Airport Royal Cuisine

🇬🇭 GHANA

📍 4956 W. Century Blvd., Inglewood, South Bay

🅿️ Small plaza with parking

🥤 No Alcohol

The roads leading away from LAX and into Inglewood are probably the easiest place in Greater Los Angeles to size up the jollof wars between Nigeria and Ghana that will forever rage around the world with the diaspora. There are quite a few Nigerian options but only one with Ghanaian chefs, just east of LAX and the 405 on Century Blvd.

If you are traveling light, you can skip the wait for a ride home and just venture over on foot, satisfying hunger pangs over bowls of spicy soup and plates of jollof rice (once dining in is happening again, of course).

After watching the delectable scenes in High on the Hog's first episode filmed in another of Ghana's neighbors Benin, the okra soup ($15, above) was specifically sought out for this meal. This dish is most often enjoyed with banku, made of fermented corn and cassava, but you can ask to substitute for white rice or fufu if you please. When getting this for takeout, keep the banku wrapped in its plastic and microwave before eating.

Pour yourself a bowl of water for dipping your fingers before each bite so that the banku does not turn to cement, tear of hunks, make an indentation and pick up hot pieces of whatever meat you choose. The soup itself is surprisingly spicy and very enjoyable, slimy from okra and bright red from chilies and oils.

Jollof rice ($12, above) can also pair with any meat, and goes particularly well with whole fried fish or drumsticks of chicken, which are smothered in a thick tomato sauce. The rice gets its red hue from more tomatoes and some of the spices used in its preparation. This version at Airport Royal Cuisine is very good, but do not tell this to any Nigerians you happen to speak to later in the day.

It is always a good reason to pull out one of history's best trolls when talking about these two countries and their jollof pride. Enjoy the video below!

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