March 7, 2025 • 27 mins
This one-pot main dish is a comfort food in all its many iterations. Anney and Lauren dig into the history, cultures, and (mostly) good-natured wars behind jollof rice.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Save your Predictive iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie Res and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have an episode for you about Jela Frice. Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Was there any particular reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yes, a couple months. The reason that my answer has
been yes more often lately is that, like a month
or so ago, I went through and like marked some
tent pole date kind of things like holidays that we're
coming up and stuff. So yes, Annie, so we're so
We're in the month of Ramadan right now. This year,
(00:41):
it started the evening of Friday, February twenty eighth and
is running through March twenty ninth. In Islamic cultures and practices,
this is a time of reflection and connection and compassion,
both inward and outward, and part of that is a
daily fast from sun up to sundown. Is not part
of my family cultural traditions. I'm not very familiar with it,
(01:03):
but from what I understand and hopefully pronouncing everything correctly
coordinated around that fast, there are all kinds of different
traditions for the pre dawn meal or soukker and the
post sunset meal if tar. Both can be daily celebrations
of family and community for the entire month, and everyone
has their own foods and dishes and drinks that reflect that. Basically,
(01:29):
I picked jola rice because we had already done an
episode on dates, which are a very traditional fast breaking food,
and jolifrice had been on my list like forever, and
I saw it on a lot of Iftar menu ideas
because it is like a celebrated dish that is iterated
through a lot of cultures that observe Ramadan and beyond. Though,
(01:50):
if you are observing Ramadan right now, we wish you
a blessed one.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yes, yes, I don't think I've ever had jelafries, but
I looked it up. I found some places that make it,
and I have some I've had something similar close, but
never the real, the quote real thing.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, I don't think I have either, And unfortunately I
think that at this point, knowing what I shouldn't really eat,
it's not a great idea for me to eat it
from most cultural traditions. Boiled again by my own guts.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Guts have it out for you, Lauren. They do they do?
What do I ever do to them? A lot of things,
To be honest, yeah, let's not tell too deep into that. Well,
kind of speaking of you can see our episodes on
Hop and John. Have we done Jambaia?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, we did an episode on it before we even
went to ne Orleans, and then I think walked a
little bit of it back through some of our interviews
and episodes from that trip.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
But we we mostly we did.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Our second episode from the New Orleans series was about
gumbo and it touches a little bit on Jumbalaya.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
But here we are, here, we are speaking of walking
things back. The rain breaking rice episode. I don't know
that I've ever come so close to I'm still sorry,
melting Toad.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
That's all right. We've learned. We've learned since then. Also tomatoes, onions,
chili peppers, payea, zoto, biryanni. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I guess this spring says to our question, Oh
yeah it does. Mm hmm. Jella frice, what is it?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Well, jellifrice can be made in a lot of way,
but what you're basically looking at is a one pot
main dish composed of rice that's cooked in a tomato
based sauce so that the grains are tender, but separate
and just infused with whatever blend of warm and aromatic
seasonings you're working with, and furthermore studded with chunks of
(04:19):
whatever proteins and or vegetables you're using. It's the kind
of thing that where it's popular, like every region and
family has their own recipe and preferences, but frequent ingredients
include sweet and or hot peppers, usually purad, some garlic
and onion, ginger, bay leaves, and some kind of stock.
(04:42):
So it's just savory all the way down, like layers
of umami, at least a little bit spicy and rich
without being too heavy. It's the kind of thing that
just fills you up, like from the scent to your
actual stomach, to preparing it for love ones or like
knowing that it was prepared with love. Because it is
(05:03):
a tiny bit fuzzy to make. It's often served in
celebratory settings alongside other proteins or vegetable side dishes. It's like,
again without having had it, what I from what I understand,
it is like that moment that you sink into a
warm bath and you're like, oh, yeah, maybe maybe everything's
(05:26):
going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
M yeah, goodness. It sounds so delicious.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It was so mad that I wasn't eating it this
entire day.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Oh m hm. Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
There are a lot of capital o opinions about how
this dish should come together, especially around West Africa where
the dish is from and the diaspora. As always, we
are not here to litigate that hand up in the
defensive position, backing away slowly from the argument. But like, okay,
(06:05):
tomatoes and or tomato paste and alions like onions and
garlics seem pretty undeniable as part of the recipes. After that,
let's start with the rice. Is it a long grain rice,
maybe an aromatic one like buzzmadi or jasmine. Do you
parboil that rice? Or is it a type of short
grain rice? Is it broken rice? I don't know. I
(06:26):
can't tell you. The oil that you cook everything in.
