The sinister reason you’ll find this red-tinged rice dish familiar
The dish
Jollof rice, West Africa.
Plate up
Jollof rice, this time with goat meat.Credit: iStock
Here’s a dish you will find across the world, even if you don’t realise it. You’ve eaten jambalaya in the US? Or Charleston red rice? Maybe arroz rojo in Mexico? Or pretty much anything in the Bahia state of Brazil? Then you’ve eaten jollof rice, or at least the dishes influenced by jollof rice, and by the West Africans forcibly transported to those areas as slaves. Jollof rice in its original form, as you would suspect, is a rice dish, distinctive for the red colour that it gets from ingredients such as tomato paste and red capsicum. The rice is also cooked with oil, onions, garlic, ginger, curry powder, dried thyme and stock, and served with a variety of meats, though most commonly fish or chicken. The recipes vary across West Africa – but we’ll get to that in a second.
First serve
Jollof rice, with tomatoes and hot peppers.Credit: iStock
The commonly told history of jollof rice is that it originated in the 14th century in what was then the Jolof Empire, which spanned parts of what is now Senegal, the Gambia and Mauritania. Makes sense. Only, there’s a small problem, because many of the key ingredients – tomatoes, capsicums, curry powder, thyme, and even Asian rice varieties – weren’t cultivated or imported into West Africa until the 19th century. So, while Senegal is still seen as the birthplace of what would go on to become jollof rice, the dish has evolved separately in the likes of Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Cameroon.
Order there
If you find yourself in Lagos, Nigeria, then make your way to the ever-popular Yellow Chilli Restaurant, well known for its Nigerian-style jollof rice.
Order here
In both Sydney and Brisbane you can sample classic Nigerian jollof rice at Little Lagos. In Melbourne, try it at the African Calabash in Footscray.
One more thing
In 2021, UNESCO attempted to end the debate over the true origin of jollof rice when it placed Senegal’s ceebu jen, also called thieboudienne, on its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Ceebu jen is thought to be the original jollof rice, which totally settles it. Right?
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