Wait, Are Nigerian Dishes ‘Spicy’ or ‘Peppery’? Seriously Google?
Ever Wondered Where Nigerian Dishes Get Their ‘Spiciness’ From?
Look no further, the answer is pepper. Pepper is to most Nigerians what cheese is to the French. My Dad even puts pepper in his sandwich, go figure!
It is not until I left my country that I realized that what the Caucasian or Asian man considered as spicy was not what the typical Nigerian considered to be spicy.
Google says ‘spicy’ means flavored with or fragrant with spice and then lists ‘peppery’ as one of its synonyms. Dear whoever suggested that, ‘come to Nigeria, and eat peppery food and tell us if you still think they can be synonyms.’
Peppery is also rightly defined as strongly flavored with pepper, that I agree with.
All most all Nigerian foods are spicy (maggi, knorr, curry, thyme, ginger, garlic and many more could be used at once in one’s cooking) and most Nigerian foods can be peppery. Examples are pepper soup, ata dindin and suya.
But, which pepper exactly is peppery? Which pepper do most Nigerians use in their cooking?
What most Caucasians know as Pepper
What most Nigerians know as Pepper
Chilli peppers such as habanero and scotch bonnet are what brings about the hotness, the tingling in Nigerian foods (I now get G.I issues from eating too much pepper, never used to be a problem).
Pepper in Nigerian foods is somewhat of an acquired taste. It is not every Nigerian who likes pepper. Some of us grew up in homes where pepper in every dish was normal and certain regions and ethnic groups are known for their love for pepper.
The Yorubas are an example of pepper loving ethnic group. A Yoruba adage says, ‘A soul that doesn’t eat pepper is a powerless soul’. It has to be deep for you the have adages about it.
Anyway, what prodded me to write this article?
I saw peppers, this precious and vital Nigerian food component, precious pepper raining down from the 3rd floor of the neurology department at my university. Can you imagine? the plants are there and these people do not know what they are throwing away, how pained I was.
This article is written in loving memory of those peppers I saw on the floor,
An Ode to the Peppers
Although you may not live to your potential,
although others do not not know what you are,
just how precious you are
I do know, trust me I do
how I washed you,
how I blended you
and put you in my stew
I shall keep doing that to your brothers left behind
I hold you in high esteem
gone but never forgotten
It’s been a long week, don’t laugh at my half baked attempt at writing an ode or this article/rant.
Regardless, if you didn’t know before I hope you now do, that spice and pepper are not synonyms, they may be on paper, but not with Nigerian foods. Yes yes, go ahead and argue that pepper can be a spice.
Okay, that’s it. I’m off.
Originally published in September 2016. An Updated version of this article with an added guide to Nigerian peppers can be assessed here.