Is it a neutral oil or maybe butter or a
red palm oil? Side note here, I know that palm
oil as a category is vilified in the United States,
and that's kind of rightly so, as we generally encounter
it here as this industrially produced ingredient that has not
(06:47):
been sustainably harvested and is often used for a place
more like flavorful or expensive fats in various goods more
carefully produced. Red palm oil is a traditional cooking oil
in Many West African quiz and it also gives foods
a red orange tint, which is thematic here. Yeah, yeah, okay. Peppers?
(07:09):
Do you use fresh blended sweet peppers and or hot
chilies like scotch bonnets? Maybe some sweet or smoky paprika,
none of the above. Other seasonings you know, salt and pepper,
perhaps obviously, but beyond that white pepper, fresh ginger, bay leaves, thyme,
curry powder, nutmeg. Do you add plain water or stock
(07:31):
of some kind? Are you using buoyon for your stock?
If you are, do you have a preferred brand? Maybe
some dried fish or dried shrimp is part of the
seasoning you're mixins vegetables like carrots, eggplant, green beans, cabbage, okra, cassava,
sweet potato, proteins like beans, beef, chicken, goat, fish, shrimp,
(07:54):
smoked snails.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
That sounds so good. Yes, there are iterations.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Where you cook it over a wood fire to get
some smoke flavor in there. There are iterations where you're
looking to let a crispy crust of rice form up
on the bottom of the pan, which is one of
my favorite things on the whole planet.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Me too.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Maybe you garnish it with some fresh tomato slices or
herbs or hard boiled eggs.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah, yeah, definitely, And.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
It can be served alongside maybe a little bit of
grilled protein of whatever kind, like fried sweet plantains, maybe
some coalsla or some salad. It is very common at
parties and other gatherings large and small. You know, it's
a comfort food and like a secret family recipe and
a source of local pride. Like other complex rice puloffs
(08:52):
that we've talked about, like layering the flavors and getting
everything to cook properly together takes some art and science,
you know, like it shouldn't be particularly saucy or sticky,
but you want everything to be well incorporated. So there
are a lot of recipes.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Online, Oh my goodness, there are which Speaking of what
about the nutrition, it depends on how you make it.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Generally a decent punch of protein and carbohydrates, a decent
punch of fats in there, Drink water. That's basically it.
You know that this is the kind of thing that
helps fill you up and keep you going maybe get
an extra vegetable.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, yeah, vegetables, water, look out for yourself, you.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Know, yeah yeah, helps make you feel good.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yes, that is true. Well, we have the number for you.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I tried the so I've got one ish numbers for you.
So the website for this is down as of the
current moment. But there has been a touring festival in
the United States for the past couple of years, at
least for Jalla Frice called the Jalla Festival. And in
each city they have different chefs representing different regional styles
(10:22):
to compete for crowd favorite. And I love this idea,
and everyone else loves this idea because it does get
very competitive. Yes, they visited seven cities, I believe in
twenty twenty four. Dates for twenty twenty five, they say,
(10:42):
are to be determined.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Well, listeners, first of all, if you have attended, oh yeah,
you read it.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah yeah, oh there is no There was one in
Atlanta last year, and so if it's coming back, I'm like,
let's make this happen.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
We must, we must make that happen.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I will stand by hungrily while you tell me about everyone.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
I'll be terrible about it too. I'll be like Wow, Lauren,
you're missing out.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And I can't tell you why.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
It's gonna be it's so good. But that competitiveness has
a long history and it's still thriving today.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, most mostly mostly joyous uh competitiveness.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
But yes, we will.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
We will get into that history as soon as we
get back from a quick break for a word from.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you, sponsors, Yes, thank you, okay,
so yes. As always with dishes like these, a lot
of countries and cultures claimed to have been the first
(12:03):
to invent it. Oh, most of the top search results
I got when I was typing in history of jallaf Rice,
we're basically who did it first? So it's very contentious.
A lot of it, as mentioned, is very good natured arguing.
