Food in Abuja

It’s been  little while since I’ve blogged, between going on holiday, coming back to Nigeria and moving into my new place I’ve been pretty flat out and too be honest I haven’t been that motivated to blog.

Now that I’ve moved into my new apartment I can actually start cooking, I can’t wait to start experimenting with some new recipes.

But in the meantime I thought I’d give you the lowdown on the food/restaurant scene in Abuja.

To be frank the food scene in Abuja is less than desirable,  I know it’s a bit harsh to compare it to London but honestly I’ve tasted better Nigerian food in London than I have in Abuja. Not to say that there aren’t any good places to eat here because there are but not as many as I’d hoped.

But anyway on to the point of my post, I’ve eaten in a number of restaurants and eateries in Abuja and I wanted to give a rundown of some of the places that I think are worth trying out if you’re ever in Abuja. This isn’t a list of the best, because there are some really great places like Wakkis (an Indian restaurant) and Al Basha (a Lebanese place) but there’s nothing really special or interesting about them, they just happen to do better food than your usual Abuja restaurant.

Salamander Cafe

Okay so I’m going to be honest, the food is just okay here. Mainly meat dishes, with either rice or fries. It’s nice place to come if you want good decent food. However why I really go there is because of the great atmosphere, salamander cafe is a great little find in the middle of Abuja. It’s a cosy little cafe style restaurant, the go to place to grab a coffee (not great coffee may I add) or fresh juice and sit out in the garden and catch some rays. It has a great atmosphere with lots of beautiful artwork and a corner dedicated to books.

Grills in and out

I’m gonna be honest again, the food here is just okay. I’ve been here about three times and I always have the same thing,  yam fries (I have a thing for fried yams, I could eat them all day) and grilled croaker fish. This meal is so so, the fish is always overcooked and nearly always arrives luke warm. But the reason I keep going back, the one and only reason is because of the  yam fries and pepper sauce.  I just can’t get enough of it, such a simple yet satisfy combination. One I look forward to making in my kitchen.

Mama put aka Iya Iyo (think that’s how you spell it)

Now this place is a great find, it’s tucked away in a little backyard come make shift eaterie. It’s not for the faint hearted but for me it’s the essence of great Nigerian food.  The first time I went there, I’ll be honest I couldn’t fathom even eating from this place, the Londoner in me was like ‘hell no” this is not a place to eat it’s a place where things come to die! It’s a buzz with people clamouring to get their food. The first step is to pick your main, the choice is pretty simple; rice, black eyed beans or amala. Once you’ve chosen the server then slabs your chosen main onto a plate. After that, the next bit is where it gets really interesting,  you have to walk over to a covered hut, where this lone woman sits stirring a gigantic pot of stew with copius amounts of meat. You then get to choose which stew you want and how much meat you want too. I have to add that by this point it’s sweltering, the heat is unbelievable, I can’t even begin to imagine how this lady is able to sit in this tiny little hut stirring the stew in the crazy heat.

But what I will say is that the food is amazing, if you can put up with the heat,  wild dogs and overall lack of cleanness it’s one of the best spots I’ve been to in Abuja.

Oyin 1 Nigeria 0

I’m back, I’ve been away for almost a month now, spent some time back in London then I went on an amazing trip across California (Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Palm Springs aka Coachella and last but not least San Francisco). I’ve had quite a lot of time to ponder my return to Nigeria, even pondering wether or not I would even come back. But I’m back, I’m not ready to quit on Nigeria yet I want to give it another go but this time I’m accepting that Nigeria as it’s flaws and I can’t fight every flaw instead I need to pick my battles carefully. And slightly (only slightly) adjust my way of thinking and even more importantly my expectations.

So I landed a little while ago, and after a ludicrous wait for my luggage. I stood there watching the mayhem of trying to collect luggage and I wondered how could I improve the process. Anyway after much thinking I deduced that the conveyer belt was not wide enough (hence why large pieces of luggage fall off) and I also think the actual luggage area isn’t big enough for the amount of people who depart the plane and await their luggage. Anywho I digress, after what felt like a lifetime I finally got my luggage and apprehensively made my way to the customs security and to my disbelief they let me walk straight through.

For me this is a big deal, no one harrassed me for something extra, or wanting to dig through my luggage to see if I had anything for them. They just let me walk straight through, oh yeah! Oyin 1 Nigeria 0.

