Cake and boiled maize: Delicacies uniting the rich and poor

**A piece of boiled maize and cake on a plate.** [Courtesy]

Like roasted maize, boiled maize has also made it to the high table.

The delicacy is not only found in high-end restaurants but also in our villages and hamlets.

But cake has also made it to the mainstream, beyond the high-end restaurants where it’s a dessert.

There is a cake for every occasion from birthdays to baby showers, weddings and anniversaries.

The cake, from history, ought to be a meal for the affluent, remember Marie Antoinette?

It’s taken during special occasions but in high-end restaurants, it is available all the time.

Boiled maize, which is easy to cook, was taken by the less affluent. No ingredients were added, though I found salting boiled maize makes it tasty. It was seasonal, taken when green maize was available.

Why have the two foods converged?

One explanation is that the less affluent, hustlers use the cake as an aspirational status symbol, just like we love fake labels.

Through the cake, you get a feeling that you have "arrived" even if the economic fundamentals don’t add up. After all, we love copying the affluent. Did you celebrate birthdays when young? Did you ever hear of Halloween?

The high-end restaurants are adopting boiled maize possibly to attract the hustlers and make them feel “at home” just like nduma (arrowroot) and ngwaci (sweet potatoes).

Lots of affluent Kenyans are hustlers inside going by their upbringing. Talk to them and listen to their story. Some refuse to disclose the hustler's background, lest their status be diluted. Without a story, their accent will betray them.

Health is another factor. We have become more health conscious, perhaps because of media reports on modern diseases. Any meal that can mitigate against such diseases is welcome. Remember quail?

This convergence demonstrates the future. We hope the gap between the affluent and hustlers will keep closing not just through food but other initiatives. Can we converge in the classrooms so that the rich and affluent school together?

Can they meet in churches? Can they intermarry? Can they be neighbours? In developed countries “pure estates” where one social economic class can seclude itself is discouraged, sometimes by law.

When you mix the hustlers and the affluent, you get a stronger and more confident society. Talk to Canadians. Remember when a minister’s daughter and hustler’s son would share class on campus?

The rich and the poor both eat cake and boiled maize. They need to share more beyond the air we breathe.