Touring Around Benin City - A Special Visit to The Edaiken Uselu Market #Travelogue 🏖️🚍

Hi wonderful Steemians, it's good to be back again and I'm back for good.

Its been a while I last posted on my blog. I'm really sorry about that. I went on a sabbatical leave lol. But then Cmmon!! LEAVE IS OVER

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I traveled to Edo state recently, Benin City to be precise and I'll be sharing some amazing stories about Edo State and Benin City from time to time.

I should've done erm.. a travelogue but my phone was faulty and I couldn't take pictures with it earlier - what's a travelogue without pictures and videos? Yeah! hope you understand?

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Today, I visited the Edaiken Uselu Market in Benin City, Edo State.

Located on the outskirt of Benin City and on the Ugbowo Lagos Road, Edaiken Uselu Market is one of the popular market in Benin City where you can find almost anything you want to buy ranging from food items, kitchen utensils, clothes, meat, house wares, etc.

It is not difficult to locate the market and it's uncommon to see a Benin or Bini person that doesn't know about this market. Infact, people throng into this market on a daily basis and students of the prestigious University of Benin patronise it the most.

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The coordinates of the market

6°22'32.6"N 5°36'48.7"E

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What took me to the market?

It's my first time in Benin (yes! my very first) and so I decided to visit some places; the market is a good place to visit - I'll get to findout the prices of market wares, negotiate prices with sellers, see what the market looks like, see how buying and selling is done in this particular market and then maybe I could take some pictures for my fellow steemians to have a peek of the market.

But wait, that's not what really took me to the market. Are you serious? That's not what took me to the market? What then took me to the market?
The answer is HUNGER Hunger took me to the market. I was so hungry and needed to get some foodstuffs. Who doesn't like cooking or preparing a sweet savoury meal?

I'd spent 3 days in Benin already without cooking. Yes! I've been eating, but I've been eating roadside and supermarket snacks and foods from the fastfood. I think this is the point where they'll shout

enolife shame on youuuuuu... You can't even cook lol

Before you do that, permit me to inform you that I've been eating well cooked and garnished food in the house I'm staying. Yes! I wanted to save this statement so you'll read it later after laughing.

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So, today I wanted to cook myself. Hmmmm.. I've not done that for a while.

I decided to prepare rice and stew.
Yes! that's what I was craving for and so I decided to prepare it for myself.

Back to the Market

I visited the market with a friend and a guide
Clue: If you see a particular person too many times in my pictures, then that's my guide

Again they'll say:

enolife are you sure she's only your guide and nothing else?? Wait!! Did I just say she? OK, they'll come for my head lol.

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So the very first place we visited was a shop were chicken meat and fish is sold. Not just any type of chicken meat - fresh and healthy fat chicken meat. I opted for the legs because I knew they'll be great.
Oh crap! I didn't take a picture of the chicken legs but let me show you what I'm talking about

This:

Image Source

Oh wait! Wait wait! Not that..

This!

Image Source

I got you!!!. Somebody is already salivating.

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I got 3 chicken legs and 2 mackerel from the shop and then it was time to get some fresh tomatoes elsewhere.

Look at those fresh and yummy tomatoes

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Next, it was time to visit a miller in the market and have the tomatoes ground. Oh! It wasn't only the tomatoes that was grinded, onions and peppers were added to it too.

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I think that's just it. That's just what I needed to get from the market.

enolife, is that all what is needed to prepare rice and stew?

Calm down.. Be cool... I've got other ingredients and foodstuffs back in the house, so basically everything is set. 😁😁

But then, no no, I'm not leaving this market without taking some pictures. winks 😉

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Baba came to the market

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I should've opted for spaghetti 🤦🏾

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look at the melon, the palm oil and the crayfish - are you already thinking about melon soup?

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make way please

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give a presidential salute to that "kpomo" please - look at that stew. Ooooooshh

Wait a minute let me tell you something about kpomo, kanda, cow skin or whatever you wanna call it.

Kpomo is a popular delicacy in Nigeria. It is cooked cow skin. You'll mostly find it in soups like Vegetable soup, Ogbono soup, Editan soup and Stews.

Properly cooked kpomo is always so delicious, a mere look at it and you'll be salivating.

Just look for a properly cooked kpomo, one prepared with stew such that the stew finds its way into the crevices or should I say nooks and crannies of the ponmo lol and then take a slow bite into it with passion until the sauce or stew oozes out of all corner into your mouth. Oh! My God! I'm having sweet goosebumps. Such enjoyment in a lifetime. 😊😜

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Look at those chicken legs 😉

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And the mackerels

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Look who I found here - sadly he doesn't have the pirated copy of black panther.. I'm just kidding 😂

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Who doesn't like garri? - is it you?

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The face the seller makes when you keep on negotiating the price.

Now lemme tell you something about the Nigerian market setting when it comes to price negotiation. Most things in the market over here don't have a fixed price, so you can either buy it on a low or a high price. How you buy it depends on a particular skill - Price Negotiation Skills.

Now you see, while I might end up buying a pair of one mackerel fish for #280 (NGN or Nigerian Naira), my mum can buy it at the rate of #200. Lol.. The skills 😂
And oh! My mum is a professional on this - Nigerian mums always have this skills

Let me show you how it goes:

Mum: How much is this fish?

Seller: It's #300

Mum: Nooooo, I can't buy it like that. OK let me pay you #100 for it.

Seller: Noo.. It's too low ma, I didn't even buy it like that. OK, give me #250.

Mum: No, I'm paying you #200 as the last price.

Seller: No I'm not selling

moms pretends as if she's leaving the stall

Seller: OK madam come back, give me #250 and I'll sell

mum brings out #250 and tries to pay but then the negotiating skills stills tries to kick in again

Mum: Won't you collect #240? 😂😂😂

Seller: Madam!!!!

mum finally hands over the #250

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look at that little girl running around - oh! the sandals too

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look at that smoked fish

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who needs sweet potatoes?

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It's time to step out of the market

while they're going out

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I had troubles with the image upload from this point, so I resorted to compressing them to reduce the file sizes.

market goers leaving the market with their stuffs

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incase you need someone to carry your loads

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Who needs plantain chips and groundnut?

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entrance to the market

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Water for the thirsty commuters

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I didn't like this

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I'm taking this mini bus back home

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Inside the mini bus

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Yours truly - Only opportunity to snap myself

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So I got home and erm.. of course prepared my rice and stew which I ate and stepped down with a glass of red wine 🍷.

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Thank you for stopping by and thank you for reading my post.

See you some other time.

Happy Steeming