Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 18 noveMber 2019
Food bloggers bring Africa's rich cuisines to the world

By AMELIA NIERENBERG was extremely happy when
Associated Press the first comments I got on
NGAPAROU, Senegal (AP) YouTube were, 'Oh, this re-
— In the quiet hours before minds me of home.'"
lunch, two women worked To find authentic recipes
side by side in an airy kitch- and skilled chefs, Prah asks
en. One, a chef, cleaned everyone she meets in a
fresh red snapper filets with country - hosts, cab drivers,
a sharp knife. The other, shop keepers and strangers
a filmmaker, pointed her - about their favorite foods.
camera into a large pot of She met Sarr this way,
simmering vegetables. through friends of friends.
"What would you say this is, "I learned from my grand-
low heat or medium?" Tu- ma. I used to follow her
leka Prah asked, setting the everywhere," said Sarr,
camera aside. who wears her stiff white
Her pen poised over a chef's uniform every time
lime green notebook, the she cooks, even at home,
37-year-old Prah waited for because it makes her feel
the next step in the recipe more professional.
for thiebou dieune, a tra- "And our grandmas, they
ditional Senegalese dish think that taking time with
of spiced rice, tender veg- the food gives it more fla-
etables and fish. She came In this Nov. 14, 2019, photo, a platter of thiebou dieune, a traditional Senegalese dish of spiced vor. So I take time, too."
to this West African nation rice, is serve by Chef Touty Sarr, in Ngaparou, Senegal. She said she became a
to document its four most Associated Press chef after money ran out to
popular dishes as part of tal vault where people can versity and a specialist in you didn't have publishers pursue her dream of being
My African Food Map, a open the drawer, see reci- African environmental his- as gatekeepers that could a doctor.
blog and film archive. pes, see some ingredients." tory and cuisine. "It's an stop you from getting your "There are a lot of similari-
"Low heat," said 38-year- Born in England to a Gha- area of the world that has work out." ties between cooking and
old Touty Sarr, who runs the naian father and a South not been covered by the Unique among prominent medicine," she said, skin-
kitchen of a popular cafe African mother, she lived food craze." bloggers, Prah takes an ning onions.
in Dakar. She turned to her in six African countries dur- Other culinary historians, almost pan-African ap- "The feeling of being full af-
daughter, who was watch- ing her childhood including chefs, and foodies are proach. ter you have eaten is the
ing her cook. "This one, if Namibia, Kenya and what fighting such stereotypes. "I always feel like I am from same sensation as getting
you put it on high, it would is now South Sudan. Some, like author and pro- the whole continent," she better after being sick. It's
all get dry. That's one of the After finding no reliable fessor Jessica Harris, have said. something that gives me a
secrets." recipes online for Ghana- studied African and dias- "I can find myself in differ- lot of pride."
Senegal was Prah's fifth des- ian dishes — and no pho- pora cuisine, exploring the ent aspects of different She dropped garlic into siz-
tination since her project tos that made the beloved roots of foods taken far countries I visit." zling oil, then stepped back
began in 2012. She hopes food look appetizing — she from home by slavery. Oth- Her videos often have tens as Prah moved close to the
to show the care and skill started My African Food ers, like Fran Osseo-Asare of thousands of views, and pot to film. The two women
that goes into African dish- Map. and her Ghanaian-focused she dreams of doing her orbited each other, artists
es, such as South Africa's She celebrates the cuisines project Betumi, investigate project full-time like Antho- collaborating over the pot
fried dough amagwinya of a continent often marred the foods of a single coun- ny Bourdain did. She said burbling on the stove.
and Kenya's kachumbari, by negative stereotypes. try. she has had no luck find- Sarr said she cooks by smell,
an onion and tomato sal- "Africa is often associated "The internet was the de- ing sponsors but intends to by sound and by taste, but
ad. with poverty, with hunger, mocratization of African keep trying. Prah wrote her steps down
"The idea, at its most basic, with failures of food in a food writing," said Osseo- "The best outcome is when in order, recording a recipe
is to present the food how political and nutritional Asare, who said she has people say, 'That is our for others without the guid-
people who love it would sense," said James C. Mc- blogged about African food, that is our dish,'" she ance of grandmothers and
prepare it," Prah said. "It's Cann, chair of the history food since the 1980s. said, remembering her mothers at their side.
like a database or a digi- department at Boston Uni- "When the internet came, work in Kenya. After two hours of chopping
and pounding, scraping
and whipping, boiling and
simmering, Sarr spread red-
tinted rice across a platter
almost two feet wide.
She flattened it and care-
fully arranged the veg-
etables and fish in a circle
for a communal meal, with
some family members eat-
ing with spoons and others
with their hands.
Prah snapped a picture,
and then another, before
putting her camera aside
to try the dish.
In this Nov. 14, 2019, photo, Filmmaker Tuleka Prah, right, films In this Nov. 14, 2019, photo, filmmaker Tuleka Prah, the founder " I "It's really good," she said,
chef Touty Sarr , as she prepares a plate of thiebou dieune, a of My African Food Map, poses for a photograph in Ngaparou, her mouth full, smiling at
traditional Senegalese dish of spiced rice, inside a kitchen in Senegal.
Ngaparou, Senegal. Associated Press Sarr. "Really, really good."q