Nigeria – learning to adapt

It’s been about 2 weeks now since I’ve moved to Abuja and it still hasn’t hit home yet. I still feel as though I’m on an extended work trip, not quite sure when it’s gonna hit me.

When I initially made this crazy life changing decision to move to Nigeria, it was based on total impulse. No real serious thought or indeed research was done. I just decided and threw caution to the wind in other words YOLO (I promise I’ll refrain from using that phrase again!). In hindsight that was like the dumbest thing to ever do, looking back i don’t have a clue what I was thinking. You don’t just decide to move to a third world country, with serious insecurity issues, no consistent light and gender inequality to say the least. None of these issues even crossed my mind (doh! note to self, not a good idea). I decided I wanted to get to know my country, the good the bad and the ugly and nothing was going to stop me, not even a very rationale fear of rats and mice (I’ll come back to this later).

So now I’m here, here is Abuja sitting in Salamander cafe sipping an okay (I use okay lightly it’s probably the best coffee I’m gonna get while I’m in Abuja) latte. The past 2 weeks have been an enlightening experience to say the least. I’m not really sure where to start, between trying to find somewhere to live, understanding the price of a taxi ride and feeling increasingly frustrated by the political landscape it’s been an overwhelming experience to say the least and don’t get me started on the rat (I’ll come back to this one!). so I’ll just give the headlines instead:

1) Apartment hunting

Okay so nothing in Nigeria is simple or easy. Fact! If people can make it complicated and convoluted the bigger the kick they get from it. Apartment hunting even in London is not easy, we all know estate agents to be underhand crooks even at the best of times. However niaja “agents” are a very special breed. They are a law unto themselves. They show up when they feel like it, they then promise you that they’ve got something that’s just perfect for you, you get there and then you’ve got to hope that the owner of the apartment is around or has left the key with someone. Otherwise you’re not getting in.

Once you get in, it’s a whole other ball game, I’ve been to some random places, from an apartment with a bathroom so tiny that the toilet was inside the shower (I kid you not!), so you could pee and shower at the same time, how thoughtful of them.

Another one had a dead rat just chilling in the bathroom (I’ve got a better rat story, just you wait!).

The whole, flat hunting experience has definitely been an eye opener, but not all is lost. After what has felt like a lifetime, (only 2weeks, i know I know) I’ve finally found a great little place, part furnished (washing machine, cooker and fridge freezer). All I have to do now is furnish the rest of the place, now don’t get me started on that little adventure, that’ll have to wait for another blog post.

2) Getting around

So it seems for an expat like me there is only one possible mode of transportation, taxi.

This has been a massive eye opener, from having an oyster card and being able to navigate London at the swipe of a card to having to wait (and I mean wait!) for a taxi to shuttle you from A to B.

It’s hard mainly because you have to rely on someone to enable your mobility; I can’t just get up and make my way. I have to call in advance and pray that the driver is firstly available (in the evening this becomes even tougher) and secondly gets there on time and lastly knows how to get to my destination. Many times I’ve waited for a driver, only for them to ask me for directions (I know, like WTF!).

This current solution to getting around is also far from cheap (especially since I’m a newbie). Over the past 2 weeks I’ve learnt that I’ve been getting ripped off left, right and center. Like really they see me coming a mile away. It turns out that I’ve been paying just over double the average taxi fare. Well that is definitely going to stop! I’m no pushover with my strongest niaja accent; I’ve been haggling back. I’m now like ‘ah ah now, that one is too much oooh. You are charging me double oh! I won’t accept it oh’ #niajaaccent.

3) Roland the not so cute and furry rat

So I finally get to my rat story, I have to let you all know about this, because it was nearly the death of me. I thought I was about to have a heart attack, my heart was racing so fast I thought it was gonna burst through my chest.

I’ll set the scene, so on saturday morning, I woke up quite early and was just in my hotel room lounging. I had just got off the phone to my mum and decided to use my laptop to go online. So I’m sitting at the desk in my hotel room, minding my own business (remember I’m in the safe haven of my hotel room or so I thought) for some reason I turned my head to the right and I saw this massive rat come running out of the bathroom into the main bedroom. I screamed, jumped on my bed and called reception. At this point I’m super petrified but just about holding on, hoping that the hotel staff would hurry the f**k up. 5 – 10 mins has gone past and still no hotel staff, the rat moves again and this time I totally freak out call reception hysterical on the phone demanding that somebody comes up asap!

