Nigeria, Aug. 8 -- My first encounter was aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Washington Dulles to Addis Ababa. I'm still not sure why I chose it. Perhaps I reached for something that looked vaguely familiar. Or perhaps I was momentarily distracted by the flight attendant, a Tigrayan beauty, the sort that once turned a high-profile Nigerian politician to moonlight as a masseur at 35,000 feet. Whatever the reason, I cannot, in good conscience, blame my dislike for it on the taste alone.

As a Nigerian, I understand better than most that food is often an acquired experience. Many of our cherished delicacies would bewilder outsiders. Take ogiri, for instance, a condiment whose distinctive aroma comes from oil bean seeds preserved till r...