Cooking is an art you learn is region and culture specific -across tribes of same people and people of different continents and race. And so is our taste buds.
Growing up around different Nigerian states has your taste buds exploring the ranges of spices, flavour and culinary distinctiveness the Nigerian community has to offer.Umami, sweet, bitter, spicy, fruity – you name it, there is not a single one we lack.
My first cooking culture shock was meeting someone who made beans and yam with sugar. The result was surprisingly good. Prior this experience sugar was only ever used in teas, pastries and never in staples at my home.
Ever had a food so spicy your eye tears up and your nose runs. But specifically notice all the heat of the food is at tip of your tongue.
Or wondered why you are able to consume bitter leaf soup but not bitter leaf -and not feel the bitterness so much as you might feel for another source of bitterness.
Our tongues and taste buds are activated at different points – the tip of the tongue, the body of the tongue and sometimes at the base of the tongues – by the enzyme of the food we consume.
Enzyme composition is completely different for each food based of cooking methods – an example would be grinding tomatoes with a stone versus a blender.Still tomatoes – but different enzyme reactions. A completely different mouth feel for both and mostly likey receptive tastes.
The major source of heat for Nigerian foods is peppers. It is a major flavor in the Nigerian dish and the cause of both pleasure and pain dependent on your heat tolerance level. Amazingly the preparation method of food alters the intensity and general mouth feel of the same produce type and quantity in the same meal.
In trying out recipes; it is an important point to note the following, cooking over low heat versus high heat – the different material types a cooking pot is made of – the depth of the pot bowl – the source of heat used in cooking all produce different result, for the exact same cooking process and ingredients.