After another 5 mins, the staff finally come knocking on my door, at this stage I’m a hot mess, I’m crying non stop, unable to move off the bed and hoping that I can catch the next flight make to London. They finally let themselves in and I explain the situation and for some reason they think it’s funny. Hell naw! I went totally cray, think lil kim and Faith Evans in a cat fight crazy. Long story short they didn’t find the little (I mean totes massive) bugger, it apparently had come from a hole somewhere in the bathroom. They’ve now moved me to a room on a different floor, I’m checking out in a few days but believe me I’m NEVER EVER staying there again!

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you to think that Nigeria is all bad. I’ve had a blast so far, I have an amazing team that I work with, I’ve met some great people and just being in this environment is a great experience.  But I wanted to share some of the crazy moments, but I’ll definitely share some of the better moments too. Watch this space x

 

 

 

Moving to Nigeria

Hey guys so it’s been a little while since I’ve last blogged. I’ve had quite a crazy few months, literally life changing. But I’m super excited to say that I’m moving to Nigeria in March! I’ll give you full details in time, but just wanted to write it up as I’m still in shock that it’s actually happening.

Puff Puff – Fourth time lucky?

This bank holiday has been a really chilled and laid back one, I’ve not really done much and to be honest it has been great!

Anyway so I decided that I must do something productive and so today I attempted to make Puff Puff again. Puff Puff is a nigerian sweet snack dish (I think people would classify it under sweet) for all tense and purpose lets just call it a sweet dish. It is essentially like a donut but not as sweet, I’m not really good at describing things so instead have included a pic to illustrate what I mean.

Me and this dish have a long and not so fruitful history! Before today I’ve had two attempts at this dish without any luck. The first time was just a hot sticky messy! The second time I actually managed to make it look like puff puff on the outside but the inside was a doughy mess. I just couldn’t seem to get the consistency right, I’ve followed two seperate recipes but still no luck.

So today I thought I’d pluck up all my courage and try again, I shall not let this dish get the better of me. So again I tried another recipe that I found from another blog and you guessed it. Hot damn mess!

I kind’ve knew it was going to a mess, I followed the recipe to a T but I don’t think the recipe was quite right. As the mixture came out really runny, I still persisted as it’s never good to quit is it? But my persistence didn’t pay off!

I suppose there’s always next time, fourth time lucky?

Chatsworth Road Market

I’ve forgotten how much I love blogging, it’s really weird it’s like I know this is a public blog and the whole world can read it. But at the same time it feels like my own private inner monologue, it allows me to put my thoughts down on to paper (or type them on my laptop) and reflect on them.

Anyway enough about that on to the real matter at hand. The other day my friend suggested we go and have breakfast at a crepe place in Chatsworth Rd, Hackney. I love breakfast, and so it was a great what a perfect way to start the day. So went to Creperie Du Monde, it is a lovely little crepe place in the heart of Chatsworth market, they serve a whole host of savory and sweet delights. As it was 11am I decided that I would order the breakfast crepe

Breakfast Crepe

 And my friend Den ordered the Italian, have a gander below:

The Italian

 

Creperie Du Monde isn’t the only culinary delight along Chatsworth Road Market. I was very surprised to see a whole host of market stalls selling  foods from all other world, a world away from the Chatsworth road I knew growing up. From Japanese food stalls to delicious cakes and freshly baked breads.

As I was checking out all the food stalls, I came across a Nigerian food stall! Excited is an understatement, I was thrilled to the max. I couldn’t believe that there was a Nigerian Food stall in Chatsworth market. I couldn’t contain my excitement, I ended up bombarding the stall holder with a 101 questions about how he got started, how he keeps the food hot, how well he does and where else he is located. I think he was a little bit overwhelmed by excitement lol!

805

So it’s been a few weeks since I’ve last blogged, work has been a quite manic making it quite difficult to have the time and energy to blog. I have on the other hand I have been cooking and experiencing loads of culinary delights. so I thought I’d start by sharing some of my recent food adventures.

805

I went to one of my fav Nigerian restaurants in London, 805 on Old Kent Road.  There are quite a few Nigerian resaturants in London, but 805 in my opinion is the real deal. The food is made to the the highest quality, the flavours and textures are to die for and what’s more important it is 100% authentic. I always leave there wanting more, it is one of the best by a mile.