Some of it is less. So it is frequently referred
(12:27):
to in publications as the Jalloff Wars because we have
to amplify everything, I guess. On top of that, this
dish has gone by a handful of different names and
still does, which complicates things too. And on top of that,
a lot of West African history, which is where this
dish comes from, was passed down orally or erased, so
(12:51):
history is a bit difficult to track down, but here
we go. Let's break down the history of some of
the key ingredients rice in West Africa, which is where yes,
most people think the dish originated. African rice is one
of the oldest varieties of rice in the world and
most likely originated in modern day Nigeria and made its
(13:14):
way through Africa after that. Rice growers selected for certain
traits over hundreds of years, and as we've mentioned in Slavers,
in US states like Georgia and South Carolina specifically sought
out this expertise and rice, and some think that some
southern dishes like copp and John may have been influenced
(13:36):
by Jolla rice. Okay, tomatoes and peppers were probably introduced
to Africa in the fifteen hundreds with trade and or colonization.
Since they are not native to the continent. Due to
the location in various ports, West Africa likely was introduced
to these products earlier than other parts of Africa. These
(13:58):
ingredients were then incorporated to some of the dishes of
the region, which brings us to jollafrice. Historians suspect that
the dish most likely originated in Sinegambia, a region that
encompasses modern day Senegal and Gambia, sometime during the twelve
hundreds to sixteen hundreds seventeen hundreds at the latest. The
(14:22):
timeline is very in flux. It's a little whibbly wobbly. Yeah,
it's very whibbley wobbly. The original dish that led to
jellifrice in all its iterations was a spiced fish dish
with rice stuffing and vegetables called sebou gin. Like most jellafrice,
the rice of this dish has a red hue thanks
(14:45):
to the tomatoes or several popular versions of it do.
Not all of them do, and possibly in the early days,
those versions didn't even have tomatoes to give it that hue,
since again, tomatoes are not indigenous to Africa.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
M yep, red palm oil may have contributed color to
the dish before tomatoes were popularized, though.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yes, okay. Another part of the reason people think that
joliff rice is from this region is because of the name,
which most likely is Senegaluese in origin from the Wolf
or Joloff Empire, and this empire specialized in rice farming.
(15:30):
The theory goes that the Wolf people created cebu Gin
and then other nomadic people shared it throughout West Africa,
calling it Woloff for jolof etymology, mysteries history. But the
Wolf people were able to grow their own tomatoes by
the fifteen hundred, so it could be. There is a
(15:53):
legend around a woman chef named Pinda Imbaia located in
Saint Louis, Senegal during French colonial rule. Allegedly she was
making a one pot dish that called for barley, but
she had run out of barley, so she used rice instead,
So there you go, jellifrice. However, there isn't really anything
(16:13):
to back that up. Whatever the case, the dish took
on so many different forms and variations based on ingredients, taste, histories,
and colonial influences. Seriously, there are so many recipes, and
each of those recipes has their own history in the
(16:35):
same countries. Even there are so many recipes, many of
them come with traditions of making it communally too, and
you can really you can look up a lot of
articles and read about that. It's really interesting and just
because you know, we always have to have one in
episodes like this. In twenty fourteen, UK chef Jamie Oliver
(16:59):
called controversy with his jallaff rice recipe. It included things
like lemon and parsley, and it led to the hashtag
jolliff Gate.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Oh my, I never realized before we did this show
how hilariously controversial Jamie Oliver has gone over the course
of his career. It feels like he put he sticks
his foot in it like like once every three days.
Like it seems seems like it's a lot. I'm like, buddy,
(17:36):
what's going on?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
He's come up in several episodes. Uh, for sure, for sure.
Well you can read all about that in the way
that a lot of African countries came together over Yes.
Sinegal's version of Jelliff rice was on UNESCO's twenty twenty
(18:00):
one Intangible Heritage of Humanity list, and.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
In twenty twenty three, West African cuisine in general was
the top trending cuisine according to Open Table. They said
that interest in restaurants serving this kind of broad category
of cuisines grew seventy two percent year over year.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, and I believe that's around the world, not just
in the US.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I could certainly go for it, I would say, right now,
all of.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
The pictures looked so good. Fried plantains are one of
my favorite foods on the whole planet. Yes, I yeah,
I love it. I love it when we do an
episode about something that I'm pretty sure I've never consumed
and I have the worst, really the worst craving for it.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yes, that is that is our price as food podcasts. Well, listeners,
let us know if you have any experiences with it
or recipes.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah, yeah, if you are observing Ramadan, let us know.
If you have any family or personal traditions around your
pre dawn or fast breaking meals.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yes, please let us know. But for now, I think
that's what we have to say about Jolla Forrice it is.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
We do already have some listener mail for you, though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
as we get back from one more quick break for
a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And
we're back with the snun.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Oh. I was so out of tune on that one.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
I'm sorry, tune. I like that tune is a question.
