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No She wants to lick the soup :-)!



So my 18 year old cousin asked me if she should make semovita for me for lunch. And since my masterplan while on this trip was to get as much authentic Nigerian food taste back again but without blowing my Carb levels through the roof, I said no. For those who don't know what semovita is, its based on wheat flour and its mainly eaten as a side dish for one of the various soups we have in the Nigerian kitchen.

So my Cousin goes what do you want to eat with the soup then? Just the soup I answered. She looked at me like I had said something so ridiculous. Just the soup she repeated? yes i answered smiling. An hour or two goes by my sister in law gets back home and asked if i have had lunch.

She called out to my cousin to come make some semovita for me and get the soup warm. My Cousin replies saying 'No Oby says she wants to Lick the soup :-)' At this point I doubled over with laughter because honestly speaking culturally it isn't something you do. Its considered a waste of soup. I remember growing up I wouldn't dare say that to my mother. Swallow which is what we call the side dishes that accompany the soups were never that important as the soup with one exception pounded yam is of a higher class when it comes to swallow.

My dad got almost every afternoon pounded yam for lunch and we semovita or garri. On special occasions we would get pounded yam too it was exciting cos of the texture and the status of pounded yam. My favorite was pounded yam and egusi or nsala soup. Yes my childhood memories ... who would have thought that something as simple as the choice for lunch could take you back down memory lanes.

Now that I am done eating my okra soup with fresh fish - notice i used the word eating contrary to the term we use to describe what i just did, its almost impossible to lick the soup except you wish to choke on the fish bones. My lips are slightly on fire due to the chili in the soup which brings me to the subject what was in my okra soup. Fresh fish, okra , crayfish, palm oil, Maggi or know cube, chili and sometimes Ugwu (pumpkin leaves in English)

In Igbo you would say ofe okra in pigin you would say draw soup, these soups can be accompanied by the following fufu, pounded yam, semovita, garri or even yam. Ideally you would eat with your hands as it makes for a better experience in my opinion.

Reliving the taste of my home country

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