It's a heated historic rivalry across West Africa: Which country makes the best jollof rice?

Cooks across both Nigeria and Ghana have long claimed to make the best. But chefs in Senegal argue that it originated there in the 14th century — so it must be the best! No fewer than 10 countries offer their own version of the dish: a rich, fragrant rice cooked down with spices, tomatoes and meat.

On Saturday, 2,000 people stood in line near Washington, D.C.'s Union Market for a yellow box of six color-coded taster cups. The organizers of the Jollof Festival have traveled across the United States to put this debate to the test, gathering thousands of people for blind tastings of regional jollof prepared by local chefs"It bites you at the end!" Agbasi said after trying one. “It's very slow — it builds up and then at the end you're like, woo!”

"My heritage is Nigerian, so we used to eat jollof rice almost all the time," Agbasi said. “It's delicious, but there are other regions that I'm really looking forward to.”

The rice samples ranged from a bright red to a brighter yellow jollof, flecked with herbs. Some patrons felt confident they could guess the country of provenance for each one — others simply enjoyed learning the diversity of jollof possibilities.

"You know when you have good jollof, and you know when you don't have good jollof!" laughed Maggie Duncan August, an attendee with Ghanaian heritage. “My favorite jollof is spicy, smoky. It has good meat in it. Ghana always stands out as the No. 1!”

The samples were prepared by chefs from the D.C. metro area hailing from six countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia and — for the first time since the competition began in 2017 — the United States.

Many visitors enjoyed the samples, but doubled down on their preferences for the jollof of their spouses, neighbors or childhoods.

"My sister-in-law is Nigerian, so every holiday we have, she brings her jollof rice. So I'm comparing them all to hers!" said Carla Shelton, who was visiting from Phoenix.