Nigeria Content Online

NEXT’s comments
editors, clearly apprehensive about everyone getting along, deleted my
response to a comment by that infamously cheeky fellow in the comments
section of NEXT online news. The fellow owns the inscrutable
appellation of Truck Pusher.

He is sometimes
affectionately regarded, and sometimes reviled; an omnipresent
garrulous encyclopedia of a man or woman who very recently began to
claim that he is also an avid home cook who as a progressive monogamist
regularly and enthusiastically churns up meals for his current and
former wives. Last week he suggested that I use the Maggi version of
crayfish in my cooking of Ogbono soup. My deleted response:

“For the very last time Truck Pusher, I do not eat or cook with Maggi!”

The incidental
debate in the comments section was not actually about Maggi but about
Ogbono soup and what one was to put in it or exclude from it to make a
genuine Nigerian version of the soup. It was apparent from the debate
that many Nigerian cooks are “purists” when it comes to their choice of
soup ingredients: Crayfish is in; Maggi is in, Iru is in, pepper is in,
smoked fish is in; garlic is out, ginger is out, bay leaf is alien and
onions are strongly debated.

Those who argue
that Maggi is a classic Nigerian condiment are of course in a fashion
accurate. But the statement has many limitations. The stock cube
whether Maggi or Knorr or Royco can also be argued to be alien to the
Nigerian pot of soup. It can be argued to be alien to any pot of food.
The stock cube has no real resemblance to what it claims to represent.
It supposedly stands for the flavour of natural glutamates in meat,
chicken, crayfish, or vegetables, yet in form it is some vague powdery
substance held together by God knows what and preserved with some other
substances whose definition the layman is unsure of. Take for example
the stabilizer in the stock cube; what is a stabilizer anyway if it
isn’t that electronic device used for keeping NEPA sane.

Secondly in its
relationship to the mouth, the Maggi cube cannot be put on the tongue
on its own without causing some serious gagging. Without the addition
of water, its taste is pure acridity. It is basically inedible on its
own merit, so does it have a right to pretend that it is food or that
under any other label it is edible or an enhancer of taste?

It might be worthy
of mention that according to Maudlyn Park writing for Sahara Reporters
in her article “Shhhh! Maggi Cubes and big bubbly butts”, Congolese
women have found a novel use for the Maggi cube; have innovatively
discovered other parts of the body which will accept the Maggi cube
whole without cringing…Enough said

In its physical
similitude, its shape in no way or form follows nature’s shaping of
food. Real chicken stock made from a whole chicken in a generous pot of
water with herbs and spices and plain salt is renowned for being so
nourishing as to be considered medicinal. It is also an honest flavour
enhancer.

A stock or Maggi
cube on the other hand is convenience Umami, taste (questionable taste)
and nothing more. And for those who have found themselves reacting to
glutamates manipulated in laboratories, it can be a lot more in terms
of hazards to their health.

If from a table of
possible ingredients, the Nigerian picks out the bay leaf or garlic or
ginger or onion as the odd person, that choice needs to be strongly
questioned. At the least it is a superficial choice because many stock
cubes will profess to contain some form of onion or bay leaf anyway.
How can one, with any integrity snub ginger and garlic grown in Nigeria
with reassuring dirt still clinging to it at the point of purchase, and
choose in its stead, a stock cube!

Any Nigerian who
votes for the Maggi cube as the quintessential traditional Nigerian
condiment might be some class of purist, but he is the very worst kind.

I like the type of
Nigerian purist who swears by smelly Ogiri and Dadawa, fishy crayfish
and good plain homemade meat stock. In my opinion, that is the purist
worth his salt!

By the way,
Michelin star and celebrity chefs are known for their snobbery of stock
cubes; there is an unwritten code of conduct in which cooking with
stock cubes is considered unprofessional and dishonest. In that code of
conduct, in order to qualify even as a good home cook, one must be able
to make basic stock from scratch. I suppose all these reservations
don’t really apply to us Nigerians.

The conclusive point I suppose will still boil down to taste, since
a lot of eating is not about what is morally upright or even nutritious
but about what appeals to the taste buds. I believe that even by this
parameter…even where there is the comparison in taste between a pot
of Jollof rice cooked with Maggi, or a pot of Jollof rice cooked with
fresh homemade beef or chicken stock, there is no question that Jollof
rice cooked with wet, fresh, designer stock made up of chicken, ginger,
garlic, bay leaves, honey, hot pepper and salt wins and will always win
hands down!