It was just supposed to be a lovely, nice like
when you have that rice dish it's so good.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
It felt kind of like the fluttering of heat waves
and scent waves coming off the top of it. Mm
hmm yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
That excitement before you take your first bite. All right,
so Christine wrote. She sent us a follow up because
we just recently read an email Christine sent about Abaloney
in Australia, and Christine came back in with a follow
(20:51):
up about tourism and love it. Yeah, okay, so Christine wrote.
I said in my last email I would let you
know about Abaloni farms if I find any. The Abalony
farms I was able to find are on the far
south coast of Australia, which takes a bit of planning
to get to. However, I found something even better. A
(21:13):
few hours drive from me is the seaside town of Eden,
where there is a tourism company that will take people
out to forge their own seafood, including abalone. Then they
show you how to best cook it. And along the
way is a cheesemaker that makes lactose free Canon beer,
and a bunch of food producing regions and food festivals.
(21:35):
I see a road trip in my future. I am
so jealous of your road trips. All of that sounds
so cool. You have to keep us updated about this yes,
all of this, Yes, so good. Oh my gosh, catching
your own abalone and how to cook it cheese. No,
(22:00):
you must go, you must go and report back. Yes,
please please, You're our only hope. Yeah, you are.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
H Anne wrote, I've been listening to your back catalog
lately and just listened to the one about kool Aid.
It's not really food related, but when you mentioned the
man who hired the kool Aid voice to come to
his kid's party, I knew I had to share the story.
I sent in a video a year or two ago
of my daughter going feral on a bowl of rice
with soy sauce and Benito flakes. She has sadly become
(22:34):
more picky, but is still fun in other ways. For example,
she loves Bigfoot. She is obsessed with him for some
reason and has a stuffed Bigfoot, a pillow with a
pictured Bigfoot on it, Bigfoot books, etc. My brother, her uncle,
is her absolute favorite person, and he heard her asking
if we could invite Bigfoot to Christmas and decided that
(22:56):
he would make it happen for her birthday in January.
He found a Bigfoot costume online and called in a
favor with a tall and apparently extremely cool friend, and
the plan was set. My daughter wanted him to come
to her birthday party, but my husband and I wisely
decided maybe Bigfoot should just come to our house. Good thing,
(23:17):
because in person that costume was utterly terrifying. She took
about twenty minutes to warm up to him, but then
he coughed, so she pulled out her doctor kit and
gave him a full checkup and medicine. This was in
January of twenty twenty four. She occasionally mentions Bigfoot's visit
these days and still loves her memorabilia, but hasn't asked
(23:37):
for him to visit again.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Never meet your heroes. That's so great. That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I am so proud of y'all, like for making this happen.
And also that is exactly the kind of fruits of
your labor. I feel like it as a dedicated goofball
adult you usually get You're like, what all.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
This didn't go quite as play? It's so excellent. Oh no,
I love this. I love this. That the fascination with Bigfoot,
the Bigfoot memorabilia, we need that Christmas. Yeah, and then
(24:27):
the costume. You've got to imagine. It was scary.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Oh yeah, I mean I find most like fully cost
like like like fully covered mascot costumes a little creepy
to begin with, and you don't know what's going on
behind their eyes, you know anyway, And yeah, just a
particularly tall one, and it's yeah, like I'm picturing knockoff
(24:51):
wookie and wookies.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Are already a little bit creepy, so that'sh picturing too. Yeah. Also,
I love how you're that your daughter was like, let
me give you a checkup.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
So yeah, no, that's you know, her buddy. She you know,
at first she was reticent, but her buddy was sick
and she needed to help him out. Yeah, that's really sweet.
It's very lovely. That's going to be a memory that
comes back. Oh yeah, she gets older for weird core
memory for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
And if if you're if you're unaware, there is a
Bigfoot history museum here in the state of Georgia that
I'm pretty sure the curator of the museum takes seriously.
You can look up many photos our buddies over at
stuff they don't want you to know. Have taken a
(25:49):
trip there.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yes, I've passed it many times. I've never gone in,
but if you're interested in allowing your daughter showing your
daughter some more Bigfoot information. It does exist. It's interesting.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Sure, interesting is a great word for it.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, yes, yes, and I do love this. I love
how kids get these. Oh yeah, very specific, pretty niche.
