\u201cOne day, I was just like, \u2018You know what? Today\u2019s gonna be the day,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m craving it so bad. I don\u2019t even know what this food tastes like and I\u2019m craving it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n From her car, still parked outside the restaurant, she filmed herself as she dipped a mouthful of dough into the okro soup. \u201cBomb \u2014 it is so worth it,\u201d she said to her phone camera.<\/span><\/p>\n Next, the egusi. \u201cI don\u2019t know what they put it in, I couldn\u2019t even start to guess,\u201d Hull said. \u201cOh my goodness, it\u2019s hitting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Hull\u2019s fufu videos quickly spread on TikTok, amassing more than 6 million views, but her intention was never to go viral. \u201cI just wanted to get some good food and record it, so that other people could see that it\u2019s good food,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n To the surprise and amazement of the African diaspora, fufu is having a moment. Across the app, #fufu videos have been watched more than 250 million times. The videos have been shared and debated publicly on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and privately on WhatsApp and in group chats.<\/span><\/p>\n The #fufu or #fufuchallenge tags are a mixed bag of new fufu lovers like Hull; people who, respectfully, said it wasn\u2019t for them; people who, disrespectfully, spit it out; and members of the African diaspora gently mocking or scolding those who tried it.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the most prominent fufu advocates on TikTok is Keith Atowo, a 24-year-old pharmacy student from Ypsilanti, Mich. who goes by @keitheats_. He is best known for sharing videos of himself eating \u2014 and sometimes cooking\u2014 traditional West African dishes and has helped introduce fufu to scores of people, including Hull. He has more than 260,000 followers and a no-frills approach to content creation \u2014 no soundtracks or special effects. When he\u2019s hungry, he sits in front of his camera with dishes from Cameroon \u2014 he moved to the U.S. when he was 12 \u2014 and starts each video by describing what\u2019s on his plate in his soothing voice. The rest of the clip consists of the sound of him tearing through his food and enjoying the dish.<\/span><\/p>\n Atowo said some West Africans \u2014 upset by videos of people spitting out fufu \u2014 have criticized videos like his online for turning the meal into a viral challenge. He said his goal wasn\u2019t to start a trend, but he sees the popularity of fufu as a chance to direct money to businesses in the U.S. and perhaps boost interest in travel to African countries.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a good thing that people are learning about our cultural food. It\u2019s a good thing that people are wanting to try,\u201d Atowo said. \u201cIt\u2019s not only going to create a business outlet for many African restaurants we have … but people are going to be more intrigued to travel to Africa.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n At a minimum, it generates business locally. TikTok users like Hull generally mention where they ordered from, which has led to free publicity for small, minority-owned businesses across the country. At Veronica\u2019s Kitchen, business quadrupled the week after Hull highlighted the restaurant, said owner Veronica Shoyinka, who has been selling Nigerian food in Los Angeles since the \u201990s. A regular who visited Wednesday afternoon warmly called her \u201cMadame TikTok\u201d by way of greeting.<\/span><\/p>\n Many new customers had never tried Nigerian food before. Hanna Kim, a 23-year-old community health worker from Los Angeles, made the trip after thumbing through TikTok videos. She said the fufu challenge reminded her of the birria taco trend that swept the app over the summer. \u201cI think it\u2019s so cool how we are sharing each other\u2019s cultural foods and we\u2019re able to experience that and see actual reviews of people eating it and sharing their opinions,\u201d Kim said. (She ordered fufu and egusi soup with chicken.)<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear how long the trend will last, but so far it has created at least one repeat customer. Two weeks after her trip to Veronica\u2019s Kitchen, Hull tried a second Nigerian restaurant in Inglewood, Aduke Nigerian Cuisine.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think like most people, by looking at it, you come up with your own idea of what it will taste like,\u201d Hull said of fufu. \u201cAnd then once you taste it, it tastes absolutely nothing like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s a guide to trying fufu and other West African dishes:<\/span><\/p>\n Broadly speaking, fufu is a spongy dough that\u2019s made by mixing yam, cassava or other flours in hot water. It\u2019s popular across West Africa, though various regions have different names for it depending on how it\u2019s made. (In Nigeria, for example, \u201cfufu\u201d refers specifically to the dough made from fermented cassava, while dough made from yams is called pounded yam.)<\/span><\/p>\n One mistake people sometimes make is not getting enough soup in each bite. Fufu is literally unseasoned dough that has no taste of its own. Think of it as a tool \u2014 don\u2019t dip, scoop. Fufu is typically covered in plastic wrap. Some TikTok users believe it\u2019s necessary to slap it. It\u2019s not.<\/span><\/p>\n There is also a debate over whether one needs to chew fufu. Traditionally it\u2019s swallowed whole, but choking for clout isn\u2019t recommended. \u201cChew it,\u201d Atowo said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to tell someone to do something they cannot do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just savory,\u201d Hull said. \u201cIt has a little bit of spice to it, which I love. It\u2019s hearty. I can\u2019t compare it to any other food.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Egusi soup is made of dried, ground pumpkin seeds, spinach, habanero chili, tomatoes, onions, ground crayfish, palm oil and meat, such as chicken or beef.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unique,\u201d Shoyinka said of the flavor. \u201cA lot of people that have tried it, especially the Americans, love it because it\u2019s pumpkin seeds, it\u2019s what they know. They make pumpkin pie. We use it to make soup.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n CERTAINLY, Good journalism costs a lot of money. Without doubt, only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government. We are ready to hold every corrupt government accountable to the citizens.<\/b> To continually enjoy free access to the best investigative journalism in Nigeria, we are requesting of you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavor.<\/b><\/p>\n Your donation is voluntary \u2014 please decide how much and how often you want to give. For offline donation, email: letters@nigeriastandardnewspaper.com or call +2348037128048 (Nigeria) or +16825834890 (United States of America)<\/b><\/p>\n [pff-paystack id=<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mouth-watering Mama Africa Meal in Hot Demand: Nigeria\u2019s locally-made FUFU, Egusi Soup now viral in America, ruling Menu main Food\u2026attracts 250 million viewers on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook; LinkedIn within 7 days *Africans in Diaspora, African-Americans, Latinas place online order for meal, others visit African Restaurants for pick-up to avoid delay * \u201cI don\u2019t know what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tourism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/egusi-soup-wYWktkpTURBXy8wNzQwYzAzMDgxM2I3MDQ0NjM5MTc4NDQxYTVkYmU3YS5qcGeSlQMAOc0EAM0CQJMFzQMHzQGz.jpeg\")
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<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>On Jan. 4, she drove nearly 80 miles from Moreno Valley to Veronica\u2019s Kitchen, a Nigerian restaurant in Inglewood. At first, she was determined to order multiple soups and showed an employee several pictures from the restaurant\u2019s Yelp page. He suggested one would be more than enough. She settled on two: egusi and okro (okra) soup.<\/span><\/p>\nWhat is fufu?<\/b><\/h2>\n
What is egusi soup?<\/b><\/h2>\n
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