Among all the food combos I have had, I think the weirdest of them all is using bitterleaf to eat rice. Maybe it doesn’t look strange to you, but let me tell you the story.
My dad is not a vegetarian, but he loves vegetables to the core, especially green leaves like pumpkin, bitterleaf, waterleaf, and so many others. In fact, his love for them stemmed from his belief that vegetables give blood—more blood than any other food substance can give, in fact, more than even taking a drip of blood.
There was a time we had a farm where bitterleaf was scattered all over the farm like grass, and because it was surplus, my dad took it upon himself to gain at least one sachet of blood every day from the farm by using bitterleaf to cook every meal we ate.
One day, we were to eat rice in the farm and, as usual, he was the cook. When afternoon came, which was lunch time, he came to inform us that food was ready and that we should head to the farmhouse to have our meal. We got there only to meet white rice in the pot mixed with half-washed bitterleaf cooked together... everything in the pot had turned to a dark green colour.
“You added bitterleaf? Haaaa!” My siblings and I screamed because my dad liked the bitter taste of bitterleaf, and we knew it was only half-washed.
“This thing is sweet. Have a taste first and you’ll confirm,” he said in an unconcerned way as he began to eat, expecting us to pick up spoons and join him.
We picked spoons and began to check the rice in the pot that had turned dark green due to the effect of the bitterleaf, which was almost the same quantity as the rice itself. I finally scooped some with my spoon and put it in my mouth and—hey—it made sense. It was delicious with the bitter taste. But my siblings didn’t take it lightly at all. They resorted to cooking yam to eat with the stew instead of eating the bitterleaf rice.
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