This is what I'm into. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, it's
really fun. Well, thank you to both of those listeners
(26:35):
to writing in. If you would like to write to us,
you can our emails hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Blue Sky and Instagram at saber pod, and we do
hope to hear from you. Sare is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks us always to our superproducers Dylan
Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
we hope that lots of more things are coming your
(27:00):
way
Hello, and welcome to Save your Predictive iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie Res and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have an episode for you about Jela Frice. Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Was there any particular reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yes, a couple months. The reason that my answer has
been yes more often lately is that, like a month
or so ago, I went through and like marked some
tent pole date kind of things like holidays that we're
coming up and stuff. So yes, Annie, so we're so
We're in the month of Ramadan right now. This year,
(00:41):
it started the evening of Friday, February twenty eighth and
is running through March twenty ninth. In Islamic cultures and practices,
this is a time of reflection and connection and compassion,
both inward and outward, and part of that is a
daily fast from sun up to sundown. Is not part
of my family cultural traditions. I'm not very familiar with it,
(01:03):
but from what I understand and hopefully pronouncing everything correctly
coordinated around that fast, there are all kinds of different
traditions for the pre dawn meal or soukker and the
post sunset meal if tar. Both can be daily celebrations
of family and community for the entire month, and everyone
has their own foods and dishes and drinks that reflect that. Basically,
(01:29):
I picked jola rice because we had already done an
episode on dates, which are a very traditional fast breaking food,
and jolifrice had been on my list like forever, and
I saw it on a lot of Iftar menu ideas
because it is like a celebrated dish that is iterated
through a lot of cultures that observe Ramadan and beyond. Though,
(01:50):
if you are observing Ramadan right now, we wish you
a blessed one.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yes, yes, I don't think I've ever had jelafries, but
I looked it up. I found some places that make it,
and I have some I've had something similar close, but
never the real, the quote real thing.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, I don't think I have either, And unfortunately I
think that at this point, knowing what I shouldn't really eat,
it's not a great idea for me to eat it
from most cultural traditions. Boiled again by my own guts.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Guts have it out for you, Lauren. They do they do?
What do I ever do to them? A lot of things,
To be honest, yeah, let's not tell too deep into that. Well,
kind of speaking of you can see our episodes on
Hop and John. Have we done Jambaia?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, we did an episode on it before we even
went to ne Orleans, and then I think walked a
little bit of it back through some of our interviews
and episodes from that trip.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
But we we mostly we did.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Our second episode from the New Orleans series was about
gumbo and it touches a little bit on Jumbalaya.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
But here we are, here, we are speaking of walking
things back. The rain breaking rice episode. I don't know
that I've ever come so close to I'm still sorry,
melting Toad.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
That's all right. We've learned. We've learned since then. Also tomatoes, onions,
chili peppers, payea, zoto, biryanni. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I guess this spring says to our question, Oh
yeah it does. Mm hmm. Jella frice, what is it?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Well, jellifrice can be made in a lot of way,
but what you're basically looking at is a one pot
main dish composed of rice that's cooked in a tomato
based sauce so that the grains are tender, but separate
and just infused with whatever blend of warm and aromatic
seasonings you're working with, and furthermore studded with chunks of
(04:19):
whatever proteins and or vegetables you're using. It's the kind
of thing that where it's popular, like every region and
family has their own recipe and preferences, but frequent ingredients
include sweet and or hot peppers, usually purad, some garlic
and onion, ginger, bay leaves, and some kind of stock.
(04:42):
So it's just savory all the way down, like layers
of umami, at least a little bit spicy and rich
without being too heavy. It's the kind of thing that
just fills you up, like from the scent to your
actual stomach, to preparing it for love ones or like
knowing that it was prepared with love. Because it is
(05:03):
a tiny bit fuzzy to make. It's often served in
celebratory settings alongside other proteins or vegetable side dishes. It's like,
again without having had it, what I from what I understand,
it is like that moment that you sink into a
warm bath and you're like, oh, yeah, maybe maybe everything's
(05:26):
going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
M yeah, goodness. It sounds so delicious.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It was so mad that I wasn't eating it this
entire day.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Oh m hm. Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
There are a lot of capital o opinions about how
this dish should come together, especially around West Africa where
the dish is from and the diaspora. As always, we
are not here to litigate that hand up in the
defensive position, backing away slowly from the argument. But like, okay,
(06:05):
tomatoes and or tomato paste and alions like onions and
garlics seem pretty undeniable as part of the recipes. After that,
let's start with the rice. Is it a long grain rice,
maybe an aromatic one like buzzmadi or jasmine. Do you
parboil that rice? Or is it a type of short
grain rice? Is it broken rice? I don't know. I
(06:26):
can't tell you. The oil that you cook everything in.
