Sudanese cuisine with Omer Eltigani

and his recipe for agashé

What was the food that you grew up eating?
“We grew up eating a lot of different things, but there’s one thing that sticks in my head: rugag. They’re a bit like cornflakes, but rather than store-bought you’d get them homemade. They are the same size as cornflakes, but aren’t as bumpy – they’re fully flat. You do eat them in the same way; you can add some milk, sugar or cinnamon. We had them at night though, like a late-night snack. It reminds me of being at home, with my brothers and all my cousins.

“It’s common in Sudan for parents to raise their kids in their parents’ houses. To share a big house with the entire family, rather than have individual families live in separate houses. For us, this changed when my parents (both doctors) found work in London. We relocated when I was 6.

“My mother is a great cook, but she wouldn’t cook anything else but Sudanese food. Salads, potatoes with minced meat and many different stews. A common one was an okra stew, where we as kids wouldn’t actually eat the okra. We just ate the sauce – the okra was too gooey for our liking.”

What made you want to publish a book on Sudanese cuisine?
“It all started as a hobby, really, and I didn’t realise the importance of it until I was in the middle of it. Initially I followed my parents’ path and studied pharmacy, but in university I really missed my mother’s food. I would get tired of student meals or the restaurants around the campus, so I started collecting her recipes and making them. When people found out about this, more and more people wanted these recipes too and I soon realised there was a rather big market for Sudanese cuisine (and knowledge thereof).

“If you looked online, you couldn’t really find any info about Sudanese food back then. I realised that Sudanese food in general hasn’t really been documented or recorded. That’s such a shame for a country as culturally rich as Sudan. Such a valuable part of our culture should be accessible to others in the rest of the world. I found funding for the project and hope to finish the book in the end of 2021.”

What was your most surprising finding?
“Mushrooms are not part of Sudanese cuisine at all, but I discovered a dish in Damazine, in the Blue Nile region of southern Sudan: wild mushrooms cooked in tomato sauce. That was quite unexpected and probably the only or one of the very few mushroom dishes in the country.”

So which ingredients that are more common do you like to work with?
“Something really interesting that I haven’t found in other cuisines is dried okra. It’s dried and ground into a powder. We use it in a lot of our stews here, and it’s primarily used as a binding agent. When you mix it with liquid in a stew, for example, it thickens the consistency. It doesn’t enhance the flavour, but it allows the texture to be more easily lifted by a piece of bread, for example.

“I love nigella seeds - also called black onion seeds or black cumin - for baking, especially biscuits. They’re very aromatic and lovely in sweet dishes. I also use them in a spicy yoghurt dip called mish. It’s essentially Sudanese white cheese (quite strong and feta-like), mixed with yoghurt, garlic and chillies. It’s just a really good dip.”

And dishes, which ones do you think stand out?
“There’s this dish called fattah dhula. It’s basically a marinated roast lamb shank. It’s usually topped with a tomatoey, garlicky sauce and served on a bed of rice and bread. The rice and bread have been soaked in the broth that the shank has been boiled in. It’s incredibly rich, meaty, carby and filling. Delicious. Especially accompanied by a spicy peanut dip.

“Speaking of peanuts – there are a lot of those in Sudan. The Arabic word for peanuts translates to ‘Sudanese beans’, which just goes to show how common it is here. It’s so good with meats.

“Another dish worth mentioning is rijla. It’s made from purslane, a leaf vegetable a bit similar to spinach. You start with onions, meat and a bit of water to create a broth. You add red lentils and then the finely chopped purslane. It’s cooked together with some tomato paste, garlic and some spices. Purslane is hard to find in London unfortunately, and limited to the spring/early summer as well.”

Instagram.com/sudanesekitchen

How would you define Sudanese cuisine?
“We like a lot of stews. But otherwise it’s hard to say what’s essential because Sudanese food is a combination of many different cuisines. There are many influences from West Africa, mostly because of pilgrimages to Mecca from the Islamic parts of West Africa. It meant that many Nigerians and Nigeriens, among others, came through Sudan and left their traces. Preservation was a key characteristic of the cuisine that they brought. They made leaf stews for example because the ingredients were easy to carry over long distances.

“That then fused with Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean influences. That meant more mezzes, salads and spices were brought to us by Arab and Persian trading routes. It’s also a cuisine that can be enjoyed by everyone – Sudanese food can easily be made vegan or vegetarian.

