Food
Nigeria Food Guide
Jollof rice is the dish everyone argues about, and the argument is the point. Nigerian cooking is regional before it is national.
- Country Nigeria
- Category Food
- Reviewed 20 August 2026
- Sources 1
- Length 1 min read
Credit Sasu photography, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Jollof rice is rice cooked in a base of tomato, pepper and onion until the grains take the color of it. It is also the subject of a long-running and entirely serious argument between Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and everywhere else that makes it, about whose version is correct.
That argument tells you something true: this is a dish of the whole West African coast, and every country makes it as its own.
A country of cuisines
Nigeria is very large and its food is regional before it is national. What is eaten in the Yoruba south west is not what is eaten in the Hausa north or the Igbo south east, and the staples differ with what the land grows: yam, cassava, rice, millet, plantain.
The things that travel across all of it are pepper, palm oil and the pounded or swallowed starches eaten with soup.
Eating well, and safely
- Jollof rice is the place to start, and it is worth eating in more than one region.
- Suya, spiced grilled meat, is the street food to look for in the evening.
- Follow food and water hygiene. The FCDO lists gastrointestinal risk among the health concerns.
- Do not swim in fresh water: schistosomiasis is contracted that way, and it is on the FCDO risk list.
- Eat where it is busy. Turnover is the best hygiene indicator available to a visitor.
Sources
The health guidance above is from the FCDO health page for Nigeria, read on 20 August 2026. No claim is made here about the origin of jollof rice, which is disputed and which no authority we could reach settles.