What? How? Who?

[mme_hardy]

Deep-frying foods in vegetable oil seems like a modern American craze, but it was an ancient cooking tradition in West Africa, and one that we have inherited from enslaved people.

Akara sounds pretty tasty, but that's a bizarre sentence up there.

Comments

[sovay]

Akara sounds pretty tasty, but that's a bizarre sentence up there.

As someone who is about to embark on a latke-frying holiday that predates America, yes.

[edenfalling]

Wait, what?! I am pretty sure that every culture on earth that has access to some form of cooking oil/fat and enough fuel to heat a large quantity of that substance has invented SOME kind of deep-fried food.

[mildred_of_midgard]

I had to think about this one, but possible translation of the apparent non sequitur: "Deep-frying foods in vegetable oil seems like something that belongs in affluent cultures full of unhealthy, processed foods, but actually, we got it from some very poor people."

Agree that the actual historical misconception is staggering.

(Also, pretty sure it's bigger in Great Britain than America right now, but possibly this person has never set foot outside...the American South?)

[conuly]

...is it maybe the vegetable oil that's the crux and not the frying part?

[legionseagle]

This one's a doozy, too:

When Shakespeare was writing and performing in Britain, black-eyed peas were a staple crop for West African people.

"My Mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun/Nor her pea fritters kin to Mama's make..."

[sabotabby]

That looks incredible. Unlike that sentence.

[malkingrey]

Lord knows, cooks in medieval times were deep-frying fritters made of all sorts of stuff.