's see how
14:15the
14:15actual benachin you call it jollof is made here's a gambian family that is showing us the importance
14:21of community and how food brings everyone together my name is aisha i'm from gambia and today i'm cooking
14:32benachin the best benachin ever in gambler snail snail yeah we come here so often because it's cheap
14:42and you get everything you want here directly from the farm i bought a cabbage garden egg prepare
14:50the local hot spicy one and then i just bought onions
14:57you can cook benachin with fish with meat if you want and sometimes with beans
15:05because it came freshly from the garden so it's very fresh yeah i think that's what makes it healthy
15:11no chemical nothing she's going to fry it with the with the meat
15:25she's the chef today our chef
15:31jollof rice and the chin it's my favorite i like cooking benachin i love cooking jollof rice
15:38i like the preparation like cutting the meat and the vegetables i love the vegetables because it's healthy
15:47my health is important
15:51you see these vegetables here they are not mixed with the benachin they are all toppings
15:59i would say it's gambian number one dish because they cook it everywhere in parties in events most of
16:06the time they just cook benachin no other meal this the best looks the best
16:12once we all eat together for us you know it's very important that family eat together people who eat
16:18alone they always like that they don't want to share what they have but you see we all eat together
16:24that's
16:24why we like sharing food is love and where we come from it's the first thing we use to show
16:30someone
16:31that we care when a guest comes to your house you present them with food that's the first gesture
16:36to show that you're welcome to my home you're welcome to my space and if someone cooks for me
16:41for example it means a lot because it means you care about me and sulaimani one thing i also learned
16:47from the cooking of the gambian family you know she went to the market she showed us the ingredients
16:51and since we are talking about healthy cooking i like the fact that she showed us some options the
16:56whole process yes and we've seen yet for example which is the salted snail and we've seen the dried
17:01fish which we call geja and one thing i learned from auntie yaboi which is auntie ida yaboi kitchen is
17:07that when you're cooking jollof you can supplement the magi cubes with these salted ingredients i mean
17:13that's the gambling chef which is why now i'm going to put my chicken everything has been well
17:19marinated as you can see and i'm going to put it in the oven before i start with the onions
17:24in east
17:25africa we all we have our own pilau and that's the best food the reason why we are coming in
17:31with
17:31our tune reporter yeah ali's hey fatu and sulaiman alice here from girls off mute and today i'm
17:42a nairobi street kitchen to try one of east africa's favorite foods beef pilau hello today you're having
17:49our kenyan beef pilau you serve it on the side with a shot of beef broth and just garnish with
17:57some
17:57coriander beef pilau is personally one of my favorite east african cuisines from kenya
18:02from the rice and meat to the banana to the beef broth and the kachumbari all these ingredients play
18:08a special part to make this have such a distinctive taste but why exactly is this kenyan's favorite dish
18:15it's morphed within our culture to fit whatever we have but it was heavily influenced by the trade that
18:23was happening within the coast the spices that was being brought so whatever we had we just recreated
18:29it and made it now our own in our own kind of way now it's time to taste it
18:42it is absolutely amazing now let me try a banana to balance out the spice
18:49fatu and sulaiman i really hope you get to try kenyan beef pilau one day
18:57asante sana from nairobi by the way alice is part of our girls off mute reporters
19:01so if you want to see more of what they're doing just keep following us on our social media platforms
19:06here's a real question what would you prefer would you prefer a healthy option that most people think
19:12or feel sometimes it's even more expensive than the usual option everyday food that people eat
19:18that is cheap takes less time but you still enjoy your food which option would you prefer i would
19:25prefer to go for a long run i mean the long run the long run for sure i mean i
19:29need to prepare all the
19:30things just like the whole person we did here yeah just to have the heavy food because at the end
19:35of the
19:35day you need to function you don't want to die do you we'll all die one day but you need
19:41to be happy
19:41at the end of the day because we will die yeah that's for sure we always say i might as
19:47well enjoy
19:47life and die it doesn't mean you have to eat unhealthy yes the best and the easiest way to for
19:52you to to cook so at the end of the show even if for you who's watching now you're gonna
19:57be able to
19:58cook ugali even if i'm not around yeah what are the steps yes so the first step i'm gonna take