Is it a neutral oil or maybe butter or a
red palm oil? Side note here, I know that palm
oil as a category is vilified in the United States,
and that's kind of rightly so, as we generally encounter
it here as this industrially produced ingredient that has not
(06:47):
been sustainably harvested and is often used for a place
more like flavorful or expensive fats in various goods more
carefully produced. Red palm oil is a traditional cooking oil
in Many West African quiz and it also gives foods
a red orange tint, which is thematic here. Yeah, yeah, okay. Peppers?
(07:09):
Do you use fresh blended sweet peppers and or hot
chilies like scotch bonnets? Maybe some sweet or smoky paprika,
none of the above. Other seasonings you know, salt and pepper,
perhaps obviously, but beyond that white pepper, fresh ginger, bay leaves, thyme,
curry powder, nutmeg. Do you add plain water or stock
(07:31):
of some kind? Are you using buoyon for your stock?
If you are, do you have a preferred brand? Maybe
some dried fish or dried shrimp is part of the
seasoning you're mixins vegetables like carrots, eggplant, green beans, cabbage, okra, cassava,
sweet potato, proteins like beans, beef, chicken, goat, fish, shrimp,
(07:54):
smoked snails.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
That sounds so good. Yes, there are iterations.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Where you cook it over a wood fire to get
some smoke flavor in there. There are iterations where you're
looking to let a crispy crust of rice form up
on the bottom of the pan, which is one of
my favorite things on the whole planet.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Me too.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Maybe you garnish it with some fresh tomato slices or
herbs or hard boiled eggs.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah, yeah, definitely, And.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
It can be served alongside maybe a little bit of
grilled protein of whatever kind, like fried sweet plantains, maybe
some coalsla or some salad. It is very common at
parties and other gatherings large and small. You know, it's
a comfort food and like a secret family recipe and
a source of local pride. Like other complex rice puloffs
(08:52):
that we've talked about, like layering the flavors and getting
everything to cook properly together takes some art and science,
you know, like it shouldn't be particularly saucy or sticky,
but you want everything to be well incorporated. So there
are a lot of recipes.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Online, Oh my goodness, there are which Speaking of what
about the nutrition, it depends on how you make it.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Generally a decent punch of protein and carbohydrates, a decent
punch of fats in there, Drink water. That's basically it.
You know that this is the kind of thing that
helps fill you up and keep you going maybe get
an extra vegetable.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, yeah, vegetables, water, look out for yourself, you.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Know, yeah yeah, helps make you feel good.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yes, that is true. Well, we have the number for you.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I tried the so I've got one ish numbers for you.
So the website for this is down as of the
current moment. But there has been a touring festival in
the United States for the past couple of years, at
least for Jalla Frice called the Jalla Festival. And in
each city they have different chefs representing different regional styles
(10:22):
to compete for crowd favorite. And I love this idea,
and everyone else loves this idea because it does get
very competitive. Yes, they visited seven cities, I believe in
twenty twenty four. Dates for twenty twenty five, they say,
(10:42):
are to be determined.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Well, listeners, first of all, if you have attended, oh yeah,
you read it.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah yeah, oh there is no There was one in
Atlanta last year, and so if it's coming back, I'm like,
let's make this happen.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
We must, we must make that happen.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I will stand by hungrily while you tell me about everyone.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
I'll be terrible about it too. I'll be like Wow, Lauren,
you're missing out.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And I can't tell you why.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
It's gonna be it's so good. But that competitiveness has
a long history and it's still thriving today.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, most mostly mostly joyous uh competitiveness.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
But yes, we will.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
We will get into that history as soon as we
get back from a quick break for a word from.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you, sponsors, Yes, thank you, okay,
so yes. As always with dishes like these, a lot
of countries and cultures claimed to have been the first
(12:03):
to invent it. Oh, most of the top search results
I got when I was typing in history of jallaf Rice,
we're basically who did it first? So it's very contentious.
A lot of it, as mentioned, is very good natured arguing.
Some of it is less. So it is frequently referred
(12:27):
to in publications as the Jalloff Wars because we have
to amplify everything, I guess. On top of that, this
dish has gone by a handful of different names and
still does, which complicates things too. And on top of that,
a lot of West African history, which is where this
dish comes from, was passed down orally or erased, so
(12:51):
history is a bit difficult to track down, but here
we go. Let's break down the history of some of
the key ingredients rice in West Africa, which is where yes,
most people think the dish originated. African rice is one
of the oldest varieties of rice in the world and
most likely originated in modern day Nigeria and made its
(13:14):
way through Africa after that. Rice growers selected for certain
traits over hundreds of years, and as we've mentioned in Slavers,
in US states like Georgia and South Carolina specifically sought
out this expertise and rice, and some think that some
southern dishes like copp and John may have been influenced
(13:36):
by Jolla rice. Okay, tomatoes and peppers were probably introduced
to Africa in the fifteen hundreds with trade and or colonization.
