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Going to the Market in Nigeria!
Hello Everyone,
And a very Happy New Month to you! If this is your first time listening, I want to welcome you and also say that I am happy you are here.
In my next few blog posts, I will be sharing about my trip to Nigeria.
In the last podcast episode, I had mentioned that my younger brother had passed away and I had gone home to Nigeria to pay my respects and be part of the funeral. In the time I was there, I was in the city Lafia and for some reason, we had little to no electricity.
In the US, people might worry about the lack of electricity being an issue but there, my family members did not seem to be worried about it. They only planned to cook just the amount of food that was needed for the people who were home, and the need to have their phones charged which they would do by turning on the generator.
I, on the other hand, was not loving this. It was HOT and no electricity meant no cold water and or cold anything to drink… Yes, I will say that I have become too accustomed to having cold water from the fridge.
Moving on. ..
To cook, one had to go to the market. Now, going to the market is not like going to Walmart/ Meijer/ Kroger or Publix or any of your neighborhood grocer here in the States. Going to the market was more like going to a farmers market and then some. Most of the fresh produce that was sold was grown by the people selling it or was sold by people who bought from people who grew it. Depending on what you needed to buy, you might need to go to a certain market, at a certain time or day but, for the most part, you would find what you needed.
We arrived at the market and I will tell you it has been a while since I saw that many people in the same spot. It was loud, and a bit chaotic. There were people in stalls, people selling their wares on wheelbarrows, girls/ women selling stuff on metal trays very well balanced on their heads. I had missed this, it was good to see this again.
There is sooooo much fresh foods my dears and the sun shining on these fresh foods I would say made it all the more appealing to me. There were tomatoes, peppers, green vegetables, beef, fish, fruits, sugar cane, and so much more.
A few things to note:
-Should you desire and or decide to travel and visit the markets; you should know that the meats especially beef is not wrapped and or sold from the refrigerator (like in the States) but it is sold right there on top of the table. It is pretty much from the butcher house to the market and when you purchase it, it is from the butcher house to your house. The butcher or meat seller would usually swat of the flies to keep them away but you know those things do not get the message so they come back. I will tell you that when you purchase your meat, wash it at home and cook it thoroughly- there is no such thing as rare or medium-rare cooking here!
-Some of the fruits and vegetables are sold off mats on the floor and or from the wheelbarrow. The one thing I will advise you is that do not let this deter you, buy the quantity you need or want and then wash it when you get home and then enjoy your purchase.
I will give you an example: when we got there, we were offered the African garden egg (in the States I will say it looks like the Thai eggplant) and spicy peanut butter which I ate with relish. I cannot tell you how long it has been since I had this combo but I will say it was delicious. We also found guava in the market and I washed mine with bottled water and ate a little bit of it. The skin was too dense for me, I am used to the guava we have in southern Nigeria where the skin is thin and the middle of the guava is pink- you see in the pic the middle of the guava is not pink.
There was so much food and I WILL add that if I was going to strictly have a mostly vegetarian diet, it would be easy to do it when I am home because the fresh “organic” food is very very cheap. And you can get it every single day- no such thing as seasonal and so on.
One caveat I will add to all this talk of food is that if as an American you mention you are traveling to Nigeria and or other countries you have to see your primary care doc and or visit the international clinic before you travel. You would be told what you can eat and the medication you should have -anti-typhoid, anti-malaria and diarrhea medicine to name a few. Listen to your medical team and do what they tell you.
I washed my fruits with bottled water and drank bottled water and prayed to not be sick and thank God I was not. I had made up my mind that I will not be afraid to eat good food and I tell you, I enjoyed everything I ate.
So if you want to travel, keep these points in mind
Wash the foods you want to eat that are fresh with bottled water
Boil all or cook all meats you eat
Enjoy yourself because I did 😘
So, I will ask you, if fruits and veggies were cheap and available all year round, would you change the way you eat?
Let me know.
Until next time,
God bless you!
