You can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep, as the old adage goes.
But what about a city? Perhaps that is best told by its top Google searches.
This year, curious folks in the West Palm Beach area – defined by the search engine’s parameters as the stretch of Florida from Boca Raton to Sebastian in Indian River County – were looking for a staple food that had a viral moment, inexpensive fuel and different ways to be entertained.
“Fufu near me” was searched more in the West Palm Beach area than anywhere else in the country, Google said.
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The West African starchy dough that is also popular in the Caribbean is used to scoop up soups like egusi. The main-dish accompaniment has variations in how it’s made, but most commonly is composed of boiled and mashed cassava, plantain and yam.
It appears that fufu is hard to find in Palm Beach County, as more options are in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Godfred Baisel owns Riviera Beach-based Baisel’s African Restaurant, which offers Ghanaian dishes like jollof rice and okra stew (it’s takeout-only for now, but a dine-in option is coming next year).
“It looks like everybody wants to try something else,” he said.
The Internet virality of fufu happened in January 2021, according to Google Trends and a Los Angeles Times article on the occasion, but evidently had a staying power in West Palm Beach this year. Fufu was all over TikTok and evolved into a “fufu challenge,” where those unfamiliar with the dish would try it out on video, sometimes with offending results.
But Baisel is pleased that people are willing to expand their palettes. Google Reviews for his restaurant showed some happy customers drove 40 minutes to an hour just to get a taste of West Africa.
“The funny part is, when they try it, they don’t stop eating it,” Baisel said. “You try it, you always come back to it.”
The West Palm Beach area was also one of only four places in the country where “African food near me” was a top search, along with Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Jackson, Miss.; and Topeka, Kan.
The top-searched animal in the area was the Pallas’s cat, a small but expressive wildcat that lives in Central Asia. Also called manul, this animal has stocky legs, thick fur and is near threatened.
The most-searched recipe in the area was a corn tortilla, and people searched most for rap out of all musical genres.
In a year that saw record-high gas prices, it was no wonder that locals were on the hunt for cheap gas. In June, the average cost of a gallon of gas in Florida hit $4.89, and shot up to over $5 in Palm Beach County, according to AAA. But in the last week of 2022, the average gallon of gas in Florida sunk just below $3. In Palm Beach County, that average price was about $3.21 (although there are numerous stations posting prices below $3).
Top “near me” searches from 2022 in the West Palm Beach area:
- Gas prices
- Cheap gas
- African food
- Fufu
- Car shows
- Food banks
- Movies playing
- Estate sales
- Scrap yard
- Concerts
Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Drop a line at [email protected], call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse.
