I'm always on the borderline about the price tag of the food I eat. I'm not one to propagate any idea about eating only the most expensive food you can find around. I also wouldn't tell anyone to only eat the cheapest food they can get. Nah. I've had my moments of eating foods that are quite cheap and I've also had moments when I chose or had to go for food that's quite expensive.
Here is what I've realized about both categories of foods; the cost of food doesn't necessarily show the quality of that food. There are circumstances where fairly cheap food will have more quality than expensive food. This shows that a lot of things come into the picture when considering the pricing of any food.
Now we are going somewhere. Let's get into the cheapest and the most expensive food I've ever eaten... I hope my memory serves me right.
The Cheapest Food I've Ever Eaten
There is a food we call Abacha in Nigeria. The food is also referred to as African Salad. It's just one of those meals that can pass for a fast food. It's easy to make and if you are working with a low budget, this is one of the meals you can always count on to give you a good blend of satisfaction and quality nutrient.
During my days in secondary school when I was still living in a boarding school, we had some vendors that sold food in our school. You can find foods like Abacha, Jollof Rice, Okpa, and Moi-Moi. I was schooling very far from home and only got to visit home at the end of a school term. Banks were also not very common back then. Smartphones were not yet a thing. Because of all that, I knew I had to be very careful of how I spend the money I get from home for each session.
I ate most of my meals in the school refectory, but whenever I'm very hungry and it becomes very necessary to get food from the school vendors, I mostly patronize the Abacha sellers. Abacha is made from shredded cassava and it's usually mixed with red oil and other ingredients that make it dazzle when you look at it. I like colorful meals and Abacha is one of those colorful and fairly cheap meals.
I remember paying as low as #10 for Abacha back then. If I ever get to buy one of #50, I would need the help of friends to finish it. Haha. Remember, this was between 2009-2012
The Most Expensive Food I've Ever Eaten
I believe Jollof Rice is one of the foods that is synonymous with Nigeria in most parts of the world. We love our Jollof Rice so much and there is hardly any occasion where you won't see Jollof Rice. Same with restaurants. The popularity of the food in addition to the value we give Jollof Rice is one of the things that makes it very expensive in the country.
I'm also a big fan of rice. No week can go by without me eating rice. It's so much easier to do this because there are different ways we can make our rice. I can go with either fried rice, Jollof Rice, white rice with whatever sauce I feel like getting, or coconut rice.
The most expensive meal I've eaten was just a few weeks ago when I did my maths to see everything I've spent this year. After doing the maths, I decided to give myself a good treat with a serving of fried & Jollof Rice with chicken and fried plantain. I got that from a fairly decent restaurant and came home to devour the meal. I spent thousands on that meal. Haha.
The major difference between the price I paid for the Abacha and the price I paid for the Rice is time. A lot has changed in the value of Nigerian currency since 2009 and the level of inflation we've realistically endured between then and now is on the average of 1000%. I bought Abacha a few months ago and I had to pay almost a thousand Naira for it. Yeah.
Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop or Comma.
Thumbnail Image is taken from Unsplash.