Food in Nigeria

Two Christmas celebrations ago, my IJGB friend (Dozie*) breezed into Lagos to spend one of his nights with me. Before then, he’d usually get excited whenever I shared pictures of suya or grilled turkey on my WhatsApp status, and every single time, our exchange would end with, “You must show me this life if I come Lagos o”.

Fast forward to the day we agreed to hang out, he got to the spot a few minutes earlier than I did (Lagos traffic na wa) and I told him to order before I got there. Tell me why I arrived to my IJGB friend battling creamy pasta and smoothie? *Criminally offensive bombastic side eye* If like Dozie you don’t know how to treat yourself at a Lagos nightlife spot, you should hold this list to your chest.

Goat meat pepper soup

Source: Sisi Jemimah

It’s unofficially the official Lagos nightlife meal, and honestly, I get it. Nothing beats the satisfaction of scooping broth with juicy meat pieces into your mouth and washing it with a long gulp of mortuary-cold beer.

Asun

Goat meat pepper soup is great but only when you don’t plan to down many bottles. That’s double work for your bladder and double trips to the restroom. But asun? The roasted goat meat sautéed in spicy habanero and red bell peppers comes in bite sizes that don’t fill you up too quickly. Be warned. You might find yourself ordering a dozen plates and spending more than you planned.

Pepper snails

Source: Low carbs Africa

This is probably the best way to enjoy snails. I don’t know what the secret recipe is at these night spots, but boy, do they get it right? The snails are big, juicy, spicy and soulfully flavoured. This might set you back several thousands sha.

Grilled turkey

Consider grilled turkey when you visit a nightlife spot with the potential LOYL or the IJGB friends you want to impress. They’re nice but expensive, with a piece selling for as high as ₦2500 – 3500.

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Suya

Suya’s versatility makes it my favourite on this list. Whether you’re looking to spend ₦500 or need a money-smart way to cater to a large gathering, it always delivers. And that’s not even the best part. With suya, you don’t have to go to a restaurant or bar. Just strike a badass deal with a random mai-suya on the streets.

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Roasted bushmeat

Source: The Green Palace

Also known as eran igbe, you won’t find it at your regular nightlife spots, but best believe when you do, you’ll pay through your nose and it’ll be totally worth it. Eran igbe is premium meat known for its distinct taste, aroma and nutritional value. It’s mostly available in villages, and that’s why the best pairing for it is palm wine.

Roasted Grasscutter

This is another premium meat that’s hard or expensive to come by in the big cities. While you can also enjoy this with any drink of your choice, palm wine is where the true magic is.

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Adeyinka Odutuyo

September 1, 2023

Chopist

Food in Nigeria, meat festival, Nigerians
I recently struck a bet with my friend, Ori Ejo, who was visiting Lagos for a couple of days from Osogbo. He went on and on about how we’re suffering in Lagos, paying the most for the most basic things. I couldn’t let that slander go.

Yes, I know Laygurss is expensive, but it’s not so bad that you can’t ball on a ₦5k budget.

So I told Ori Ejo I’d go on a ₦5k meat tour, and it’d be far better than what ₦5k will get him in Osogbo.

A little back story about Ori Ejo. He’s the friend in this article who crushed seasoning cubes on chunks of snake meat. Ori Ejo, which means “snake head” in Yoruba, became my nickname for him after I discovered his love for snake meat.

Now, what do you get for ₦5k on the streets of Lagos? First off, erase any idea of private cabs for this mini adventure. But it’s not like okadas and keke maruwas are cheap these days, no thanks to the fuel subsidy removal.

My take-off point was the popular Olosha market in Mushin because there was no way I’d miss out on linking up with my meat plug. He has the best ponmo deals that fit right into my ₦5k budget. I got a decent cut for ₦800 and was left with a balance of ₦4000 — after paying ₦200 for t-fare.

Next was this barbecue spot around Shitta Underbridge in Surulere. I used to eye this spot a lot because there was always a long queue of people trying to buy from them, and that meant they had to be doing something right. Tell me why I got there and these guys wanted to charge ₦3000 for barbecued chicken and chips. I mean, it’s a fair price, but I expected a cheaper deal for a street spot. ₦3k would’ve done serious damage to my budget, so it was a no-no.

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But you see, the beauty of Layguyrss is you’ll always find something. What did I find in this instance? Grilled chicken franks. I didn’t even know this was a thing, but it looked so good, I had to try it. It was just ₦300 for a stick. I bought two.

I knew this my waka wouldn’t be complete without suya and turkey, but I also knew it’d be hard to get both on a ₦3k budget. This is where connection comes in. Sorry to break it to you, but you cannot go far in Lagos without connections. It doesn’t even have to be people in government. You also need to know people in the streets to amp up your street cred.

