Celebrating Nigerian Cuisine…because it’s worth it.
I often plan my posts – what I’m going to write about and how and when. This was unplanned. A spontaneous outburst and celebration.
Yesterday, I sat in my kitchen, eating baked plantains stuffed with cheese and drinking Zobo, while mangoes were close by and I was awed, floored.
Everything looked so beautiful. Was beautiful. Is beautiful.
It made me think of all the bashing Nigerian cuisine has gotten.
Made me smile really because you are not what you’re called till you accept it.
A people are what they eat and drink and believe. And this right here? This is us, people, this is us.
We’re going into a new era where Nigerian cuisine focuses on fresh, vibrant, nutritious and different. Where we begin to explore ingredients not for how they’ve been used since time immemorial but for how they can be used. Cuisine unusual.
Boundaries will be explored, many will be vexed but those who believe? They shall delight their bellies and their tongues.
Today, I want to celebrate Nigerian food writers who continue to push the frontiers, who continue to test recipes, who do not give up even at the risk of being stoned in the market square.
We have a lot to celebrate – how vibrant, how colourful, how amazing our food and culture is.
Please invite me to your kitchen biko. The colours are really vibrant.
Aaw. Thank you. ☺