Contest: Dream gift for my mom./♥️🎁♥️/ Concurso: Regalo soñado para mi mamá.

The substance of what a man lives begin with the amount of good food he eats. Good food is not only hygienic but good habit; He that feeds the masses with good food is both a medical doctor and philanthropist-Glory Mbaja Thompson

Every time I remember my mom I hear these words resonating in my mind like a debt I owe and must pay. My beautiful mom’s name is Glory Mbaja Thompson. As the middle child of a polygamous family in Andoni Local Government in Rivers State. She was a product of African culinary culture which she inherited from her mom through her numerous culinary activities in events and outings. African culture fortunately has exclusively preserve the power of cooking in the ambit of a female gender role, therefore, by the virtue of this fact my mom became a culinary guru, I call her food voodooist because there is virtually nothing food my mom put her hand to prepare food that does not come out tantalizing and delicious. In one of her numerous outing to offer what she loves doing best, fortunately, it was a renowned burial within our clan. The event embraced four caterers from all works of life to prepare beautiful western cuisines due to the magnitude of the event and the caliber of people the event is scheduled to welcome. She was contracted to prepare the delicious and tantalizing food of the local people of Andoni Local Government. Before she left the home that fateful Thursday for the event that was to hold in the next two days, she was perplexed and petrified when she read the course of the event and the menu expected. She asked I and my siblings to help her brainstorm the kind of local dish she could prepare that would outclass the other professional caterers that would brace the event.

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She is not a professional cook neither has she undergone any vocational skill acquisition related to cooking. So as we always do in our home, when it comes to brainstorming we brought a sheet of paper to; characterize the dignitries and what exactly would appeals to them; what ingredients would be best to savour the dish that would appeal to them. In our final analysis, we choose the fisherman’s soup; the fisherman’s soup was a traditional food of mainly the Ijaw people of Rivers State. It’s a delicacy that coined from the lifestyle of the Ijaw people who were predominantly fisherman and women as major means of making ends meet. The soup is particularly the soup prepared by fishermen in their fishing voyage, at a point when they are hungry they cannot go home to prepare food, they would pick all the sea food they caught in the sea and use it to prepare food while on sea. The marine water also a salty water serve a salt and water to them with all the ingredients they have caught they would prepare an exclusive sea food soup, thick and delicious. Our choice of the fisherman’s soup was due to the fact that everybody needs sea food especially sophisticated fishes like lady fish, mullet and shark; crab and prawns which is something that must people cannot afford to prepare or even buying.

My mom making use of the best ingredients that the soup would need, she prepare the fisherman’s soup with my sister and her relative aiding her. To our greatest surprise the event ended in my mom’s kitchen, as almost everyone that came for the event needed the soup as souvenir, the soup attracted queue and rumbles for the soup. Most of the attendants of the events collected her number and promise to give her contracts to prepare same soup for their events, some commented the organizers of the event that ‘the soup made the event worth the while’.

This has been the niche of my ageing mom since her numerous attempt to raise a restaurant where she would prepare her delicacies for her customers who wish to order and also visit her restaurant to eat her meals. Her attempt and efforts has continuously hit the rocks due to financial and economic reasons. Her maiden effort crushed when my dad was transferred from Bonny island in Rivers State and she was sacked from her little booth where she sells her food because it was a booth of the Nigerian Police, so as my dad left Bonny Island she also left the booth and her numerous customers. Her second attempt suffered the same fate likewise her third attempt. My mom menu of food was second to none; she prepares pap and beans for breakfast for her customers, rice and stew for lunch, her local delicacy (fisherman’s soup, okro also known as lady finger soup, melon soup and okazi soup) for dinner. These food is prepare every morning before 6am and do not come stale. She sells from dusk to dawn which means she wakes up as early as 2am every day to start preparing them, she does these activities for 365 days exempting Sundays which she uses to serve her generous God. For the few years that she was able to run her food business she has successfully used the turnovers and profits of her business to train I and my sibling supporting my dad indigent salary.

After her last ordeal in establishing her food business, she said to my dad after our daily morning devotion stating inter alias ‘I have lost my superpowers ever since I came to Port Harcourt, I thought the city would offer me her greeneries but I have not been able to establish, I would love to go back to where I started it all, I’m going back to Bonny Island’. Consequent to this, my mom is now in Bonny Island, her treasure island where she made huge money from her food business, though, she still struggles to set up her business there due to lack of substantial start-up capitals but she have her hopes high that her fortune lies in the island and her head is focused on getting it. Therefore, it would be my greatest gift to her, to establish a legal and comfortable restaurant for her in her treasure island which would not cost much since she has all the primary equipments needed to run her business. She need a shop that could contain a number of 50 persons and other materials to keep them eating in a clean and hygienic environment. This would be an achievement for me and also a dream come true for her.

Thank you for reading my piece, I must say celebrating mother’s day in this platform has giving me the avenue to express my sincere motives for my indefatigable mother and I cannot thank you all for reading.

This is the link for this contest:

Please I must employ my friends @advokate, @dboaz, @armstrongdiho to join the contest.