To cut the long story short, I hopped on a bus to Aguda, where my brother had a turkey grill spot. I mean, I wasn’t even supposed to pay but I had an agenda that needed to agend. I sweet-talked my brother into selling a piece of turkey wing for ₦1500. The going rate would have been ₦2k.

I was running out of cash and knew it was time to head back home. But not without suya. I had a plug, Bello, just outside the LUTH gate in Idi-Araba, and he was the perfect person to wrap up this waka. My ₦1500 got me a stick of chicken suya at ₦500, beef suya at ₦400 and ₦200 masa.

I gagged Ori Ejo when I returned home, but it wasn’t because his point about Lagos being expensive was wrong. I was just street-smart.

Now, who wants to give me ₦100k to properly eat all the meat I want at the Burning Ram meat festival in Laygurrrsss?

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Adeyinka Odutuyo

August 31, 2023

Chopist

Food in Nigeria, meat festival, Nigerian Food, Nigerians
While suya, beef kebab and catfish pepper soup are doing the Lord’s work, there are other lesser-known meat delicacies that should be on your radar.

If you haven’t tried any of these meat recipes, you’re depriving your tastebuds of the sweet things of life, and honestly, why that?

Dambu nama

The first time I had dambu nama was at a friend’s family home in Osogbo. His dad came home from Kaduna that weekend with it, and it was served as a side with rice. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it tasted good and chewy just like meat. My suspicions were right when I asked my friend.

Dambu nama is a popular delicacy in northern Nigeria, and it’s essentially spicy shredded meat. However, unlike the common shredded meat for stir fry recipes, the dambu nama meat is shredded so thin it feels like cotton candy floss. It can be made with cow, ram or chicken meat. Full recipe here.

Ngwo ngwo

This is a goat offal pepper soup delicacy from the eastern parts of Nigeria. It’s made from a goat’s innards: the liver, kidney, heart, spleen, tripe, and sometimes, bits of flesh. It’s similar to nkwobi (cow feet), but the difference is in the parts used for the delicacy. Find a complete recipe here.

Chicken yassa

As a certified onion hater, I once watched in horror as a chef on Food Network sliced up three large bulbs of onion on chicken cuts. I couldn’t understand why a recipe needed so much onion, but that was the first time I heard about chicken yassa. A year or two later, I watched a Nigerian food blogger recreate the recipe, and it didn’t seem like a bad idea at all. Chicken yassa is a Senegalese dish made with chicken, caramelised onions, lemon and a mix of spices. This is the complete recipe.

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Salted meat (eran oniyo)

Salted meat AKA “eran oniyo” is a Muslim meat recipe that stemmed from preserving ram/cow meat with salt during sallah. All that heavy salt coating gives the meat a different taste than meat preserved in the freezer or by frying. Salted meat is best enjoyed with egusi soup, yam pottage or stews.

Liver sauce

If you can stomach the idea of liver in your sauce, then you’ll have no problem going bigger with a liver sauce recipe. Apart from the fact that it’s a healthy meal packed with iron supplements, you’ll also give your taste buds a treat. Liver sauce can be enjoyed with rice, spaghetti or eaten alone. Find the liver sauce recipe here.

Shoko

Jollof rice isn’t the only meal we Nigerians share with our Ghanaian neighbours — I raise you shoko. Although the name is similar to the popular Yoruba vegetable soup “efo shoko”, this West African beef stew is slightly different. Shoko is prepared with amaranth leaves, tomatoes and a generous amount of beef. The seasoning spices introduce a delicious flavour to the beef. You can enjoy this sauce with rice, plantain or fufu. Find a full recipe here.

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Adeyinka Odutuyo

August 21, 2023

Chopist

Food in Nigeria, nigerian recipes, Nigerians
This might sound like a joke, but SAPA does have a way of making you get creative with the resources at hand.

We recently witnessed Twitter people murder ₦10k, but what if we told you it’s possible to make a decent pot of soup with ₦1k. We’ll show you how.

Melon soup

Source: Sisiyemmie

The key here is to stay within your budget, so don’t expect chunky proteins in your soup.

What you need:

Eja kika (round fish)– ₦300

Cameroon pepper – ₦100

Ground melon seeds – ₦200 (smallest tomato tin)

Palm oil – ₦100

Crayfish – ₦200

Average spend: ₦900. Serves two.

Groundnut soup

Source: Sisiyemmie

Groundnut is for more than snacking on when you want to drink garri. Try this low budget soup instead.

What you need:

Roasted groundnut: ₦200

Ponmo: ₦200

Palm oil: ₦100

Dried shawa fish: ₦300

Cameroon pepper: ₦100.

Total spend: ₦1000. Serves two.

Assorted fried stew

Source: Mumj3kitchen

Not exactly a baddie when it comes to soups, but you’ll have something to go with white rice.

