- Hi, I'm Beryl
and the video today is about Fufu,
a month after it was trending.
(chuckling)
Yay production time.
Since today's video is all about Ghana,
I'm featuring some of my favorite artists from the country.
I'm gonna be leaving a link to all of their sites
so you can follow them.
There are some really beautiful pieces in there,
and I hope that you can find some new art to love.
So, there was an internet trend, mostly on TikTok,
that you may or may not have seen.
It was people trying Fufu,
Ghana's national dish.
- We try Fufu and Egusi soup
because I've been seeing it all over TikTok.
- First thing first, you smack the Fufu!
- You know, it kinda like Play-Doh a little bit.
You know, it's kinda mushy and gooey.
- Fufu.
(girl chuckling)
I mean, this the Fufu.
What is this?
- Bam.
It is so worth it.
- A lot of people who engaged in the trend
didn't really know much about
the food that they were eating,
which I understand,
You know, it's a trend,
you wanna get on it while it's hot.
Not on this channel.
I'm gonna jump on this trend as well.
But to do it, I need context.
I need history.
You know, I need the full picture.
So, to do that,
we have to go to the source.
(clapping once)
Welcome to Accra, Ghana's capital city.
Hugging the Atlantic coast,
Accra has a lot going on,
but we are here for one thing:
Fufu.
(pestle pounding)
Before we completely dive in,
let's talk about Ghana for a moment.
So, Ghana is located here
and it's home to around 30 million people.
There are over 50 Indigenous languages
and a 100 different tribes.
The largest of these tribes is the Akan tribe
and that's actually where Fufu comes from.
Ghana was colonized by the British in 1821
and was part of a territory known as the Gold Coast.
On March 6th, 1957,
it became the first Black African country
south of the Sahara to achieve independence,
and it took on the name Ghana.
- At long last,
the battle
has ended!
(crowd cheering)
- And I found this quite interesting.
Today, according to the Global Peace Index -
and this is the website,
it's really interesting to look at -
Ghana is actually ranked
as the 43rd most peaceful country in the world.
Iceland is the most peaceful country.
And, where does America lie?
Oh yeah, down there, at 121st.
I reached out to my friend, Henry.
He's a filmmaker in Ghana.
He's an amazing, amazing videographer.
And I asked him if he would help me tell this story,
and he said yes.
Uh huh.
He's in!
- Hi, I'm Henry,
a filmmaker from Ghana.
Beryl told me she wanted to do a very lovely story
about our national dish,
Fufu with light soup.
I was very excited
and I decided to work on this project with her.
Let me show you around.
Let's see how we prepare Fufu with light soup in Ghana.
- So, let's start at the beginning
because I've heard
this is a very good place to start.
- I'm back for a moment,
just to talk about the three plants
that she just talked about,
'cause I wanna make sure that we're all on the same page.
So, let's start with the first one.
This is cassava.
You might also know it as Yuca.
The starch of this root is called Tapioca.
Plantains, these you might be more familiar with.
They're kind of considered the cooking banana.
Unlike yellow bananas, they're a lot less sweet
and they are a major food staple
in West and Central Africa, the Caribbean,
Central America and South America.
And finally, Cocoyam.
There are a few varieties within this family,
but you might know this as Taro or Arrowroot.
Okay, back to the story.
- [Henry] Action.
(water splashing)
(knife slicing)
(pestle pounding)
(pot lid clattering)
Amen.
- Amen.
- I feel like I'm ready to try it,
so let's go on a quick little excursion to pick some up.
(clapping once)
Scene change.
So, I'm actually taking the train to the top of Central Park
because I am going to an area in central Harlem
that has a large West African community.
Here, you'll find a lot of different West African shops,
cafes, grocery stores and restaurants.
In particular, this one, Accra Restaurant.
They particularly serve food from Ghana,
and I'm here to get Fufu and light soup.
The smell inside was absolutely amazing
and the two women working there were working hard.
This is the light soup that I ordered,
and the Fufu was stored separately.
So, I got everything to go.
Got it!
I'm gonna find a spot to eat this
'cause it was closed for indoor dining.
I decided I was actually going to eat at home,
'cause I was just very embarrassed to eat in public.
I don't know, I'm just not there yet.
This is the Fufu, and this is the light soup.
I tried to plate it like I saw
in the video that you guys just saw.
I think maybe the Fufu-to-light-soup ratio is a bit off
but that's okay.
Okay.
I have the Fufu
and I have a light soup,
and this soup has goat in it.
You can get it with fish.
You can get it with chicken.
It's tomato-based.
Fufu is in the middle.
(classical music)
Ooh.
That soup is good.
It has spice.
There are so, so many flavors going on here.
You can taste the pepper.
You can taste the onions in it, even.
The tomato is very forward
but it doesn't taste like a tomato.
God, my hair, what the hell is happening here?
