Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
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Quick answers
What is Nigerian cuisine?
Nigerian cuisine (Nigerian food) grew from iru / ogiri / garri and swallow / rice / yam. Jollof rice is the postcard, not the whole map.
Is it always spicy?
Nigerian cuisine sits at spice 76 in this atlas. Jollof rice and Suya show the range better than a single heat number.
What should a first meal include?
Jollof rice plus one regional plate — not only the export icon.
What is Swallow?
Hand-torn cooked starches: fufu, eba, pounded yam.
How do people eat at home?
Lagos, Kano and Enugu do not cook the same dinner. Regional stubbornness is the cuisine, not a footnote.
What travels poorly?
The home pantry around Swallow and the labour behind Suya rarely fit a takeaway box.
Nigerian cuisine changes by valley, coast and capital. Lagos is one node, not the whole map.
The meters treat heat, ferment, street density and sharing as the axes that actually organise meals.
Systems
Lagos metro
A regional kitchen of Nigerian cuisine centred on Lagos and Jollof rice.
Kano table
A regional kitchen of Nigerian cuisine centred on Kano and Suya.
Enugu table
A regional kitchen of Nigerian cuisine centred on Enugu and Egusi soup.
Ibadan table
A regional kitchen of Nigerian cuisine centred on Ibadan and Pounded yam.
Port Harcourt table
A regional kitchen of Nigerian cuisine centred on Port Harcourt and Moi moi.
Region 5
Another regional kitchen of Nigerian cuisine.
Flavour meters
Cities & regions
Lagos
A hotspot for Jollof rice and the local pantry of Nigerian cuisine.
Kano
A hotspot for Jollof rice and the local pantry of Nigerian cuisine.
Enugu
A hotspot for Jollof rice and the local pantry of Nigerian cuisine.
Ibadan
A hotspot for Jollof rice and the local pantry of Nigerian cuisine.
Port Harcourt
A hotspot for Jollof rice and the local pantry of Nigerian cuisine.
Materials
iru / ogiri / garri
The savoury bass.
swallow / rice / yam
The meal starch.
Jollof rice staples
The icon pantry.
Market produce
The daily vegetable and protein.
Regional pride in this cuisine is argued through Jollof rice and Suya more than through a single official recipe.
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