[quietswami]

Find the bellicose belegerance of this piece rather bemusing. The postering gives the impression that the commonplace cuisines owe there acceptance to manipulation, conspiracy, pandering etc. The unfortunate reality however, is that when it comes to food or cuisine, people literally vote with their mouth, belly, eyes, nose, purse, and overall experience! Whichever cuisine makes it to the top of the global cuisine billing, is due to natural momentum in that given direction by discerning eaters.

Nigerian cuisine has some way to go to make any real impression on the global stage - paucity of the cuisine aside. For the most part, there has been little or no evolution of the cuisine but it is rather steeped in its basic, rustic, parochial, rural, peasantry, subsistence style trapped in time. Admittedly, storage and preservation issues were reasons for most of the present day dishes - surely we can now start to evolve beyond these! Enough of the predominantly starchy staples already! Heard a cruel joke once that purported that cultures with overly spicy dishes do so for a simple reason - to hide the taste!

I long for the refined, adventurous sophistication I get to enjoy with other world cuisine; where brazen chefs with intimate appreciation and understanding of food, continuously challenge and experiment with food, cooking techniques, and styles to produce the variety of servings associated with the French, Italian, Japanese, Indian, Chinese, Thai cuisines of the world. I long for the celebrity Nigerian Chefs to help challenge my amateur knowledge of the cuisine to take it to new heights backed with glossy cookbooks, recipes, endorsed condiments, nutritional virtues etc.

Do not bemoan the lack of promotion of the Nigerian cuisine, bemoan the lack of variety and creativity. Good food is simply that, and wherever on the globe it is taken it will be eaten as such - not due to some covert promotional intent!