In our familiarity with and adoration of it, we translate its importance to others. We recoil in shock when we find that the significance we attach to it this side of the Atlantic is not the same in other parts of the world, like the area in and around the Indian Ocean. And no this...
Interesting, I find – Jollof goes by only four names across the coast of West Africa, three of which are repeated in use – Jollof, Riz au Gras (aka Riz Gras), Thieboudienne; one – Benachin is used in only one country – Gambia. I looked at the names in 16 of the 18 countries, excluding...
I’ve always been fascinated by Mingau. By always, I mean since I learnt about it, about it’s existence. In trying to find out more about it, to classify it and understand it, I happened upon lots of Brazilian/ Portuguese references. Mingau, from the old Tupi mina’u means ‘that which is soaked‘. To this end, there...
There are many things that soothe my soul – handcrafted, locally produced chocolate are some of them. I fell in love with Ghanaian chocolate in 2011 – for the flavour, but also for the heritage contained in the brown and dark bars. And so these boxes, from Selassie of Midunu are extra extra special for many...
That Nigeria is the world’s top buyer of Lofoten’s stockfish, eclipsing the once dominant Italian market by 20 per cent? That though cod is the most popular source of stockfish, haddock, saithe and tusk are also good sources, popular for the Nigerian market That it takes three months to dry stockfish? First, the head and guts...
The ‘Around the World’ series is my way of showing and sharing all the ways we are similar even in all the ways we’re different. Rice tables, Rice buffets are some of my favourite things, ever. I am very much a ‘buffet’ person but the idea of this focus – a central dish around which...
Stockfish – pungent, fishy and a strong fave in Nigerian cuisine comes from Norway, a Nordic country in the north of Europe where cold water loving-cod surface in the winter, and birth their babies on the coast, putting them within easy reach of fishermen. To be very honest, in Nigeria, we call all dried cod...
The Concept This concept is about sushi, Japanese rice rolls. Years ago, I attended a sushi workshop in the Netherlands and fell in love with the perfect bites of rice wrapped in seaweed sheets. Here, I’ve combined ‘traditional’, palm-oil based flavours using gorgeous dry fish skin instead of the nori sheets, smoky rice and fresh...
‘We need to diversify the Nigerian economy’, our Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment, Mr. Okechukwu Enelamah says in many places – on CNN, at global meetings, etc: “Necessity is the mother of invention,” he says. “Given the very negative consequences of the drop in oil and commodity prices…we must make good on our commitment to diversify...