Pepper – ₦300

Ponmo – ₦200

Crayfish- ₦100

Smoked mackerel – ₦300

Palm oil – ₦100

P.S: Buy the pepper from Hausa roadside traders, and not the market women. Average spend: ₦1000. Serves two.

Waterleaf vegetable soup

Source: Afrolems

Who says you can’t have options with a N1000 budget?

What you need:

Waterleaf: ₦200 (If you’re lucky, you can even find them growing somewhere in your area)

Source: The Guardian

Ponmo: ₦200

Iru (locust beans): ₦50

Eja kika (round fish): ₦300

Palm oil: ₦100

Habanero pepper: ₦100

Total spend: ₦950. Serves two.

Ogbono soup

Source: Instagram (@playfoodbyyinka)

Ogbono doesn’t get the love it deserves for offering so much value at minimal cost.

What you need:

Ground ogbono powder: ₦100

Cameroon pepper: ₦100

Crayfish: ₦200

Ponmo: ₦200

Ugwu leaves: ₦100

Eja kika (round fish) – ₦300

Total spend: ₦1000. Serves two.

Ila alasepo (Okra soup)

Source: Vee_Familylifestyle

Another low-budget soup that didn’t get its flowers until the join-body with seafood. This soup is a lifesaver.

What you need:

Okra: ₦200

Iru (locust beans): ₦50

Ponmo: ₦200

Cameroon pepper: ₦100

Eja kika (round fish): ₦300

Total spend: ₦850. Serves two.

Chicken feet pepper soup

Source: Blackpeoplesrecipes

There’s even something for when you want to set the club mood in your house.

What you need:

Peppersoup spice: ₦100

Scent leaf: ₦50

Cameroon pepper: ₦100

Chicken feet: ₦600

Total spend: ₦750. Serves two

There’ll be loads of food and drinks for the hottest babes at HERtitude23. Grab your ticket here.

Adeyinka Odutuyo

May 20, 2023

Chopist, Eat

Food, Food in Nigeria, Nigeria, Nigerians
Bukkas will always have a special place in our hearts. Why? There are some of your favourite meals you’d say “God forbid” to making, but eat like a chairman when someone else decides to cook it. Here are nine of them:

1. Starch and banga

Southerners love a good serving of banga soup, but you see the stress? First, you’ll wash a whole bag of palm kennels, then boil and pound it with strength only the ancestors can give. You think you’re done? LOL.. Next, you’ll extract the juice to boil for hours. Why all this for food that’ll finish in under ten minutes? After all of that, you’ll now start turning starch with the remaining power you have. No, thank you. If you cook it I will eat sha.

2. Pounded yam

Shout out to the bukkas that continue to do the Lord’s work. Anybody that hates pounded yam is probably a semo lover. Feel free and those are the people to disrespect semo lovers when you see them. As much as pounded yam feels islike an elite masterpiece we need to eat every day, the energy to carry mortar and a pistol is not the soft life we’re here for.

3. Anything made from beans

The only way to eat moi-moi and akara in peace is to buy them. Every other option requires at least two hours of dedication. Yes, there are hacks to washing beans, but who will pick all the stones inside? Let’s not even talk about the people still using leaves for moi-moi. They’ve renounced anything that has to do with enjoyment because, why?

4. Ofada rice and stew

This is a meal strictly for Iya Sukirat down the road to make. Anybody that can get up unprovoked to make ofada rice and stew has received nine lives from the gods. They’re practically cultists. Feel free to beg them for food sha.

5. Fried rice

JSometimes I feel jollof rice is your main boo because fried rice is that expensive, high maintenance side piece. Why do I need to spend half of the time I’ll use to fry tomato and pepper to cut vegetables and other orisirisi for fried rice? And if you comment about the vegetables that are already cut and packed in supermarkets, I will bite you. Stop it.

6. Ekpang nkukwo

If you’re big on delayed gratification, this is the food to really test your patience. You don’t want to be in the house when a Calabar woman decides to cook ekpang nkukwo. Just find somewhere to stay because you will grate cassava tire, and that’s only the beginning. This food literally takes the whole day to cook.

7. Black soup

This is one food you can’t start and finish on your own. You will wash bitter leaf like it’s white socks after secondary school inter-house sports day. If you’re craving this food, I suggest you practice self care. Pick up a plate and go to Iya Sukirat’s place.

8. Ukpo Oka (Corn pudding)

It’s the advanced version of moi-moi made from corn. This is a meal you leave for your grandma to cook because only she has the time.. Corn is already stressful to eat, then imagine sitting to take out corn from 30-40 cobs. No dear, wait for grandma or buy it.

9. Abacha

It’s super easy to make, but it always tastes better when someone else goes through the stress of making it. If it’s not from the woman down the road, it ruins the enjoyment in abacha. Try and make it yourself and see.

