Am not good at selecting favorite dishes but there are ones that I can't resist when it is presented to me,
Some are from my locality while some are not and I can prepare some but there is one particular dish that is not from my locality that I don't know how to prepare till date but I sincerely and deeply wish to learn, and that's efe riro
Efe riro is a Yoruba dish made with locust beans and palm and best served with local rice.
This dish is one in a million with great taste and wonderful aromatic flavour.
It is done with powerful local ingredients (like locust beans and red oil )which makes it unique and different from other stews that have tasted.
The last time I ate this stew was about 6-7 years ago and yet I still have craving for it,
I do eat it when I was still living with one of my aunt in Lagos which is a Yoruba community and it is very far from my locality.
My aunt and the family loved it so much but my aunt can't prepare it the exact way the Yorubas do prepare it (my aunt is not from Yoruba) so she pays Yoruba caterers to prepare it for us and she will stock it up in the freezer to last us days and that's the main reason I wasn't able to learn how to prepare it .
When I left my aunt's house , I tried looking for the locust beans to see if I could at least try and maybe get the exact taste or something that taste similar to the real taste but I couldn't find the locust beans anywhere in my locality .
The locust beans is not sold at our market or stores and I don't know why,
Maybe it isn't valued here in Igbo community which is my locality.
But just last week, I bumped into a woman selling it but it was costly and at that time, I didn't have enough money to purchase it .
One thing I know is that I must taste the wonderful stew again very soon but am scared that I might not get the exact taste that am looking for even if I watch it on YouTube because a delicacy is best prepared by its owners.
source
There is another wonderful local delicacies that I love and I know how to prepare it because it is our local dish.
It is a special local dish , made by ngwa people (a part of Igbo land) which is used to serve special visitors during a traditional ceremony and other ceremonies organized by the ngwa people,
We call this dish mmiri, I don't know it's English name but is prepared with plenty melon seeds and ukazi leaf.
a part of the melon seeds is pounded together with some local ingredients and then mounded in balls before cooking it for some time using just hot water after which it is transfered to the main soup.
Merely looking at the melon ball, you will think that you've seen meat balls but a bite will convince you🤣.
Don't mind me, it is very tasty and wonderful and I love it with all my heart, stomach and hands😁.
I can eat this two wonderful delicacies for a entire month with complaining for a change of diet and this will show you how much I love them.
If you visit Nigeria or you're a Nigerian and you haven't eaten this two delicacies, please do and you will have reasons to thank me.
First Image gotten from pixabay. Source
This is my response to the Septemberinleo contest day 12 hosted by leogrowth
Thanks for reading till the end.
Yours faithfully.
yummycruz1.