export_ofoct.com (67)

[00:00.79] Rory: Hi, Abidemi.

[00:02.29] Abidemi: Hi Rory.

[00:03.30] Rory: So I was thinking about food in different countries.

[00:06.04] Abidemi: Oh, my favorite topic.

[00:07.05] Rory: Yeah.

[00:07.80] Abidemi: I love eating.

[00:08.80] Rory: Okay. Some countries have foods which other countries seem to find a bit strange.

[00:14.30] Okay. Something in England which people find quite odd which we think is perfectly normal is do you know lasagna?

[00:22.30] Abidemi: Yes.

[00:23.29] Rory: The Italian food, lasagna?

[00:24.55] Abidemi: Yes, I do.

[00:25.04] Rory: In England, if you go to a pub, it’s always served with chips – French fries. So lasagna and French fries together.

[00:32.54] Abidemi: Okay.

[00:33.29] Rory: And people just seem to think this is weird, but in England it’s completely normal.

[00:38.04] So I was wondering if you’d come across anything similar to that in countries you’d visited or even in your own country.

[00:44.29] Abidemi: All right. I think for me, when I was in Japan, I had – they have the combination of bread and noodles.

[00:55.79] So they would have noodles inside of bread, which to me is strange because it’s carbohydrates plus carbohydrates.

[01:02.29] Rory: Well, that’s quite similar to lasagna and chips, isn’t it?

[01:06.79] Abidemi: You’re right. You’re right.

[01:08.04] I would expect bread with hamburger or something more proteinous.

[01:12.54] Rory: Right.

[01:13.29] Abidemi: But yeah – so that’s strange. And I’ve also heard in Thailand, they have corn on ice cream.

[01:20.04] Rory: Yeah, I tried that.

[01:21.04] Abidemi: How was it?

[01:22.04] Rory: It was strange.

[01:23.79] Abidemi: Okay.

[01:24.79] Rory: It was really strange because like in England, we always think corn is something you have with your main course even though it’s very sweet.

[01:31.04] But actually, it matches quite well with ice cream, but it looks strange because it’s unexpected.

[01:37.80] Abidemi: Interesting. Interesting. Maybe a bit like in Japan – back to Japan again, where they have mayonnaise on their pizza.

[01:45.55] And at the beginning for me too it was very strange when I first tried it.

[01:48.79] But now, I think from that experience, I’ve grown used to put in mayonnaise on my pizza, and actually love it.

[01:55.04] Rory: Okay, yeah. I haven’t caught to that one yet.

[01:56.55] Abidemi: Okay.

[01:57.30] Rory: But I know when I went to Belgium, in Belgium, they always have French fries with mayonnaise.

[02:05.30] Abidemi: Okay.

[02:06.55] Rory: And again, when I first tried it, it seemed very strange because in the UK we always have chips with ketchup.

[02:13.05] Abidemi: I see.

[02:14.29] Rory: But with mayonnaise, it’s actually pretty good.

[02:16.79] Abidemi: Yeah. I think so, too. I think what I like is French fries, mayonnaise, and ketchup.

[02:22.55] Rory: Together?

[02:23.29] Abidemi: Together.

[02:24.29] Rory: You mix the ketchup and the mayonnaise.

[02:26.30] Abidemi: I do, yes. You should try it sometimes.

[02:29.05] Rory: I will try it, but I do think that’s a bit strange. Okay.

[02:30.05] So in Nigeria, are there any foods, which to you are normal but maybe you think people from other countries might find a bit strange?

[02:39.29] Abidemi: I think the whole idea of eating with their hands, and also the fact that we eat a lot of – I don’t know how say it, describe it but solid food, we call it.

[02:53.80] Rory: Right.

[02:54.80] Abidemi: So we have food that’s made from yam like we call it pounded yam. A lot of food that’s made from – it’s hard to describe. So they’re like solid. They're kind of like mash potatoes but thicker.

[03:09.04] Rory: Right. So a yam is a type of potato?

[03:11.04] Abidemi: A cousin of potatoes, I would say.

[03:13.80] Rory: Right. Okay.

[03:14.54] Abidemi: Kind of but it’s starchier than potatoes. So we have a lot of food that’s made in that way.

[03:20.54] So to people that might not be used to that, they find it quite strange that we’re eating something so starchy and thick. So I think we have that.

[03:29.79] One thing that’s strange to us from the Japanese side is eating raw food.

[03:36.29] Rory: Right.

[03:37.79] Abidemi: Like raw meat or raw fish, raw fish especially.

[03:46.30] For us, even vegetables, we don’t – that’s another thing actually. And almost anything that’s raw, we don’t really like.

[03:50.79] I remember the first time I had salad. It was “What is this? Am I an animal?

[03:56.05] Why am I eating uncooked carrots or lettuce?” So it needs to be cooked.

[04:00.80] Rory: Right.

[04:01.54] Abidemi: Maybe it goes back to our history. If you don’t cook, we didn’t have a lot of refrigeration so maybe we’re still in that mode a little bit.

[04:09.79] If you don’t cook it, it’s not as healthy.

[04:11.54] So we always want to cook it and make sure it’s hot or spicy.

[04:15.04] So I think maybe that would be it.

[04:16.04] Rory: Right.

[04:16.79] Abidemi: Raw food, raw vegetable, we’re still kind of like, “No,” I think.

[04:20.29] Rory: So one thing, when I first came to Japan, I used to – I mean, in England, people often eat rice with something else.

[04:30.04] So they might put soy sauce on it.

[04:32.79] They might have it fried, like an egg fried rice or something. And it was strange for me to eat plain rice when I first came here.

[04:41.54] Abidemi: Actually, I had a similar experience too when I was in Japan.

[04:45.29] I remember the first time they served me rice, just plain rice.

[04:49.54] In Nigeria, maybe now it’s changing a little bit, but in Nigeria, eating plain, white rice is the epitome of poverty.

[04:57.04] You have no money; you have nothing but plain rice. So for me, it was like, “Whoa, what is this? This is really strange. I need to put something on this rice.” And when I did that, I think I kind of like saw the Japanese people around me…

[05:09.54] Rory: Yeah. They never do it, do they?

[05:10.54] Abidemi: No, they don’t. Yeah.

[05:13.29] Rory: The other thing is if you put soy sauce on rice, it makes it really difficult to eat with chopsticks.

[05:18.54] Abidemi: That’s true. That’s true. It’s not as sticky anymore.

[05:21.04] Rory: Yeah. So in England, we just use a fork.

[05:22.29] I think if you use the fork for your rice in Japan, probably, also you might cause a bit of a scandal.

[05:29.79] Abidemi: A little bit. I think the longer you live in that country, the more you’re expected to eat chopsticks, right?

[05:35.54] Rory: You’re right. Yeah.

[05:36.54] Abidemi: At least, you’ll be able to. Yeah. But now I think I’m more used to it.

[05:42.55] I can eat white rice with something on the side, of course.

[05:44.05] Rory: Yeah.

[05:44.55] Abidemi: But not necessarily with the sauce or something on top of it. Yeah.