- Looking at it, I don't want to eat it at all.
- The whole meal out of 10?
- 'Orrible.
- Father, what can I do?
(gentle instrumental music)
- Hi, my name is Beke Igwe.
I'm going to be trying other aunties' Nigerian jollof rice.
- It's a staple food.
Sometimes almost every day.
- Jollof rice is basically rice with spicy tomato sauce
merged together with water, cooked for a few minutes,
making it soft, enjoy yourself.
That's jollof rice.
- And different people have different ways
of doing the jollof rice.
- If you have leftover rice,
you can always make a jollof rice.
- It's down to the rice pick.
I love basmati rice.
I think it's just delicate and nice.
And you proper proper get the flavor of the jollof rice.
- I think to me,
what makes a perfect jollof rice is the presentation.
The color, the aroma.
- You have to have scotch bonnet.
If you do not put scotch bonnet in your jollof rice,
then I'm not here for it.
I'm sorry, I'm not here for it.
For me jollof rice has to whew!
It needs to hit, d'you know what I mean?
- [Producer] And what country would you say
makes the best jollof rice?
- Ooh...
- Nigeria has the best jollof rice.
- Nigeria, uh-uh. What do you expect?
- What were you expecting? Nigeria, of course! (laughs)
- Know what it is, even my mum, when she makes rice
she'll make basmati rice.
So I've kind of learned it from her.
- Oh, my nightmare.
Basmati rice, oh no!
- Okay.
- So this one, the presentation is actually not for me.
- Where did we get the ideas as Nigerians
to start using basmati?
I know we're being health conscious, but come on,
we've got to, you know, enjoy ourself.
If you want to eat rice, eat rice.
- I don't want to be really nasty,
but it's not really ideal to actually slice onions
inside of jollof rice because not everyone eats onions.
I don't like sliced onions.
I'm not being funny.
But I don't eat sliced onions at all.
- Let me try this.
- Mm-hmm.
There's pepper in it.
- A bit hot.
- Not hot, but, it's, the pepper is too much.
- The pepper is coming through a bit too much.
- For me jollof rice has to whew!
- It's (laughs), it's too hot. It's too hot.
- It's fine.
- The good thing about the chicken is that it's really soft,
but I can't feel the seasoning at all.
- If I'm scoring on taste, I will give it a five.
- Four.
- Give this four.
Basmati rice is a no-no. Bah, no.
- Already, I'm not gonna lie.
I don't really think I'm gonna like.
- It smells good.
- From this I can tell that it was made with meat water.
- It doesn't have the rice that I like, it's long grain.
It smells nice, they've used bay leaf
and I do like bay leaf for my jollof rice.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's okay. Pass.
- Meh. Bit dry and grainy.
- Rice needs to be softer.
- Well, I think there's a different,
there's supposed to be a difference between rice and meat.
(laughs)
- Why's the chicken white?
I suppose there's no flavor within.
- This is what we will call, um.
'Orrible. (laughs)
- The whole meal out of 10?
Probably maybe a five out of 10?
- Seven out of 10.
- Let me be good, be a good girl,
I'll give it five, middle.
- Is there a perfect jollof rice?
I don't think so.
We're heading towards perfection.
(laughs)
(record scratching)
- Okay...
- (laughs) This all looks a bit messy.
(laughs)
- Looking at it, I don't want to eat it at all.
If I go to a party, if you put this on my table,
I won't eat it at all.
And this is what I say about presentation.
The color is actually, goes a very long way.
It has to be inviting.
The color is actually like zero for me, bo.
The chicken might be really nice, but you could see.
- Well, it looks moist and nice.
- Eyy! Look at the plate!
I'm moving the rice and the oil is just there chilling.
- But I don't want to judge because of the look,
so I'm going to taste it and see.
- No.
- Hmm.
- That is not, there is no pepper in that at all.
- It tastes okay, you know.
- So it's well seasoned, this is moist.
(laughs)
Very moist and although it's a little bit greasy,
but it's, it's moist and it's nice.
- Don't think they let this chicken marinade.
- The chicken is okay.
Not too hot. It's really nice.
The chicken is nice.
- That is not it at all.
I'm sorry, but this is going to have to get
like a two from me.
That, I wouldn't, honestly.
- I'll give this person a nine.
Beautiful.
- Because of the chicken I'll go for 5.5.
- My jollof rice is just pepper, the onion and the tomato.
(laughs)
- So talking about presentation,
this look really, really nice.
- It looks a bit pale.
But I love the grain, I love, I love.
Once it's not basmati it's fine.
- It smells burnt. (laughs)
- It's hard chicken.
I know Nigerians, we like, we love hard chicken.
But you know, when you're out to eat,
to enjoy your food, you need the soft one.
Season it well and it'll come out well.
I like the presentation with the peppers.
So I can't wait to dig in.
- I'm here to try. I'm not here to die.
(laughs)
- Father, what can I do?
- (laughs) Sorry.
- I can test the smoky flavor.
This is like party jollof rice, but it's hard.
- The rice is hard.
It needs a bit of finishing.
Just, you know, just to leave it on the pots
and just to let it steam for a while.
- I think they boiled this chicken and I hate,
I do not like boiled chicken.
- The chicken. Oh God, help me.
- When chicken is tough like this.
Yeah, this is not the one.
- Mm. I love the chicken.
Fantastic.
- The chicken seems okay.
- It actually tastes better than it looks.
If someone gave this to me without the skin,
I'd probably eat that.
It'll be hard to get into the chicken
cause you saw how tough that was,
but it actually doesn't taste that bad.
So I'll be honest with that.
- With the rice, I'll say five.
- Like I said, I don't need to have jollof rice be deep red,
but you can tell when something is like,
orange, that there's just not a lot of deep flavor to it.
And yeah, that wasn't it.
This meal is going to get a one.
- Say, 4.5.
Yippie!
I told you, see?
That my jollof rice is actually the best.
You see what I mean?
- Oh well, it's all right.
I enjoyed myself.
- It's all right.
- You know what?
Losing, it doesn't matter.
I know my stuff.
- Thank you.
That was really, really good to hear.
(upbeat music)