Ortega

February 26, 2022

Chopist

Food in Nigeria, food struggles, Funny memes, Nigerian meals
You eat different meals everyday but do you know what they’re made of?

Find out in this quiz:

Miriam Onyemenam

June 4, 2021

Quizzes

Food in Nigeria, Foodie, Nigerian Food
If you scale this quiz, we will start respecting you when it comes to food affairs.

Let’s go!

Miriam Onyemenam

February 26, 2021

Quizzes

expert, Food, Food in Nigeria, trivia
For this quiz, we gathered pictures of 8 different Nigerian swallows. All you have to do is to identify them before the timer runs out.

Note: Hit ‘Guess’ when you’ve typed in your answer. If you’re not sure what the swallow is, hit ‘Give up’ to reveal the answer.

All right, let’s have some fun:

You got #{score}/#{total}
How could you fail this?
You got #{score}/#{total}
You didn’t do badly, but we kinda expected more from you.
You got #{score}/#{total}
You do know your Nigerian swallows. Well done.

Featured image: www.radianthealthmag.com

Image credits:
1. www.enistoresonline.com
2. www.blog.wellahealth.com
3. www.sodicgarden.com
4. www.cookpad.com
5. www.naijachef.com
6. www.cheflolaskitchen.com
7. www.dobbyssignature.com
Toheeb Lanlehin

August 16, 2020

Quizzes

Chopist, Food in Nigeria, Nigerian Swallows
Nigeria has a variety of swallows, as it does a variety of people. We did the hard work and found out the similarities between these delicacies and you, the people. Why don’t you take this quiz and find out which of this exquisite food closely fits into your personality?

Ope

October 16, 2019

Quizzes

Food in Nigeria, swallow, Top performing quiz
In order for you to know whether or not the food in a particular buka is going to be good, certain things must be present. If you walk into any buka and these elements are missing, we have to tell you that the food won’t be sweet.
They must have very cheap and mismatched plates.

If all their plates match then their stew won’t be sweet. Pure facts. They must also have this one nation plate.
Either the owner or at least one of the servers has to be a rude and overweight woman with flabby arms.

When the owner is rude you just know the food is going to be good. You think they are there to serve you? They are only doing you a favour.
If you don’t see the woman serving flick sweat into the stew at least once then that stew can’t be sweet.

That’s the last and final ingredient that makes buka stew taste the way it does. Ingredient X.
As you step into the buka some kind of unbearable heat must overcome you.

Any buka that has an A/C is not ready for life, sweat has to be pouring out of your body as you are eating.
The food is served straight from the pot they cooked it in or old coolers that have seen life.

From the pot straight to your plate, no time to waste.
If the prefix of the buka’s name doesn’t have ‘Iya’ or ‘Mama’ or the suffix doesn’t have ‘Buka’ in it then it’s probably not even a buka at all.

That one is a restaurant or fast food.
A good buka doesn’t have an opening or closing time.

They open when the food is ready and close when food has finished.
If there isn’t a crowd waiting to buy the food just know it’s not sweet.

Any buka you enter that is empty has nothing good to offer you.
Because nobody has time for decor, you’ll find plastic chairs and tables that look like this.

Anything fancier than this qualifies as a restaurant.
The menu is never extensive because nobody has time for stress.

There is rice, dodo, swallow, and beans. Dazzal.
Do you have any other good buka-finding tips for us?

Toketemu Ohwovoriole

August 27, 2018

General

amala, Buka, Food, Food in Nigeria, Fried Rice, jollof, Local food, Pounded Yam, Rice

Melon soup

Groundnut soup

Assorted fried stew

Waterleaf vegetable soup

Ogbono soup

Ila alasepo (Okra soup)

Chicken feet pepper soup

1. Starch and banga

2. Pounded yam

3. Anything made from beans

4. Ofada rice and stew

5. Fried rice

6. Ekpang nkukwo

7. Black soup

8. Ukpo Oka (Corn pudding)

9. Abacha

Questions

This is a question

You got #{score}/#{total}

You got #{score}/#{total}

You got #{score}/#{total}

They must have very cheap and mismatched plates.

Either the owner or at least one of the servers has to be a rude and overweight woman with flabby arms.

If you don’t see the woman serving flick sweat into the stew at least once then that stew can’t be sweet.

As you step into the buka some kind of unbearable heat must overcome you.

The food is served straight from the pot they cooked it in or old coolers that have seen life.

If the prefix of the buka’s name doesn’t have ‘Iya’ or ‘Mama’ or the suffix doesn’t have ‘Buka’ in it then it’s probably not even a buka at all.

A good buka doesn’t have an opening or closing time.

If there isn’t a crowd waiting to buy the food just know it’s not sweet.

Because nobody has time for decor, you’ll find plastic chairs and tables that look like this.

The menu is never extensive because nobody has time for stress.

Do you have any other good buka-finding tips for us?