My Guide to Food – Exploring and Mapping intersections between Nigerian Cuisine and Foods of the World
One thing you should know is that there are ‘unspoken rules’ for cuts depending on what you’re having, in Nigerian cuisine. So I did you the good deed of sharing them. Because in the coming days, you’ll read all about plantain and love for it and how and what not. This is to equip you. […]
One day, at lunch, I found perfect plantain. It sent me on an upward spiral (?) – it just made me think so many thoughts. And then I asked other people what they thought of my idea of perfect – not that I needed their validation because nothing will make me call overripe mush dodo […]
Because beniseed [sesame] seeds have their DNA and birthplace in Africa. In this post, I use beniseed, benne and sesame seed interchangeably – forgive me. Sesame seeds are the seeds of the tropical annual Sesamum indicum. The species has a long history of cultivation – first for its rich oil but also for wine! The English […]
I’ve almost always used the dried version and so haven’t had the opportunity, till recently to truly get a whiff of the buttery, caramel, chocolate notes the aidan pod has trapped within it. A winged pod, with 2 hard, inedible and 2 soft, edible wings, it is a core ingredient in my mother’s pepper soup. […]
Updated, May 29th with a table, also confirming the name! For years, I’ve called it banga stick or oburunbebe, as learned from the interwebs. All attempts to find the botanical name drawing blanks. But researchers stay researching – once one, always and forever one. Some skills to being a good researcher are: Observation: when you […]
From market to web page, it seems – despite their size and appearance differences – that umilo and gbafilo might be related, after all. Proof that sameness is beyond appearance. In my search for the botanical name for umilo, I happened upon an article referring to umilo by Parinari excelsa, the botanical name which I ‘knew’ […]
Stoked. Surreal. Excited. And yes, I – Kitchen Butterfly, the blog, Nigerian cuisine all of it – have been nominated for the Best (Food) Culture blog in the 2018 Saveur Blog Awards! A few days ago, I received an email. It read: Dear Ozoz, Congratulations on becoming a finalist in the 9th Annual SAVEUR […]
Updated – 30th May, 2019 – Name found – its the cocoa plum (amongst other names) …still searching. And still, when in doubt, observe. When you don’t know the what or why or how, focus on what you can see, hear, smell, touch, feel, taste, focus on observing. I know one name of this peppersoup […]
Updated 29th May 2019, with the botanical names for Omilo/ Umilo I am an explorer. The thrill of discovery is blood to my bones such that rifling – if you can call electronically paging through pdfs that – through documents about the organoplectic nature of xyz are adventure hunts for me. One of the things […]
Hi. My name is Ozoz. I’m a Nigerian food explorer who’s on a quest – to find and share the sweet, sweet nectar that’s food
