EX AFRICA SEMPER ALIQUID NOVI, except in food. From south of the Sahara, the continent has contributed astonishingly little — relative to its size — to other people’s cuisines. Yams have become naturalised in parts of the U.S., but “soul” food generally has no more to do with Africa than cajun cooking does with France or Tex-Mex with the Aztecs.
Okra’s diffusion owes more, I think, to mediators in Arabia and Persia than to the people among whom it originated. Ostrich made a brief flash in the frying-pan in fashion-conscious kitchens late in the last century but has disappeared from supermarket shelves.
Most of the dishes I’ve been tempted to try involve ingredients or techniques of foreign provenance: the curries of Cape Malays or East-African Asians, or the French- or Portuguese-inflected…
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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, December/January 2025