I like having long hair, but like,
maybe eating with your hands is not the right time
to have your hair just like all over
and wanting to be touching it.
I do feel like my ratio of Fufu-to-light-soup is off.
I'm gonna have leftover Fufu.
There's no flavor to the Fufu,
it is just texture,
and just this very soft, creamy texture.
And if you're somebody who has a mouth-feel issue,
I don't think that this would give you that issue.
It's not like Mochi,
where Mochi can be kind of gummy.
This is just soft.
I asked the woman what this Fufu is made out of,
and this is made out of cassava.
I also wanted to bring this up,
part of the trend involved people slapping the Fufu.
I don't know where that came from.
From everybody who I talked to while making this video,
it's not a thing.
So, I think that that must just be a part of -
somebody did it once and it just kind of -
everybody copied everybody.
So, you don't need to slap your food to eat it.
(chuckling)
One thing I was thinking a lot about is that
I don't have that much experience
eating a lot of West African,
and especially dishes from Ghana, in particular.
So, of course, I asked all of you
and I asked some vloggers from Ghana
to come and talk about their favorite foods.
So, let's learn some more dishes.
(chuckling)
- Hello everyone.
My name is Tatiana Haina
and I live in Sunyani,
which is the capital of the Bono region in Ghana.
- My name is Abigail and I live in Accra, Ghana.
- My name is Blaize and I live in Reno, Nevada.
- I'm Eduafoa Amoah, I'm a Ghanaian.
I live in Tema, in the Greater Accra region of Ghana.
- My name is Jacqueline and I live in Accra, Ghana.
- Hello, my name is Olajumoke,
and I live in Accra, Ghana.
- Hi! Akwaaba!
My name is Akosua,
I live in Accra, Ghana.
- My name is Pimpa, from Ghana,
and today I'm going to share with you
one of my favorite Ghanaian dishes,
which is Banku and Tilapia.
Well, Banku is a dish that comes from the Volta region,
which is the land of the Ewes here in Ghana.
- My favorite Ghanaian dish,
it is called Angwa Mo.
That is in our local Akan language,
but in English language, it is called Greased Rice.
It is prepared with a few ingredients,
like onions, salted beef, salted tilapia,
and then rice.
- So, Waakye is a common food
that is sold by roadside vendors.
It originates from the Hausa people
of the Northern Region of Ghana.
Waakye is a dish, it's made with rice and beans,
and dried millet stalk leaves.
- Mpotompoto is a lightly spiced,
creamy food, one pot meal,
that is made from cocoyam or yam
that is cooked in a broth.
- Jollof rice, which is my favorite meal
of all time!
(giggling)
I can eat Jollof rice every day for 100 days,
and I'm not even exaggerating.
I love my jollof rice, I love my jollof rice.
- Omo Tuo and peanut soup, or peanut butter soup.
Omo Tuo originates from the northern part of Ghana,
and it's usually eaten with peanut soup.
Omo Tuo is also called Rice Ball.
- So, I have a great Ghanaian dish
which I want to show you guys.
And it's called Gari Fotor.
Instead of the rice mixed with tomato sauce,
we used cassava grains.
Boom, you are good to go.
- I think it's really easy to take one dish
and classify an entire country's cuisine around it.
We talk about Ghana,
maybe we only associate that with Fufu.
But, what I've learned from this whole project is,
it is so much more than that.
- So Ghanaian food is food rich in culture.
It reminds us of who we are as a people.
- Our food is our history.
It talks about us.
- Ghanaian food is a mixture of different flavors
and every bite is a new discovery.
- (chuckling)
- [Blaze] Our stews and soups,
it's just a medley of beauty and wonder.
- Ghanaian food is very special to me
because in Ghana,
when we are making food,
it's more of like a family affair,
in the preparation and then in the eating.
- It takes me back to my roots, like,
wow, my grandmother was eating this food,
My mother too was eating this food.
You know?
It makes you richer in the culture.
- It's not just about the Fufu that we have,
the Banku, Kenkey, the very popular meals we know.
It's just something different.
There are other amazing dishes like that in Ghana.
And I wish you would find them out.
- One of the things we say when we eat,
or before we eat is
(speaking Akan language)
It means, "my hands have touched the food,"
which is just a calling to say, "you're invited."
- This is my food.
- (speaking Fante language)
- It's going down.
- (speaking Akan language)
Enjoy your food.
- I thought that this episode
was so special in so many ways.
So many people came together to make it happen.
And I wanna say thank you to everybody involved.
From Henry to all of you who contributed videos.
I'm leaving a link to everybody's YouTube page
who was a part of this, as well as Henry's,
and recipes if you wanna try
any of the dishes that you heard about in the video today.
Just a reminder,
that we're still doing the group grocery shop,
and so I'm leaving a link to that as well.
And I will see you all in my next video.