The Diary Game - 11/12/2024 - Trying New African Food Combos

Dear diary,

I wish I loved eating as a child. You see, I disliked eating bread with tea in the morning, vegetable soup with foofoo in the afternoon, and rice with dodo in the evening.

These are common healthy meals in a typical Nigerian household. But I wanted more.

Something like toast bread with a proper Afang soup prepared by a Calabar woman, rice garnished with periwinkle, or in the most ridiculous situations, beans eaten with very soft foofoo.

Today, I had the opportunity to live this dream. 🥳

I had some custard, milk, and sugar leftover at home. If you are a Nigerian, you will agree that akara or bread is a better breakfast combo with custard.

On getting to the corner of the street, the akara woman had not opened yet.

I could see frustration on the faces of mothers, school children and workers. Someone even indicated that he would eat bread with Coke this morning instead.

As a steemian, I had better ideas.

There is a woman who sells Ekoki 20 feet away. *Ekoki is an African street food made from fresh corn pudding. It is almost like Moi Moi. I decided to stop by her place.

My heart leaped for joy when I met her son setting up the wheelbarrow for the day's sales. It meant hot Ekoki was ready.

I got some Ekoki worth ₦1,000 (about 3 STEEMs currently) and marched back home like a happy school girl.

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On my way home from work, I stopped by my favourite fruit vendor to purchase some fruits: pawpaw, cucumber and watermelon. Normally, I thought of making fruit salad, but I didn't have any yoghurt or mayonnaise for dressing. So I sliced them into smaller slices and ate them just like that. You can call it a kindergarten fruit salad.

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By now, my stomach was full. But I remembered that I'd need three meals to complete my diary game so I had a small discussion with my sister. I asked her to think of the simplest, healthiest, yet uncommon food we could eat with the ripe bananas at home for dinner.

She suggested combining the bananas with soaked garri and groundnut. According to her, it was better than the “wonderful thing” I ate in the morning. I just hope my fellow Nigerians would agree with this. Lol.

I was unable to continue after about 5 spoons. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the taste.

I had a fun time trying to blend healthy living with creativity. If you've observed, I took care to include protein in each meal. Dieticians say it is very essential for healthy growth. I am concerned about my stomach though. I hope my new food combos do not cause too much harm.

I'd like to know if you've ever tried any of these.

_{Till we meet again. Yours always,@ukpono❤️}