Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has described Nigerian jollof as delicious after tasting the meal for the first time during his visit to Africa’s most populous country earlier this week.
The 32-year-old billionaire, however, revealed he had been cautioned by his close Nigerian friends not to compare Nigerian jollof to that of other countries.
The caution stems from the fact that there has been an ongoing debate between Nigerians and Ghanaians over which country’s jollof tastes better.
Sharing his cultural experience in the West African country at the Facebook Q&A with Coollink at Landmark Event Centre in Lagos, Zuckerberg said: “…We were sitting down together and I told them I want to have some Nigerian food so they showed me a tonne of food. Jollof rice and shrimps, delicious; and the pounded yam, my friend said: ‘You have to eat it with one hand,’ and I said: ‘Come on, I just got here; let me do it with two hands.’ So I reached for it, got a piece of meat, and, my God, it was awesome…”
Zuckerberg added: “I was told not to compare the jollof rice to that of neighbouring countries.”
The Facebook founder’s visit to Nigeria on Tuesday August 30 is his first to sub-Saharan Africa. His first stop was a local innovation centre and tech hub in Yaba, known as Nigeria’s Silicon Valley.
In a speech to explain the purpose of his visit, Zuckerberg said: “This is my first trip to sub-Saharan Africa. I’ll be meeting with developers and entrepreneurs, and learning about the start-up ecosystem in Nigeria. The energy here is amazing and I’m excited to learn as much as I can.”
Jollof rice is one of the most common dishes in Western Africa consumed in Senegal, The Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo, Cameroon, Mali and Ghana.
The dish consists of rice, tomatoes and tomato paste, onions, salt, spices such as nutmeg, ginger, Scotch bonnet and chili peppers. Optional ingredients can be added such as vegetables, meat or fish. Due to the tomato paste, the dish is always reddish.
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