“But what I see as typical for our cuisine is the community feeling. We never eat alone, we share all plates, and eating with your hands is a very intimate experience. It’s a beautiful thing that I haven’t really found elsewhere in my travels. Food is a way of life – it’s uniting and it’s about having peace with the people around you. There’s this special intimacy and bond that’s connected between people when they’re having food, and that’s an important part of our culture.”

Sudan has gone through many rough periods, but looked to be on the right track when dictator Omar al-Bashir got overthrown in 2019. How has the country developed since then?
“Not much has happened. It’s worse rather than better. There was a lot of optimism. The economy wasn’t great by any means, but this year [2020 at the time of writing] has been worse and the economy is deteriorating. Corona plays a role in this, but it’s not the only factor. The dollar became extremely expensive and many things in Sudan tripled in cost. The average person finds it difficult to make ends meet.

“The government must be doing something, but there hasn’t been a whole deal of development. Real change in Sudan will take decades to accomplish. We’re going to have to hold tight and unfortunately, those on the lower end of the socio-economic ladder will continue to struggle.”

Does this struggle include famine as well?
“I wouldn’t say there’s ‘full famine’. That usually happens when there’s a big drought in a certain area and the food chain has been destabilised. It’s not necessarily that there’s a lack of actual food but the food, like cheap ingredients or easy-to-access foods, has become more expensive. The food is still there, though. Luckily, Sudanese people wouldn’t allow each other to starve. That’s part of our culture and nature, to look out for fellow citizens, especially for those who find it difficult to get by.”

With the risk of extremely simplifying a complicated and long-running conflict: the predominantly Black South split from the Arab north in 2011.
“For me it’s a sad subject; I wish they had never split. In my heart, I wish we could be one country again and I hope this sentiment is shared by the majority of the South Sudanese. They’ve been given the opportunity in a recent referendum, but I think that one was still very much based on the Arab racism that they were experiencing from the previous government, which they had every right to object to. But the majority of the Sudanese people don’t think that way. Especially young people - we’re trying to embrace the idea of the multi-ethnic identity of Sudan. The Arab supremacy that was part of the previous government – we’re hoping to get rid of that in the next generations. I hope we can unite again.

“I would love to travel there but get mixed reviews. Some people say: it’s fine! Others say you might be seen as a fairer skin Sudanese person who’s part of the problem, or part of the reason why South Sudan is not doing well, but I really have faith. There are many South Sudanese here in the capital, because there’s more work and livelihood here than in the South and we get along really well.

“In terms of the cuisine – I’ve tried to research but it’s not my place to do so right now.”

Are there many differences between other Sudanese regions?
“Definitely. They’re mostly based on the geographical make-up of the region or the people that occupy the area. The north is dry with the river Nile running all the way through it, as a life source for the region. Fish is popular for that reason. One dish that I like in particular is called faseekh.

“The fish is caught in the Nile, gutted, cleaned and buried in salt for a few days up to a week. You remove the fish from the salt and are left with cured fish that’s already safe to eat but you then remove the excess salt, and add the fish to a stew based on peanuts, lime and spices. It’s delicious and such a delicacy. But I won’t lie – it does have quite a funk.

“Western Sudan – Dafur – has a history of being a separate sultanate. They had a sultan up until the end of the 18^th century when the Brits came. That region has a really rich food culture, because they would provide the sultan with rare delicacies such as different types of prepared meats or special drinks.

“They have a dish of dried hibiscus, for which they don’t use the flowers but the leaves. I haven’t found a similar dish elsewhere in the country. Another stew they have is with baobab, which is unusual because we normally use it for a drink, for juice. They get very creative and make stews with it. Quite fascinating.”

If people were to travel to Sudan, where should they go?
“Everywhere! But I would recommend Port Sudan in particular. It’s a city on the Red Sea coast and has some of the world’s best deep-sea and scuba diving. It’s a lovely city with a nice breeze.

“Khartoum, the capital, is not recommended unless you’ve got friends to visit or another good reason to step by. Because of the hardships the country has been going under, a lot of people have been forced to move to the capital – just to survive and make ends meet. That means it’s densely packed, intense and crazy now. It used to be easy-going but now it’s a mess.

“If you like drier, sandier places, I can recommend the north. There are some nice islands on the Nile River – the Kissinger Islands are beautiful. Western Sudan has amazing places too, such as Nyala and Al Fashir. Generally, people are really hospitable. It’s safe to travel here and highly recommended.”