✺ I EAT TINGS: JOLLOF

✺ I EAT TINGS: JOLLOF

On Tomato, Time, Smoke, and Letting the Ancestors Take the Heat

Before the tomato transforms, the tongue is already reading what heat, smoke, memory, and time are building.

I Eat Tings centers nourishment as a daily spiritual practice and food as creative material—how what we ingest shapes mood, memory, energy, imagination, and capacity.

✺ Jollof — Making Love to the Tomato

Sabi Romance Tomato Well-Well. Jollof is the evidence: tomato transformed, rice stained, smoke held.

Let me say this plainly:

West Africans know how to make love to a tomato.

And we don’t.

Not like this.

I was intimidated.

I have eaten jollof.

I have loved jollof.

But making it?

I was scared.

So I said a word.

I called my West African ancestors forward and asked them to lead my hands.

And then I got to work.

//// TOMATO TRANSFORMATION PROTOCOL ////

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The protocol begins in orbit: thyme, onion, tomato, bell pepper, curry, Maggi, and others gathering into the base before heat transforms them.

Because what is happening in this pot is not basic cooking.

It is transformation.

Tomatoes are being:

roasted

blended

reduced

fried

until they are something else entirely.

Until the water is gone.

Until the oil separates.

Until the smell shifts.

Until the tomato stops tasting like an ingredient waiting to be used and becomes the infrastructure holding the entire pot together.

And yes, people use canned tomatoes.

Do what you need to do.

But I am not interested in convenience right now.

I am interested in:

what happens when you let the ingredient fully become itself.

And if the base isn’t right?

The rice will tell on you.

Every time.

My last pot of okro taught me that tomato can be rude.

Tomato can try to chair the meeting.

Tomato came ready to chair the meeting. Jollof said: more heat, more time, more reduction, more attention—then we’ll see who is actually leading.

Jollof is teaching me something different.

Tomato is not always rude.

Sometimes tomato is simply unfinished.

Sometimes it needs more heat.

More time.

More reduction.

More attention.

Time enough to stop trying to sit on top of the food and begin carrying it.

Now let’s talk about smoke.

Because I leaned in.

Heavy.

Guajillo peppers.

Chipotle bouillon.

Roasted base.

And then that bottom layer.

That slight burn that is not a mistake.

I smelled it.

My body smelled it.

And I got scared.

And I turned the heat down too soon.

Because that is the threshold.

That is where the crispy, smoky bits form.

That is where the flavor deepens.

That is where the rice begins holding evidence of the fire it survived.

Next time?

I’m staying there longer.

//// SMOKE PRACTICE ////

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Char is where tomato, onion, red bell pepper, and habanero begin carrying smoke before they ever reach the rice.

Because this part?

This is familiar.

This is Southern Black American barbecuing.

Fire.

Patience.

Letting something sit in heat until it becomes something else.

It was not quite summer when I first wrote this.

But my body still knew fire.

And I was already thinking about taking this outside.

Letting the grill speak to it next time.

I still have not made it to the grill this summer.

But I have major suya plans after the oven-broil method was top tier.

Because this is not simply about adding a smoky flavor.

Smoke is relationship with time.

Smoke is knowing the difference between something burning because it has been abandoned and something catching because you stayed close enough to let the heat do its work.

Jollof is not rice with sauce.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/23e724_84582a921bb94bc189b1a10b6ec7092c/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

The organism moves, the pot answers: smoky jollof bouncing and glitching because the rice is alive with everything it absorbed.

It is rice that has been absorbed, stained, carried.

Rice that has entered the tomato and come back carrying evidence.

And then it keeps becoming.

Day one.

Day three.

Day five.

It deepens.

The meal does not end when the stove turns off.

Time remains one of the ingredients.

And I laughed while cooking.

Deep.

African.

Because baby…

some of these African men really fumbled.

And I say that with all the spite and full joy of having fully reversed the osmo(cis).

I am very clear.

Because what I am building in this pot?

This attention.

This patience.

This fire.

That is not casual.

This is care.

When you do it right—

when you let the tomato transform

when you trust the heat

when you stay at the threshold—

your body knows.

And I mention the fumble because what I really wanted was a relationship to the culture that I could embody.

Instead, I just got them in my body.

That was not the bridge.

This pot is.

Oh, Caribbean Hut / Island Vibes days.

K bye.

◉ At the Table

At the table, the lesson becomes a meal: smoky jollof, caramelized plantain, and a body tasting what tomato became after heat, time, and attention.

I ate this jollof across days.

Day one carried the brightness of what had just been made.

Day three let the smoke, dried fish, tomato, pepper, and rice settle more deeply into one another.

By day five, the pot was still speaking.

The jollof did not remain one meal.

It kept returning with more of itself available.

• 

  Flavor enters early.

• 

  The base before heat.

• 

  Heat, measured by hand.

• 

  The base becomes one.

• 

  Relationship before blending.

• 

  Baby, I did that.

• 

  Hold the heat.

• 

  Smoke found the rice.

• 

  The body said: correct.

◉ Tongue Check

Taste the air.

The tongue reads the evidence: tomato, heat, smoke, sweetness, char, and what remains.

Taste the plate.

Taste what remains.

What is sweet.

What is bitter.

What is missing.

The tongue always knows.

I Eat Tings.

Each dish is a portal.

