Palm Oil

SOCI 345 Global Cuisine and Food Culture in Britain: Palm Oil

On an old school London street called Ridley road, I visited Ridley market. It is very accessible as it’s located right off of the underground. My professor, Steve, instructed my classmates and I to find something there that doesn't look familiar, and to research it. 

There were many items that didn’t look like things I’m used to back home. Along the borders of the stands, there were fresh cuts of meat that flies flocked towards. The air was still and meat was cut at a slow and steady pace.

One of the items that I didn’t quite recognize was the red palm oil. I’d never seen it displayed in a simple bottle saying “MP Naija Pam Oil”. It is derived from oil palm fruit, and used to make Nigerian dishes such as Egusi soup. The merchant selling the item was not West African, but the market catered to West African cuisine, so naija palm oil is a reasonable thing to find there.

Ridley market provides a selection of well-priced goods to a multicultural group of the working class population. The area that surrounds it is rapidly changing. It was great to see the heart of an otherwise gentrified city. Ridley represents what London used to be for a long time.