20:03water
20:04yeah okay and um yeah so while you're taking water of course i also have to prepare the onions
20:10that go with the yassa and here i've got olive oil and i'm just gonna put a generous amount of
20:15that
20:15in the pan enough to just help caramelize our onions yeah first of all you should have the
20:22ingredients we have the ingredients here maize flour i will put like two spoons in this
20:30and then i will put a little water also again okay okay and you can just check this video it
20:36has like
20:36i mean it compiled all the spices okay double shake the stick pilau that fragrance spice rice
20:44hits with cardamom and cloves kuku paka simmering in coconut curry with coriander and chili say less
20:53spice chai with ginger on every street corner instant comfort these are the flavors of east africa
21:00slow cooked bold and absolutely carrying the whole mood and honestly spices have been moving across the
21:08world forever like centuries ago the winds were basically the original delivery service ships from
21:15asia came into east africa packed with cinnamon cardamom black pepper ginger nutmeg turmeric and cloves
21:24and zanzibar iconic the archipelago used to be the world's biggest producer of clothes which is
21:30exactly why people call it the spice islands uh spices are part of our tradition part of our culture
21:42part of our economy but there's a darker side too a lot of that world was built on enslaved people
21:49doing the work on the plantation fast forward to today what used to be luxury is now easy to buy
21:57and for a lot of people the history of spices is also a real source of income now through spice
22:02tours markets tourism and even sustainable clove farming for sops and other wellness products
22:10i think it loves carries a thousand year journey of flavor trade power and health so when we talk about
22:17spices are we really just talking about taste yes far too long to learn about spices and then there you
22:24go
22:24you have some reports yeah i mean if you're from the eastern part of africa especially zanzibar where
22:29this comes from spice is their identity our cultural heritage and i i think it's really wonderful that
22:35yeah people are also living through that spices here but now i'm gonna put my um onions and then add
22:42a bit of this paste into that some mustard at the same time i will be also starting to cook
22:47my oh gully
22:48hey i told you guys i promise you're gonna be able to cook um girl at the end of the
22:52show
22:52and the first step is finally cook something for you guys it's my time guys now i have to put
23:01a little
23:01bit of um maize flour in it because the water is already boiled this is the first step step one
23:08hey there you go mister and how long do you have to keep twisting and turning that thing because i
23:13know when
23:14they're cooking normally it takes like very few minutes yeah so lemani i also want us to look at
23:19some dessert because what's the meal without a little dessert so right now i would want to explore
23:26something very interesting because we have local products in africa that people are deciding to
23:31manufacture into chocolates yes and i think our colleague colette decided to find out how that is
23:37being done around africa i started wondering about africa's cocoa story and i discovered that africa
23:52grows much of the world's cocoa who knew but when it comes to making luxury chocolate most people think
23:59of switzerland or belgium so i went looking for women changing that story i've always loved cooking so
24:06making chocolate and being able to experiment with ingredients that people typically traditionally
24:13wouldn't put in chocolate what's remarkable is that wizzy isn't just making chocolate
24:19i'm a cocoa farmer chocolate maker and chocolatier in training and the only one in malawi that actually
24:26does all of the three flavors feature local ingredients like moringa toasted coconut and rosal
24:34every stage carefully managed to preserve the quality that ghanian cocoa is famous for hey we as ghanians
24:42and as africans can manufacture can produce for our own and can grow our own economy
24:49the goal more being to buy chocolate made in africa for africans
24:56yes over 80 billion dollars is wasted in africa annually because we are importing food so i feel
25:04like if we make more use of what we're growing and what we use to cook our yasa for example
25:10it's a
25:10perfect example of that because the onions we have at home the chicken we have our live chickens at home
25:15that we could use for that and for that we should produce our own food yes and produce our own
25:20food so now
25:21we're going to try for the very first time chicken yasa with with good garlic okay you got it so
25:28there you go yes that was powerful and the question will be to you yes which is your favorite
25:36dish let us know in the comments because now we cannot wait to dig it and here's your plate as
25:42well
25:42join us of course thank you so much thank you for watching see you another time bye