This recipe makes the bitterness of garden eggs shine through. The green garden eggs are more bitter than their white counterparts. Either way, the sugar and spice work extremely well to create a balanced ‘condiment’ that tastes Africa, smells Indian, and eats well. In the manner of Thakkali Chutney. Weeks ago, my friend Deepa of...
Category: Nigerian Cuisine
Nigeria’s Rainy Season Produce: September & Garden Eggs
In season, in season, garden eggs are in season. Truth be told they’ve been in season for a month or so now. Wheel-barrowed boys and men push these out-of-hand eggs around the city. Parking at office gates, awaiting the gong of closing time for sales to peak. Or outside school gates, though I doubt this...
Green White Green: Happy 53rd Independence Day, Nigeria
Another October 1st. Another day to sit back and think. This October 1st, this Independence Day, I am thinking a few things. Reinventing Hope Where it not for Timi of Lively Twist, I would be moaning about my country. Instead I’m thinking of ‘Reinventing Hope‘. She writes ‘ Little hinges swing huge doors. Change will elude...
How To Eat Fried Snails
Peppered. Freshly made. Leftovers. Freshly warmed. Who cares? On a toothpick. Or by hand. Standing up. Sitting down. By the dozen. Or half-dozen, belying your generosity. Not showing your greed. A half-dozen, at the very least. But one by one. One after the other. Hard flesh, rubbery flesh, crunch. Juicy tentacles. With rice. Delicious, freshly-boiled...
Marketplace: Tomatoes. By The Basket Load
They come from all over Nigeria and go by different names, speaking to their provenance, their source and origins. The tomatoes do. Names unpronounceable in some languages, where certain consonant combinations are never found. Like gb. Pronounced with force and confidence. And literally known as labial-velar consonants. Truly doubly articulated labial–velars occur as stops and nasals in the majority...
Nigeria’s Rainy Season Produce: August
‘I was personally very relieved when I realized that you can complete a project by dropping it. That’s how I completed learning to cook and learning German, becoming a good skier, and a list of other things too long to recite’, Arriana Huffington of The Huffington Post And that’s how I will complete learning to...
The ‘Forgotten’ Groundnut Pyramids of Nigeria
The past may hold treasures, still remembered but the future is bound in hope, in belief and in the knowledge that with life, all things are possible. Did you know our pyramids? The Nigerian pyramids? Where you even aware that once upon a time we had them? My daughter said ‘Mama, is that a postcard from...
Nigeria’s Transition Season produce: July
Putting jet lag to good use. Time Zone: Eastern Daylight Precise Location: New York State Currently….blogging at 4.45am while the world, the city around me sleeps! —–00000—–
Nigeria’s Wet Season Produce: May/June
I can’t call it summer here, for it is always warm in Nigeria and mostly sunny. What I can say is the rains are here. In full force and my frustrations rise to a head about this time. Every year. Apparently, I do not learn. If I did things would be different. For I know...