Peppers, Onions, tomatoes on a mat
Water Gallons. If you need water at home, you pay for the water and the gallons are filled and the water is delivered to your home
Cocoyams, plantains, vegetables, “agbalumo”, papaya and breadfruit for sale
Rice, garri (in the bags), and seasoning sold in packets
African garden egg and spicy peanut butter sauce (so good)
More pepper, and tomatoes for sale
Happy to be at the market !
Guava
Happy New Year Friends!
It is 2020!
How are you? How did you spend your New Years Day?
Did you set any goals?
On New Year’s Eve, I spent the day at work and I came home when I was done. If I was in Nigeria, I would have gone to church to pray in the New Year. Did you do that? Since being in the States, I noticed that some people go to church and some do not.
With time, I have come to notice that some people cook special dishes for the New Year to bring them good luck, wealth and good health. The older I am getting, I would like to set traditions for my younger one to keep and this is one I might be adapting- the cooking of black-eyed peas!
In Nigeria, black-eyed peas are the last thing I would want on my plate for New Year! It was (in my house) considered food you got that was healthy, filling and nutritious but something you cooked when there was nothing in the house. However, here in the States, it is cooked at New Year because it is said to bring in prosperity! Most people who ate black-eyed peas at New Year believed that these seeds (black-eyed peas) looked a bit like money, and the amount cooked almost always doubled or multiplied when you cooked them. The hope was that on cooking and eating black-eyed peas; one would get good luck and prosperous in the new year!
I like black-eyed peas and it is in very many dishes we make in Nigeria, some of the dishes are Moi Moi, Ewa & dodo, beans and garri (this I love), beans and rice to name a few dishes.
This year, I decided to make rice and stew and black-eyed peas and I enjoyed it!
So I will ask you, do you have a special meal you prepare for New Year’s day?
You might be thinking that New Year means setting goals and such and I would say to you yes and no!
Yes, it is time to start anew and No because if you have not and are yet to finish what you started then finish that first!
I choose two things to do this year:
Eat what I cook and make
Increase exercise- walk more, dance more and laugh more!
I will end with this.
I planted black-eyed peas when I lived in Florida; one seed produced at least 5 pods which gave me about 1/4 of a cup of black-eyed peas. All I did was water it, place it out in the sun and the seed grew
What about if we set simple goals and work to achieve them? Just like the bean seed I planted, I would say set your goals/dreams/vision (s) and work on them. Pray over them and watch them grow. You would be surprised at what the harvest would be!
If you want a recipe for how I cook my black-eyed peas, email me below 😊
Happy New Year Friends!
Black-Eyed Peas
Memories of The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
It is the most wonderful time of the year for so the song says!
Do you agree or no?
One of my favorite childhood memories with family happened during Christmas time.
When I was younger and my family had gone to visit my grandparents in the village (countryside -US) as it was customary to do, most of us kids were so excited because this was the time to see all the cousins we had not seen for about a year. Now, I will tell you that at that time in Nigeria, there were no cell phones, and there was no electricity in the village. If one had electricity, one had a generator and that was turned on for a few hours of the day.
When the generator came on, we were all happy and played music. It was funny now that I think of the fact that we as kids would compete for who was the best dancer when music was played. No, I was not the better or best dancer; I know how to move to a tune and that my dears is it.
One thing we often did was go to church on Christmas day and it did not matter what day of the week December 25th was, we went to church. In this one year, all of us were in the grandparents home and we were all excited and getting ready for church, my grandparents had already gone earlier and now it was us the grand kids aka “late out-of-towners” turn to go to church. We got ready and were more than fashionably late there. We all (all of the 10 plus grandkids) sat in a few of the pews and I can bet you, we did not pay any attention to what the sermon was about. We were too busy looking for old friends who were also coming back to the village for Christmas 😝.
When it was time for offering, we all got up lined up and danced our way to the offering plate!. Have you ever seen an African church service offering? Check out this link on YouTube to see what I am talking about. After church service, we all go out of the church and then meet and greet old friends and even visit them sometimes.
This memory of this year in Nigeria for me was my favorite because I Chose to enjoy and take in everything around me. My brother and I had been praying to God for a miracle to come back to the US and I knew that this might be the last time I was in the village for a long time.
