It's a heated historic rivalry across West Africa: Which country makes the best jollof rice?
Cooks across both Nigeria and Ghana have long claimed to make the best. But chefs in Senegal argue that it originated there in the 14th century – so it must be the best! No fewer than 10 countries offer their own version of the dish; a rich, fragrant rice cooked down with spices, tomatoes and meat.
On Saturday, two thousand people stood in line near Washington D.C.'s Union Market for a yellow box of six, color-coded taster cups. The organizers of the Jollof Festival have traveled across the United States to put this debate to the test, gathering thousands of people for blind tastings of regional jollof prepared by local chefs.
Friends Julie Agbasi and Shakesha Coleman came out to sample the variety and compared notes as they tried each one.
"It bites you at the end!" Agbasi said, after trying one. "It's very slow – it builds up and then at the end you're like, woo!"
"My heritage is Nigerian, so we used to eat jollof rice almost all the time," Agbasi said. "It's delicious, but there are other regions that I'm really looking forward to."
The rice samples ranged from a bright red to a brighter yellow jollof, flecked with herbs. Some patrons felt confident they could guess the country of provenance for each one — others simply enjoyed learning the diversity of jollof possibilities.
"You know when you have good jollof and you know when you don't have good jollof!" laughed Maggie Duncan August, an attendee with Ghanaian heritage. "My favorite jollof is spicy, smoky, it has good meat in it. Ghana always stands out as the number one!"
The samples were prepared by chefs from the D.C. metro area, hailing from six countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and — for the first time since the competition began in 2017 — the United States.
Many visitors enjoyed the samples, but doubled down on their preferences for the jollof of their spouses, neighbors, or childhoods.
"My sister-in-law is Nigerian, so every holiday we have, she brings her jollof rice. So I'm comparing them all to hers!" said Carla Shelton, who was visiting from Phoenix.
D.C. resident Virginia Richards, 26, wore a red-and-cream-printed Liberian blouse to proudly display her heritage as she stood in line with a group of friends.
"Liberia has the best jollof, and I feel like because we're such a small country, we don't get the hype we deserve – we're a very understated people," Richards said. "There's meat, there's veggies, there's flavor and a little bit of spice. We're not afraid to make it more than just rice with tomato sauce!"
The chefs watched and waited, including 27-year-old chef Mamadou Koité, who looked out the window of his food truck.
Koité and his mother were the chefs behind Senegal's submission to the festival; the family also runs a restaurant in Silver Spring, Md. called the Koité Grill. The team started cooking at 5 a.m., grilling the lamb and chicken, preparing tomatoes and peppers for the sauce.
"The secret is love. When you make it you want to be happy, you want to be joyful," Koité said. "People are going to taste that."
Koité says the festival is not about winning or losing. It's more about bringing people together to appreciate West African food.
"It feels like we're really putting ourselves out there, as Africans," Koité said. "I feel like people are really getting in tune with … what it means to be African, and what it means to know the food and know the culture."
After a six-hour tasting, festival organizers gathered on stage to crown Ghanaian chef Kafui Attakpah as the D.C. festival's winner.
It was a third win in a row for Attakpah — and attendees cheered loudly as he accepted a trophy adorned with a small pot of jollof rice. Attakpah is a co-owner of the Calabash African Cuisine & Bar in Alexandria, Va.
Jermaine Foreman-Marshall, who runs a catering company called The Maine Course, represented the United States, and won second place. In a day-after Instagram post, he thanked the team for letting an "American cousin" enter the competition.
"They didn't know who cooked it. They didn't know an American was behind the pot. They just knew that GREEN CUP was hitting!" he wrote. "I came to show my love for the culture, represent respectfully, and prove I've been paying attention all these years."
The Jollof Festival continues on to Atlanta, North Carolina Central University, Dallas and Houston this fall. If you're too far away to join the party, you can celebrate at home on World Jollof Day on August 22.
The best jollof is the one you grew up with
There are as many recipes for jollof rice as there are stars in the sky. But after careful research, it appears that the world's best jollof is the one that was made by someone who cares about you.
When my editor asked for a recipe for this post, I reached out to Maigalisa Yohanna, one of my flatmates when I was a freelance journalist in Istanbul. Yohanna would cook Nigerian jollof rice for us, putting a warm bowl of it on my desk when I'd be scrambling on a deadline. This particular recipe is a combination of two that were shared with us by his sisters, although they don't contain meat.
Yohanna and his wife, photojournalist Danielle Villasanna, are now living in Texas with their family. Every time I eat jollof, wherever I am, I think of them.
Ingredients:
White rice 1 1/2 cups
Vegetable oil 1/3 cup
3 medium tomatoes
1 large red bell pepper
1 scotch bonnet pepper (adjust to taste)
1 medium onion
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 1/4 cups chicken stock (or water)
Smoked fish (if desired)
1 small knob ginger, minced (about 1/2 teaspoon)
1 clove garlic, minced (about 1/2 a teaspoon)
Seasoning mix:
3/4 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp thyme
1 1/2 bouillon cubes (chicken or beef)
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 bay leaf
Dried chili pepper flakes, to taste
3/4 teaspoon salt
Additional salt, to taste
Directions:
- Optional first step: For a smokier taste, toss the tomato, bell pepper, and onion in a little bit of oil and roast in an oven at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes.
- Use a blender to puree the tomatoes, bell pepper, scotch bonnet, and half of the onion. Blend until smooth and set aside.
- Slice the remaining half of the onion.
- Wash the rice thoroughly with hot water and salt. Set aside.
- In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Sauté the onion until soft, for about two minutes.
- In the same pan, gently fry the tomato paste, ginger and garlic for about two minutes. Do not let it burn.
- Add the blended tomato and pepper mixture to the pan. Cook uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The mixture will thicken. Continue cooking until the acidity of the raw tomato has been cooked out of the sauce.
- Stir in the seasoning mix: curry powder, dry thyme, bouillon cubes, rosemary, fennel seeds, bay leaf, and chili pepper flakes.
- Add the washed rice to the pan, and mix thoroughly so the grains are coated with the sauce. Add chicken stock or water, if preferred. Bring to a boil.
- When the rice has been brought to a boil, reduce the heat to very low and cover the pot tightly. Cook for approximately 25 to 30 minutes.
- Avoid frequent stirring. If the rice becomes dry, add a few tablespoons of hot water or chicken stock to prevent it from burning.
- When the rice is cooked and the liquid is gone, turn off the heat and leave the pot covered for five minutes. Gently fluff the rice and serve.
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