I recently went with two of my friends and I knew exactly what I was going to order, no hesitation at all! I ordered one of my favourite dishes Monica Fish, with Jollof Rice and dodo (plaintain). Two words ‘Totes Amaze!’

Monica fish is a spice fish cooked with a spicy pepper sauce, it’s so simple but is a delicious example of Nigerian cuisine at it’s best.

COOKING WITH EXOTIC SPICES – WEEK 4 (COOKERY COURSE)

Week 4 of my cookery course and on the menu this week was Falafel and Baklava.

I’m really happy to say that this week was a very good cooking week! Preparation was the key. After last weeks disastrous week, I decided that I wasn’t going to take any chances. So I bought all my ingredients beforehand and the night before I then organised them so that I was fully prepared for Saturday Morning.

This weeks class was quite small only 5 of us, but we didn’t let that stop us. So we started with the Baklava, I love Baklava so I was pretty excited to make it (as I type I’m still reminiscing about how good it was!). I really enjoyed making this Mediterranean dessert, it totally came naturally to me. I’ve never worked with pastry before, let alone Filo pastry but it was so much fun, handling each layer and then lathering copious amounts of oil and butter on to the pastry, I was in food heaven. My Baklava came out brilliantly (if I do say so myself!) even the tutor noted how beautiful it was.While the Baklava was in the oven we began the Falafel, again this was another simple dish which I really enjoyed making.

This week I began to see that I’ve definitely improved as a cook. Over the last few weeks, I’ve grown confident in my cookery skills, I’m understanding flavours and how to create interesting tastes and flavours. Even simple things like tasting the food as I go along, this isn’t something I always did, but now it is an imperative.

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Ingredient insider: Tomatoes

Ah the good old tomato, is it a fruit or is it a vegetable?  Either way it is a staple ingredient in Nigerian cuisine! It is used in most dishes and for me a Nigerian dish wouldn’t be complete without the red hue of the tomato. For any one interested in cooking a nigerian dish start with a tomato wether tinned or fresh, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s a tomato that’s all that counts!

The other day I learnt how to blanche a tomato so I thought I’d give you a step by step guide:

1) With a knife cut the top the tomato to remove the stalk

 

2) Score the bottom of tomato (this helps with peeling)

 

3) Place the tomatoes in boiling water for 10 – 15 secs

4) Dip in cold water (this stops the tomatoes from continuing to cook)

5) Peel the tomatoes, the skin should come off really easy, if not place in the hot water again

 

COOKING WITH EXOTIC SPICES – WEEK 3 (COOKERY COURSE)

I’m going to keep this post as brief as possible, I didn’t really have a good cooking week this week. I cooked some nigerian fried rice earlier in the week but I didn’t do anything new, but that’s not why I had a bad cookery week. The main reason for my bad cookery week, was ME!

I so need to learn to be more prepared and do some planning in advance rather than leaving it to the last minute. So as usual I left everything to the last minute and decided that it would be a good idea to buy all my course ingredients an hour before I started the course, which obviously was a massive fail! What I thought would take 5 mins, maybe 10 min max! Took 45 mins! I couldn’t find anything I was looking and finally managed to buy most of my ingredients minus fresh mint (not to self Morrisons do not sell mint leaves!) and then had 15 mins to make a 25 min journey so you guessed it I was late!

I hate being late, I felt totally flustered and underprepared. The class had of course already started, and that made me feel even worse. So for the rest of the morning I was just playing catch up, which made me feel stressed and not really able to concentrate properly.

This week the focus was still on Mediterranean food and we made two dessert time recipes and one main meal. Have a look below (full details of recipes to come)

Guvecte Sucuk – (Spicy sausage with black eye peas)

Armut Turusu (Sweet & sour pears)

Al-Salooq (deep fried cardamom pastries)

In the end I think I did an okay job, the food came out fine but I wasn’t happy with my preparation and I know I could’ve done so much better. I can’t tell you what I learnt because I was rushing everything, so I had no time to take notes as I went along. However on the upside I did give the Al – Salooq to my friends in the evening and they loved it! Which made me feel a little better, it still managed to come out well even though I wasn’t at my best.

Moral of the story; Don’t leave everything to the last minute! Prepare, prepare,prepare!

So this week, I’m going to do my shopping on Wednesday just to make sure that I’m super prepared. Wish me luck!