✺ I EAT TINGS: JOLLOF

Cosmos Watershed

✺ I EAT TINGS: JOLLOF explores jollof as transformation, threshold, and a living diasporic bridge. The essay begins with intimidation: a body that has eaten and loved jollof but has never trusted itself to make it. Calling West African ancestors forward, the body enters the pot through roasted tomato, guajillo pepper, chipotle bouillon, oil, rice, smoke, heat, and time. The tomato must be allowed to become something beyond itself. The rice must be absorbed, stained, and carried. The cook must remain close enough to the heat to recognize the difference between abandonment and transformation. Southern Black barbecue knowledge enters as an embodied relative to West African smoke practice, creating a connection that romantic proximity to African culture could never build. The jollof continues becoming across day one, day three, and day five. Time remains an ingredient. What begins as a fear of making jollof becomes a practice of cultural embodiment: that was not the bridge. This pot is.

Watershed	Tributaries
Watershed	Deep Water
Relationship	Tomato, rice, oil, smoke, heat, time, body, and ancestry entering transformation together until the ingredient becomes infrastructure and the pot becomes a cultural bridge
Hom(e)ie	Tomato · Rice · Guajillo Pepper · Chipotle Bouillon · Dried Fish · Oil · Smoke · Fire · Hands · Body · Ancestors · Time
Origin	West African jollof traditions · a Black American body intimidated by making jollof · Southern Black barbecue memory · a home kitchen learning when to trust the heat
Expansion	Tomato Transformation Protocol · Smoke Practice · tomato as relationship infrastructure · time as ingredient · threshold attention · food as cultural embodiment · the pot as multipoint bridge
Application	Roasting · blending · reducing · frying · rice absorption · bottom-pot smoke · sensory observation · staying with heat · repeated tasting across several days
Lineage	West African jollof foodways · Southern Black American barbecue traditions · African diasporic smoke knowledge · ancestral and embodied kitchen knowing
Counter Currents	Convenience as the primary value · underdeveloped tomato bases · fear of burning · turning the heat down before transformation · jollof reduced to rice with sauce · romantic or sexual proximity mistaken for cultural relationship · culture consumed without embodiment

Cosmos Coordinates

Coordinate	Entry
Primary Portal	✺ I Eat Tings
Connected Waters	≋ Deep Water · Tidal Water · Sacred Water · Turbulent Water
Tings Connections	◉≋ Afro Theory / Afroscape · I Know Tings · I Move Tings · I Smell Tings · The Wata(ring) W(hole)
Primary Methodology	Mycelial Sankofa
Methodological Practice	Tomato Transformation Protocol · Smoke Practice · repeated tasting · threshold attention · sensory recognition
Cosmos Concepts	Relationship Infrastructure · The Multipoint Bridge · Ingredient Transformation · Time as Ingredient · Cultural Embodiment · Relationship Thresholds
Geographic Coordinate	West African jollof foodways ↔ Southern Black American barbecue traditions ↔ the present home kitchen
Relational Coordinate	tomato ↔ oil ↔ heat ↔ smoke ↔ rice ↔ hand ↔ ancestor ↔ body ↔ time
Temporal Coordinate	raw tomato ↔ roasted base ↔ reduced sauce ↔ fried foundation ↔ absorbed rice ↔ day one ↔ day three ↔ day five
Orientation	Embodied · sensory · diasporic · ancestral · relational · smoky · multipoint · threshold-based
Core Refrain	West Africans know how to make love to a tomato.
Expansion Principle	That was not the bridge. This pot is.

Cosmos Constellations

Constellation	Connection
✺ I Eat Tings	Primary constellation. Jollof becomes a portal into tomato, smoke, time, diaspora, embodiment, ancestral relationship, and the politics of how cultural connection is built.
≋ Deep Water	The tomato base deepens through heat, reduction, oil separation, and smoke. The finished jollof continues becoming across day one, day three, and day five.
≋ Tidal Water	Each future pot returns with more knowledge. The cook approaches the smoke threshold again, carrying what the previous pot taught.
≋ Sacred Water	Ancestors are called forward to guide the hands. The pot becomes a site of cultural embodiment and a relationship to African foodways that does not depend upon romantic access.
≋ Turbulent Water	Fear enters when the bottom begins to catch. The cook turns the heat down too soon and learns that imbalance, uncertainty, and almost-burning can reveal the threshold where flavor deepens.
Mycelial Sankofa	West African jollof, Southern Black smoke practice, ancestral memory, sensory knowing, and the present kitchen connect through a multipoint bridge rather than a single uninterrupted route backward.
Tomato Transformation Protocol	Roasting, blending, reducing, and frying allow tomato to move beyond raw brightness and become the infrastructure carrying the entire pot.
Smoke Practice	Smoke is not simply a flavor added to the rice. It is a relationship with fire, patience, fear, attention, and the willingness to remain close enough for transformation.
Relationship Infrastructure	Tomato and pepper base organize the rice, oil, seasoning, smoke, and time around them. The base does not sit on top of the rice; the rice becomes absorbed, stained, and carried.
Relationship Thresholds	The slight bottom-pot burn marks the point where fear and flavor meet. Staying present at the threshold allows crispness, smoke, and depth to form without confusing attention with abandonment.
I Know Tings	The body smells the bottom layer before language can determine whether it is burning or becoming. Sensory recognition becomes part of the cooking knowledge.
Time as Ingredient	The meal does not end when the stove turns off. Day one, day three, and day five reveal flavors continuing to settle, deepen, and reorganize.
The Plate Is Never Alone	The jollof carries tomato, rice, fire, hands, ancestry, regional knowledge, fear, memory, sexual history, humor, and the conditions through which the pot became possible.