This ended up being true-I have not been back in the village for almost 20 years! I have lost family members in Nigeria that were dear to my heart and grandpa and grand a have also passed away. These two people made Christmas time special. We did not have much but there was food, laughter and lots of stories by moonlight that grandpa told us.
The song I’ll be home for Christmas often reminds me of this fond memory that I have, when we were young, and loved ones were still here! Do not think that I do not love Christmas now and do not have any fond memories here in the US! I would share that another day 😊
I still say
Christmas is one of the most wonderful times of the year!
The happiness that comes from the memories being made and the ones already made too. Happiness from being with the people that I love and the memories of laughter and so much more.
The carols that I sing along to and love, the time people take to be kind to each other, the time we try to spend with one another, that to me is Christmas.
The kindness we see is a reflection of the kindness of God who sent His Son Jesus. The same Jesus who sends the Holy Spirit to comfort, teach, help us and so much more. I love Christmas and I love it because I see a God who is not afar off, it is the time He showed me that He is with us, just like it said in Isaiah 7:14
What is your most favorite thing/part about Christmas? Share!
😊
With this I want to wish you and your family A Very Merry Christmas!
This would be the last post and episode for the blog and podcast. Follow me in Instagram and see what I am doing this holiday time.
I will see you, God willing in January 2020!
God bless you always,
Ezanya
Thanksgiving Menu in a Biracial Family
Hello
How was your Thanksgiving Day? Did you have a great time with family, friends and or loved ones?
I hope you did because I was wishing that for you.
I had a great time and my cousin came in from Texas. We had lots of food and fun!
Before I share a bit about what we did, I would ask you; what did you do?
Do share!
Thanksgiving Day for me signifies that Christmas is around the corner. It can be a time to start fretting about what I need to get done for Christmas or what needs to be bought. I have come to learn that, even if I have a full wallet to spend or have nothing with which to buy what I think I want to for Christmas, I will still give thanks 😊
When my cousin arrived on Wednesday, I was still at work- I had not even finished all the cleaning as you’d see in the pics that I had wanted to do (anyone relate?) but I had told myself, this time was about being with family not time to pretend that my house was always spotless! We went out to eat for dinner and then came home and slept.
Thursday Morning, we had breakfast/ brunch and then went to Walmart! Yes, we did.
We needed a few more items for the day.
I want to stop here to say a big Thank You to the people who worked the stores during the Thanksgiving Day- You people are the real deal! I was surprised to say that I had good customer service at the store- I thought I was going to meet people who did not want to work but the people I met at the store were happy to help and answered my questions.
Okay, back to what I was saying; We got what we needed and came home. By the time we got home, the turkey was almost done (thanks Hubs 😍) and BOY! Did it smell great? We then started cooking after the turkey was done.
Sigh! It was 3 pm when we started cooking.
The Menu
Turkey,
Moi Moi
Jollof Rice
Rice and Stew
Fried Plantain aka dodo
Mac & cheese
Mashed Potatoes
Collard Greens
Curried sweet potatoes
Sides: apple pie, Patti LaBelle’s Sweet Potato Pie, Cranberry Jelly, cookies…
We ended up with a few items rather than all that was listed on the menu because we started so late in the day! I baked the moi-moi to save time, my cousin made some delicious jollof rice and some good tomato stew to eat with white rice. For the dishes often seen on TV for thanksgiving, we had the staples; dressing, collard greens (first time on the menu), turkey, cranberry jelly (I had some this time- it should be called Cranberry Wiggle) and I gotta stop! We had a lot of food.
We had food and family and that was enough for me!
Every Thanksgiving, I am blessed to do something different in the kitchen but a few staples remain- turkey, jollof rice and lots of love and gratitude!
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and I hope that you were able to not only eat too much as I did, but you were also able to rest too!
Until the next episode,
God bless you.
Always,
Ezanya
Ps.
If you want recipes for the Nigerian dishes mentioned, let me know and I will share them with you!
Before the Feast
After the food was cooked
Smiling before we “dig into” the food
Cheering for the cowboys and eating apple pie. Do you see the dinosaur staring at my pie?