Have you ever imagined like I do often what we live for? Why the daily hustle, why the so much reading to the top most levels? Why doing two jobs or even more? Why travelling so far just for work?
Well, I can say I am one strange being and that is because basically these are the stupid thoughts that creep into my small brain any time I am less busy and I am tired of playing games with my phone or there is none of my girlfriends online to chat with.
My thoughts are always that we live to eat and then be happy, finish... hehe! Well that may sound so stupid but just think of it too, we work for a month and at the end when we get the salary, we buy food stuffs and stock in the house and eat them little by little and that's all o, hehe.
Well, I know you may say what about the other things we do with the money. The house rent, the clothes, the transportations and so on and so forth. I totally agree with your thoughts if you consider those as also the activities of life but I feel the aspect of food is just too basic such that all others are secondary. It is he who eats that lives to do whatever other thing(s) in life.
In fact, this thought of mine is becoming more solid these days being in a different environment and experiencing life in a new dimension. Here in Italy, food is celebrated, hehe. In my first encounter, I had what is called culture shock. Imagine that you eat from 1pm up till 6pm. I know you will say I am mad, but it's a reality my friend. It is on this background that I wish to reflect very succinctly on the nature of the Nigerian dishes and contrast with Italian dishes.
At the event I met a friend
Nigerian Dishes
Being a Nigerian and having grown up in the country and used to the foods, it is just natural that I love our foods. Nigeria has very good foods and we have our own unique ways of preparing these dishes. For me personally, I am not the selective type and so I eat almost everything, hehe but I have favorite. For those of you who are from the Eastern Nigeria or schooled there, yiu must have seen or heard of Okpa, well, that's my best food.
Basically, the Nigerian dishes are divided into two of the chewable foods and the swallows, hehe. Well it may sound awkward for who is not a Nigerian or has not been there. Basically actually, all foods are chewable and swallowable but there is a specification intended here. Below are examples of the swallowables and chewables in Nigeria.
Swallows include eba, fufu, akpu, with soups like ogbono, egwusi, ewedu, etc
Chewables are basically every other foods that are not swallows, hehe, like rice, beans, corn, etc
For me I can eat any of these at any time. It doesn't matter if it is morning or night, hehe. For some persons, swallow should be a dish for afternoon because it is a heavy food. However, I feel it's a matter of personal dieting and training over time. I can eat anything any time and I am fine, hehe.
I like the fact that in Nigeria, our foods are cooked very well before eating. But then it has its own disadvantage in that in the process of cooking most times we don't calculate the boiling point and may over cook and by so doing cook away many valuable nutrients.
More also, the Nigerian foods are well sourced and garnished with spices such that they are tasty enough and so to say Sweet. I love the local foods like eba and okra or egwusi, oha, olubu vegetable soup and so on then the normal oriental dishes like fried rice, jollof rice, noodles, spaghetti, etc. These and many more are our foods and they define our culture so to say.
Italian Foods
Coming into Italy sometime in July last year, I experienced a new culture. Life here is totally different. I had to start learning how to live like a baby. In order not to make this too long, I will just highlight my experience of their foods. First of all, Italy is known for eating pasta and for that reason before I came here people were telling me to get ready for enough pasta. And very importantly let me point out that Italy has the best foods in the world according to records.
From experience, I can say that Italians have more varieties of food than Nigeria. It is not just the pasta. As a matter of fact, here in Italy foods are celebrated in such a way that when there are occasions to celebrate, there is basically nothing else done than eating and drinking. Around December last year I attended an event in the southern part and we began the so called lunch at about 1pm and we left the venue at about 6pm but there were still more to eat from the menu. And these foods are of different kinds, meehhhn! I was wowed, hehe.
They eat in a systematic way. They begin with apertizer which is like snacks and of course different kinds. Then of course in any main meal there must be a type of pasta. After that, they take away the plates and introduce a new set of plates for another round. So the pasta is considere as the first plate, then the second is either meat or fish done in several styles and taken with vegetables.
After the second, is the fruit and then what they call dolce which is another kind of snacks in a way. It's quite interesting how this people eat. Having talked about all these, let me mention a few of their foods.
Their foods are: pasta, prosciutto, mozzarella or cheese, lingiune allo scoglio, papardelle al cinghiale, tiramisù, meats of different kinds, etc.
To be Frank, their foods are very rich but then for who did not grow up in Europe, it will be difficult to adapt. This is because they don't spice up meals like we do in Nigeria which is not really the best. Their foods are more natural and that's what makes it very healthy for the body.
Doing a contrast, most Nigerian foods are cooked with much of spices which means too much of chemicals which are not really good for the body. Most times we just eat for pleasure and not gain any nutrient. Italians cook there meals natural. Infact the prosciutto is a kind of meat that is dried and preserved and not cooked. They don't cook with spices like we do. So their foods may seem tasteless but very rich in nutrient.
Having said all these, which do I prefer? hmmm my dear, I still prefer Nigerian foods because it is not really easy to get used to eating meals not well cooked, not well spiced and all of that. So sometimes, I make some Nigerian foods here and keep in the refrigerator and any time I feel like eating, I take it and heat up and I am good to go, hehe
Sorry I made this too long, I tried to manage space but my hands were itching, hehe.
So this is a response to day 10 of the aprilinleo prompt and I would invite you to check it out and enjoy with us as you would love it. Thanks for reading.
Eating out wasn't a bad idea
