Hello guys,
Trying out new recipes can be the most amazing thing one can take as a hobby. As a food lover, I get all excited when I see new food or a special on a restaurant menu. Getting to meet wonderful chefs, tasting awesome recipes in my environment tends to be like a dream come true. You all must have heard a lot about Nigeria; its ethnicity, the people and so on. But have you known much about its lovely cuisines?
According to an English dictionary; ‘’a recipe is any set of instruction for preparing a mixture of ingredient”. Well that’s just a dictionary definition, to me it means a whole lot of things ranging from the type of the ingredient used , the timing of using the ingredients while cooking, method of mixture, the utensils used, the plating style are all what I take as a recipe. In Nigeria, we have a whole lot of them! My friends claimed that yam pounded in the wooden mortar and pestle taste better than electrically pounded yam, I wouldn’t agree less(smiles).
Cooking to most people is just a procedure you under go to get food done so that you can reduce or prevent hunger. I see cooking as an art just like painting or dancing. Everything must fall into the right place for you to get the perfect final result. It consists of constant practice, trying new methods, following your heart and a whole lot of hard work and determination. It is the most stress free activity in my life, I tend to forget my environment while cooking .As a child I don’t just love eating food but I love the changes I do to the food before eating them. I am always guilty of changing the taste of food, adding one or two things to make it to perfection to my little experimental eyes whether good or not I love my style.
My grand mum owned a local restaurant in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state in Nigeria. She is the first amazing chef that I fell in love with. I see her as the burning light in me that makes me see a plate of food in a whole new dimension. Whenever she cooks I watch the entire procedure with rapt attention, the food always taste wonderful but I noticed she doesn’t taste the food during the entire cooking process. I asked her why she does that, ‘’she said trusting your sense of measurement in cooking is what makes your food different from the other person’s food ‘’. As my mentor, she criticizes my cooking a lot but that’s what made me better. All those while, I was just a novice and food eater not a lover as today.
I got introduced into a new world of cooking when I first watched the chopped competition in 2014 on food network channel. Seeing good cooks competing and creating amazing dishes challenged me to do more than just eating but knowing more about why ingredient are mixed together. Judges of the program like Aaron Sanchez, Alex Guarnaschelli, Amanda Frietag and Maneet Chauhan made me to gain a lot from their comments on the competing chefs’ dishes. This same program made me to download more E-books to read more about cooking. I still consider myself as a starter, because watching other programs like Masterchief kitchen, gives me chills and a sense of encouragement to work hard till I get there.
In Nigeria, we have different variety of dishes which can either be classified according to the regions, level of acceptability and the general food we have. Some of the dishes are common to all part of Nigeria, but only the method of preparation differs. Most of the dishes found in the different regions are characterized majorly by the ingredients that are most abundant within that locality. Majority of the dishes are cooked on daily bases, while others are reserved for special occasions. Most of them can be combined with other dishes to give you a whole unique or by taking them as separate dishes.
Travellers coming to Nigeria tend to fall in love with our cuisines because of its unique taste. Starting from northern Nigeria, we have the less spicy foods, down to the south where the dishes are spicy and peppery or to the eastern where the dishes tend to have lots of sea proteins. Most of the time in a restaurant around your vicinity, you can have access to all the dishes without having to travel round the country (even though, travelling can be fun).
A taste with Dina is designed to bring awareness about Nigerian cuisine. It will entail introducing Nigerian cuisine on both local and international level. Every week, a minimum of two dishes will be discussed. Going through the upcoming edition of a taste with Dina, I would talk about the origin, the recipe, cooking instructions and pictures of the dishes featured for that week. Sometimes the restaurants around that serve those dishes would be added in case of visitors that want to try out the dishes. A taste with Dina not only will create awareness about Nigerian dishes, it will also make sure that all the audience are able to learn one or two things from the dishes and its preparation to the level that would make them easy to tryout at home.
Upcoming Nigerian cooks, the infamous ones, popular and new restaurants will be featured from time to time, in order to give them the opportunity to showcase their talents and perfections.
I am really excited about a taste with Dina. I am sure at the end, you will be able to fall in love with my country, not only for its beauty and tourist center, but for its lovely dishes it have. I promise it will be an interesting journey that you won’t like to miss. There-fore keep your fingers crossed and enjoy A taste with Dina.