Just the same way we can’t say no to a good plate of Jollof or Efo, it seems the rest of the world is now getting up to speed.
And discovering the greatness that is Nigerian food.
This assumption proves true as Nigerian cuisine ranks 13th on Chef’s Pencil Staff’s most popular cuisines on Instagram in 2021, with over three hundred thousand tags on the social media platform.
It is worthy of note that early in 2021, Food & Wine had announced that deeper dives into foods of African heritage would be one of 2021’s biggest trends and boy were they right.
Seeing a meteoric rise in the popularity of Nigerian foods on Instagram, it comes as no surprise that it ranks third as the fastest growing business for the year.
In fact, this saw a large flock of people of different races dining at African restaurants in the diaspora.
The Fufu Challenge
A worthy mention is the Fufu trend that took all of TikTok and other social media platforms by storm early last year.
The trend saw the staple dish of many Nigerian homes go viral as it was tried by many from L. A to El Paso, Texas and beyond.
The rise of the starchy dough’s popularity was accompanied by an increased popularity of Egusi; the flavourful delight Fufu is most often paired with.
The Fufu trend was started by content creator Joeneen Hull, who had opted to try the meal after watching many mukbangs of people dipping the dough into protein-rich sound and having a great time.
Determined to find out what the fuss was about, Hull drove 80 miles to her local African shop and ended up purchasing Fufu as well as Egusi and Okro, another Nigerian soup based on an employee’s recommendation.
Filming herself, taking the first bite of Fufu and Okro, she said to her camera, “Bomb — it is so worth it.” This video which gathered over 250million views, marked the start of a global challenge that was #fufuchallenge or #fufu, as many whites and Black Americans began trying the staple dish.
This earmarked the rise in popularity of other Nigerian food as users formed new trends, including Jollof rice puff puff, to mention a few.