Since they are not native to the continent. Due to
the location in various ports, West Africa likely was introduced
to these products earlier than other parts of Africa. These
(13:58):
ingredients were then incorporated to some of the dishes of
the region, which brings us to jollafrice. Historians suspect that
the dish most likely originated in Sinegambia, a region that
encompasses modern day Senegal and Gambia, sometime during the twelve
hundreds to sixteen hundreds seventeen hundreds at the latest. The
(14:22):
timeline is very in flux. It's a little whibbly wobbly. Yeah,
it's very whibbley wobbly. The original dish that led to
jellifrice in all its iterations was a spiced fish dish
with rice stuffing and vegetables called sebou gin. Like most jellafrice,
the rice of this dish has a red hue thanks
(14:45):
to the tomatoes or several popular versions of it do.
Not all of them do, and possibly in the early days,
those versions didn't even have tomatoes to give it that hue,
since again, tomatoes are not indigenous to Africa.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
M yep, red palm oil may have contributed color to
the dish before tomatoes were popularized, though.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yes, okay. Another part of the reason people think that
joliff rice is from this region is because of the name,
which most likely is Senegaluese in origin from the Wolf
or Joloff Empire, and this empire specialized in rice farming.
(15:30):
The theory goes that the Wolf people created cebu Gin
and then other nomadic people shared it throughout West Africa,
calling it Woloff for jolof etymology, mysteries history. But the
Wolf people were able to grow their own tomatoes by
the fifteen hundred, so it could be. There is a
(15:53):
legend around a woman chef named Pinda Imbaia located in
Saint Louis, Senegal during French colonial rule. Allegedly she was
making a one pot dish that called for barley, but
she had run out of barley, so she used rice instead,
So there you go, jellifrice. However, there isn't really anything
(16:13):
to back that up. Whatever the case, the dish took
on so many different forms and variations based on ingredients, taste, histories,
and colonial influences. Seriously, there are so many recipes, and
each of those recipes has their own history in the
(16:35):
same countries. Even there are so many recipes, many of
them come with traditions of making it communally too, and
you can really you can look up a lot of
articles and read about that. It's really interesting and just
because you know, we always have to have one in
episodes like this. In twenty fourteen, UK chef Jamie Oliver
(16:59):
called controversy with his jallaff rice recipe. It included things
like lemon and parsley, and it led to the hashtag
jolliff Gate.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Oh my, I never realized before we did this show
how hilariously controversial Jamie Oliver has gone over the course
of his career. It feels like he put he sticks
his foot in it like like once every three days.
Like it seems seems like it's a lot. I'm like, buddy,
(17:36):
what's going on?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
He's come up in several episodes. Uh, for sure, for sure.
Well you can read all about that in the way
that a lot of African countries came together over Yes.
Sinegal's version of Jelliff rice was on UNESCO's twenty twenty
(18:00):
one Intangible Heritage of Humanity list, and.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
In twenty twenty three, West African cuisine in general was
the top trending cuisine according to Open Table. They said
that interest in restaurants serving this kind of broad category
of cuisines grew seventy two percent year over year.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, and I believe that's around the world, not just
in the US.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I could certainly go for it, I would say, right now,
all of.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
The pictures looked so good. Fried plantains are one of
my favorite foods on the whole planet. Yes, I yeah,
I love it. I love it when we do an
episode about something that I'm pretty sure I've never consumed
and I have the worst, really the worst craving for it.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yes, that is that is our price as food podcasts. Well, listeners,
let us know if you have any experiences with it
or recipes.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah, yeah, if you are observing Ramadan, let us know.
If you have any family or personal traditions around your
pre dawn or fast breaking meals.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yes, please let us know. But for now, I think
that's what we have to say about Jolla Forrice it is.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
We do already have some listener mail for you, though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
as we get back from one more quick break for
a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And
we're back with the snun.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Oh. I was so out of tune on that one.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
I'm sorry, tune. I like that tune is a question.
