Someone asked me a question on what'sapp , "what's the cheapest food you have ever eaten"?
I looked at the question, once, then looked at it again, i burst out laughing. If you had seen me and asked me this question few years ago, while I was still a student, maybe you would understand the essence of my laughter.
You see, in those periods of my life, virtually every food was in a competition to be the cheapest I had. As an indigent student money was not forth coming. I remember writing a post last week about a period in school I had to falsely claim being a vegan. For almost a full semester, I never cooked (I mainly cook then) with meat. Even the few times I ate out it was without meat. All these just to save cost.
So what really is the cheapest food I have ever had?
For me the answer is relative to time. Those times I depended on my parents to feed and now that I am completely independent. One thing I have noticed though, the cheapest food I ate then still has a lot of similarity with the ones I eat now. With time they have become a type of meal I enjoy eating.
I remember those days in school we will cook beans and add plenty of water to it. When it is done, I will buy garri ( cassava flakes? ) and sprinkle generously on the beans. It was the cheapest food to prepare. You only need beans and little cooking oil. Salt and onions etc were not really necessary. As cheap and weird this food sounds, we would eat it with big relish. And the good part, it could take us the whole day before we got hungry again. Great value you say? Lol.
Funny enough, till this day, I still eat this. I love beans and could eat it with a variety of other things, but the beans and garri combination trumps others for me. Though this time I garnish the beans with a lot of condiments, to make it rich (we are no more how we used to be you know) . And Every time, it tastes like heaven. For me, this should be the cheapest food I have ever had. Then and even now.
What then is the most expensive food I have ever had?
The thing about this question is, I have had the opportunity to eat in diverse eateries, restaurants and hotels. I believe how expensive a food is, is actually a function of venue and its location. A food you ate at place A can be ten times costlier than you will get at place B, albeit being the same food. Nevertheless, one particular food I ate, few weeks ago, would come tops as the most expensive cost I have spent on a food.
I had wanted to impress this lady I was wooing. She had come to see me. I decided to give her free reign and asked her to choose where she would love us to go for a date, as a proper gentleman .
This lady chose a place I have never been to before, though I have heard about this place. Nothing prepared me for the shock I was about to receive. It was in GRA, and that singular fact should have given me a hint to be prepared for whatever.
We got to the place. Very nice place I must say. Tastefully furnished with great ambience. Then they brought the menu, the prices I saw left me speechless. How do I back out of the date without falling my hand( embarrass myself). Well, we are here, we will face whatever.
I ordered, forest rice (I wonder what made it forest) with prawns and turkey fries. My friend ordered for curry steamed rice with assorted. We also ordered for drinks. At the end, my bill came to 45,500 Naira (about 40 usd). My food alone was 19,500. I grudgingly paid and we left the place. I just knew I would never come back there again. I don't think I will make that type of mistake again. Going forward, i 'ALWAYS', choose the venue for any date, lol.
I believe this should be the most amount I have ever spent on a food per time. Wait, did I hear,*** how often do I eat this food***? Never happened again, trust me. As a matter of fact anything that has forest attached to its name is a suspect to me. As for my cheapest food of beans and sprinkled garri, it is a never-ending relationship. I will still indulge in it even till tomorrow, irrespective of how well to do I become.
