Food!

Over the past 5 weeks that I’ve been in Nigeria, I’ve had the opportunity to eat many delicious and authentic Nigerian dishes! I’ve really enjoyed almost all of the culinary experiences with one exception…kunu! It’s awful! Sorghum is boiled with water and supposedly sugar is added. It looks like watery chocolate milk and tastes like pickle juice! When I said this, they didn’t know what pickles were! I said that pickles were good, but drinking pickle juice that looks like chocolate milk isn’t favorable.

Two days ago at school, a Fulani woman came by with “no no”. I was told that this was milk. The Fulani tribe is nomadic and follows the cows around as they graze, milks them and brings the milk to the market daily. She came with a large bowl filled with bowls of this “milk”, sugar, and cereal to add. All of my co-workers were encouraging me to try it while I was a little leery. After asking about 10 times if it had been boiled, I decided it was worth the experience to risk it. It turns out the “milk” is really yogurt and surprisingly good! I hadn’t had any dairy products since I’d been here since questionable refrigeration and pasteurization makes it difficult and I was excited to try it. The next day, I decided to have a bowl of it and really liked it. They promised me this woman is very clean in her preparations. She said she would bring me milk that was extra boiled and extra clean in the future.

Moi moi is another traditional Nigerian food that I helped to make this past Saturday with Laura. I’m going to be a better Nigerian cook than American cook by the time I leave!  We soaked and shelled white beans and then mixed them with pepper and took it to the neighborhood grinder to be run through with water to make a kind of soup. Then, Laura added an expert mixture of curry, maggi seasoning, chicken boullion, salt, dried craw fish, and peanut “groundnut” oil to the mixture while I was the stirrer. Then we poured this mixture into little bags or “leathers” with half a hard-boiled egg into boiling water for about 20 minutes. It was so good!!! I was very excited that I had even participated in the yummy result!

It’s amazing how central food is to culture! I’m thankful that I really do enjoy the food because my Nigerian friends are so excited when they see me willing to try the native food and actually like it! Everyone has been so thoughtful and kind in offering me food and sharing in the new experience with me. I’ve been very conscientious about trying everything while keeping the safety issue in mind! :) Also, I can now see the fun in preparing a meal as entertainment. There are no movie theaters or malls or parks or trails…well walking through the town is basically like walking trails…but cooking together is a lot of fun! Nigeria must be having an effect on me! :)

***I added some pictures of these food experiences to the picture folder...here's the link:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32625&l=ae61a&id=501312909