Food is essential for the body's wellbeing and growth. The type of food you eat determines how healthy your body will be. As our faces are different so also is our choice of food.
I am a native woman and I love native foods like ukwa (bread fruit), unripe plantain porridge, abacha, moi moi ofe achara and ukazi, vegetable soup, Afang soup with garri as the swallow.
See eh, if you really want to touch my heart of hearts just give me all these foods I mentioned
Why I Like The Foods
Unripe Plantain Porridge
Unripe Plantain porridge is not a delicious meal, it is nutritious and healthy for the body.
There are various ways to prepare unripe plantain porridge. Some do cut it in chunks, but I like cutting it in small sizes. It makes it easy to chew since it's not so soft like the ripe one.
I love to garnish it with vegetables like scentleaf, utazi, spinach, ugu (pumpkin leaf), and to add a bit of sweetness to it, I combine it with potato, like the image above shows.
I can add smoked fish or dry fish even stockfish depending on my taste buds.
If I attend an event and there is unripe plantain porridge as one of the foods to be served,
- Unripe plantain porridge helps to heal stomach ulcer and protect the walls of intestine due to the phytochemical properties, leucocyanidin, found in it.
- Also it helps in weight loss due to its high resistant starchy contents,
- It is heart friendly as it helps fight heart attack and hypertension by by regulating the heart rate in the body.
- It's high calcium content helps build strong bone and teeth.
- The vegetables that are used in preparing unripe plantain porridge are rich sources of vitamins A & C, folate, potassium, dietary fiber which are very essential for the general well being of the body.
Moi Moi
This one I can't trade it for anything o.
It's another meal that I would go for any day any time and not get tired of eating
Serve me moi moi as breakfast, lunch and dinner, I will eat and ask for more. As it is made from beans, it's very nutritious as it contains protein, fiber, carbohydrates, calcium, iron, magnesium, fat, and phosphorus which are all the essential nutrients that the body needs to be healthy and active.
While at home, I love to add either spinach or ugu vegetable to add a bit of balance to it.
If I have to eat it at an eatery or an event, I compliment with salad.
Ukwa (Bread Fruit)
Ukwa is a popular food of the Igbo tribe in Nigeria and I love ukwa whether cooked or fried.
It is not the type of food you see anyhow, Infact it's usually called the rich man's food because of its expensive price. Also you don't just see everyone selling it because processing it is not so easy. But the beautiful thing about it is that cooking it does not require much ingredients because it has a natural sweet taste. Just add onion, pepper, salt, palm oil and you are good to go but it takes time to cook well so a catalyst - potash is added to help it make it soft and cook fast.
Some cook it such that they can drink the water. Here, you will need to add much water so you can drain it after it's cooked and drink while eating the ukwa alongside with it.
Another way is porridge, you won't drain the water.
Ukwa is a rich source of protein, low in fat, has complex carbohydrate, iron, magnesium, fiber, sodium, zinc, vitamins etc
It is good for diabetic patients, helps in weight loss, regulations the heart rate, and immune build up
Ofe Ukazi and Achara With Garri
This food is also one of my favorites. It is complete with all the essential nutrients.
Achara and Ukazi (Gnetum Africanum) is my native soup, maybe that's why I took a liking to it.
It's usually prepared with thickener like achị (Brachystegia Eurycoma), ọfọ (Brachystegia nigerica) or the good old ukpo (mucuna sloanei) with stockfish, dry fish especially mangala, and any other choice of protein. You can add akpuruakpu mgbam (melon mould) if you want or just use the mgbam (melon) like that or just cook without melon at all like in the image.
A celebration in my community is incomplete without ofe achara and Ukazi.
Now you know my favorite foods, so whenever I visit, please do not fail to serve me any of them. 😋.
Please do let me know the food you liked most here, thank you.
Please note
All images are mine and should not be thought otherwise**