I have heard so many stories and previews about this particular native dish of mine but I didn't see it as a big deal until last year when I went to help a friend of mine who was doing her traditional marriage and needed my assistance in cooking.
While I was in the kitchen with the elderly women who were preparing our local dishes for the traditional rite we call "Udia Ibenge", a dish mostly prepared and presented to the groom and his family on the traditional marriage day before the traditional marriage proper. That particular dish consists of all our native dishes and is mainly given to elderly women to prepare because they have more knowledge about what they should prepare and what not to prepare.
The bride's mother came into the kitchen to inform us that the groom and his family members had made a specific request to go back to their state with one of our native soups which we call "Afang Soup", because they'd heard a lot about the soup and would love to taste one cooked by an indigene. A pot of our Afang soup was prepared specifically for them.
The marriage was an inter-state marriage, which isn't the first, heard people from other tribes praise this particular native soup of ours which isn't the first time either but a groom and his family saying they would love to go back to their state with the soup is one thing I have not heard.
Every visitor who has at some point tasted this native dish of ours, always has something good to say and they constantly praise the soup and would want it to be prepared for them, you can never go wrong with this particular native dish of ours, it is either you love it or you love it, there is no two way about it. Nothing beats that delicious soup, I bet you if it is made for you, you would lick your hands and even wipe the plate clean.
The dish isn't only delicious, the one fact about this leaf is that it is one of the most common leafy vegetables in Nigeria and is also found predominant in Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, and Angola. That's how far we go with our native soup.
Imagine there is an alien invasion, and the fate of humanity rests on your shoulders. The only thing that can save Earth is a spellbinding dish made by humans. What food are you going to prepare and serve to our hostile visitors, and what's so special about it that it could save humanity? It could be a cultural dish. Tell us about the food, or craft a story around it.
Afang Soup is made with Afang leaves which is also called Eru in Cameroon and Okazi in other parts of Nigeria is a flavorful green leafy vegetable,(wild spinach), and its botanical name is Gnetum africanum, which is commonly grown in West Africa, and a leafy vegetable called waterleaf which is called
Efo Gbure in Yoruba (TALINUM TRIANGULARE) or spinach. All you need to add to these two leafy vegetables are ingredients like;
- Beef
- Stock
- Crayfish
- Onions
- Palm oil
- Maggi
- Fresh pepper
- Salt
- Dried fish
- Snail
When I have gotten those, I am going to take my time and prepare it our native way, and present it with fufu (white cassava) to the aliens and watch them eat the food with so much joy, and smiles on their faces because that is exactly what it does to everyone who always have a taste of it. So, they wouldn't think a second about evacuating the Earth back to their homes.
PS: I had to ask my friend who is a cook for her food pictures for this contest
This is my entry to the Hive Naija Weekly Prompts || Edition 29