It was just supposed to be a lovely, nice like
when you have that rice dish it's so good.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
It felt kind of like the fluttering of heat waves
and scent waves coming off the top of it. Mm
hmm yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
That excitement before you take your first bite. All right,
so Christine wrote. She sent us a follow up because
we just recently read an email Christine sent about Abaloney
in Australia, and Christine came back in with a follow
(20:51):
up about tourism and love it. Yeah, okay, so Christine wrote.
I said in my last email I would let you
know about Abaloni farms if I find any. The Abalony
farms I was able to find are on the far
south coast of Australia, which takes a bit of planning
to get to. However, I found something even better. A
(21:13):
few hours drive from me is the seaside town of Eden,
where there is a tourism company that will take people
out to forge their own seafood, including abalone. Then they
show you how to best cook it. And along the
way is a cheesemaker that makes lactose free Canon beer,
and a bunch of food producing regions and food festivals.
(21:35):
I see a road trip in my future. I am
so jealous of your road trips. All of that sounds
so cool. You have to keep us updated about this yes,
all of this, Yes, so good. Oh my gosh, catching
your own abalone and how to cook it cheese. No,
(22:00):
you must go, you must go and report back. Yes,
please please, You're our only hope. Yeah, you are.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
H Anne wrote, I've been listening to your back catalog
lately and just listened to the one about kool Aid.
It's not really food related, but when you mentioned the
man who hired the kool Aid voice to come to
his kid's party, I knew I had to share the story.
I sent in a video a year or two ago
of my daughter going feral on a bowl of rice
with soy sauce and Benito flakes. She has sadly become
(22:34):
more picky, but is still fun in other ways. For example,
she loves Bigfoot. She is obsessed with him for some
reason and has a stuffed Bigfoot, a pillow with a
pictured Bigfoot on it, Bigfoot books, etc. My brother, her uncle,
is her absolute favorite person, and he heard her asking
if we could invite Bigfoot to Christmas and decided that
(22:56):
he would make it happen for her birthday in January.
He found a Bigfoot costume online and called in a
favor with a tall and apparently extremely cool friend, and
the plan was set. My daughter wanted him to come
to her birthday party, but my husband and I wisely
decided maybe Bigfoot should just come to our house. Good thing,
(23:17):
because in person that costume was utterly terrifying. She took
about twenty minutes to warm up to him, but then
he coughed, so she pulled out her doctor kit and
gave him a full checkup and medicine. This was in
January of twenty twenty four. She occasionally mentions Bigfoot's visit
these days and still loves her memorabilia, but hasn't asked
(23:37):
for him to visit again.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Never meet your heroes. That's so great. That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I am so proud of y'all, like for making this happen.
And also that is exactly the kind of fruits of
your labor. I feel like it as a dedicated goofball
adult you usually get You're like, what all.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
This didn't go quite as play? It's so excellent. Oh no,
I love this. I love this. That the fascination with Bigfoot,
the Bigfoot memorabilia, we need that Christmas. Yeah, and then
(24:27):
the costume. You've got to imagine. It was scary.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Oh yeah, I mean I find most like fully cost
like like like fully covered mascot costumes a little creepy
to begin with, and you don't know what's going on
behind their eyes, you know anyway, And yeah, just a
particularly tall one, and it's yeah, like I'm picturing knockoff
(24:51):
wookie and wookies.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Are already a little bit creepy, so that'sh picturing too. Yeah. Also,
I love how you're that your daughter was like, let
me give you a checkup.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
So yeah, no, that's you know, her buddy. She you know,
at first she was reticent, but her buddy was sick
and she needed to help him out. Yeah, that's really sweet.
It's very lovely. That's going to be a memory that
comes back. Oh yeah, she gets older for weird core
memory for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
And if if you're if you're unaware, there is a
Bigfoot history museum here in the state of Georgia that
I'm pretty sure the curator of the museum takes seriously.
You can look up many photos our buddies over at
stuff they don't want you to know. Have taken a
(25:49):
trip there.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yes, I've passed it many times. I've never gone in,
but if you're interested in allowing your daughter showing your
daughter some more Bigfoot information. It does exist. It's interesting.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Sure, interesting is a great word for it.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, yes, yes, and I do love this. I love
how kids get these. Oh yeah, very specific, pretty niche.
This is what I'm into. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, it's
really fun. Well, thank you to both of those listeners
(26:35):
to writing in. If you would like to write to us,
you can our emails hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Blue Sky and Instagram at saber pod, and we do
hope to hear from you. Sare is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks us always to our superproducers Dylan
Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
we hope that lots of more things are coming your
(27:00):
way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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