The In Between

Anyone who knows me knows my love food, especially good food. Being half African and half Caribbean, and having been blessed with the privilege of excellent chefs- from my Grandma all the way down to my baby sis- I would like to think I know a thing or two about good food. So my in between for today is my love for food. Yum!

My love affair with food started rather late, though. I was a rather fussy eater- I would not eat Western food-I kid you not- pizza’s, hot dogs, burgers. Yeuch! I clearly remember a time when my mother chased me around the living room when I was 4 or 5 just so she could show me the wonders of her cheesy mash only for me to take a spoonful and spew all over her freshly washed and vacuumed carpet. Needless to say, I went to bed hungry and with a sore bum . Or my 9th birthday when my family took me to this pizza joint in Allen Avenue in Lagos. I totally forget the name, but while my brother and sister where happy for the rare outing- it was a birthday, the only time we went to “fancy” restaurants when we were younger- and while everyone was chowing down on the good pizza, I watched in disgust as they succumbed to this food alien to our culture and lived off of fanta.

My favourite dishes as a youngster were boiled egg, tuwo and okowo soup (Okro soup to the non-5 year olds out there). All this changed when I turned 10, and decided it was time to become adventurous. Plus a diet of boiled egg, tuwo and okowo soup is not really healthy is it? And since then I have not looked back. I am still quite a fussy eater and there are many things I still would not eat- some due to my allergies; others-pork-out of respect for my father’s religion; and some purely because I have never understood their reason for being- PEAS and KETCHUP (I might dedicate a whole entry to that. Lol!). But take all those things out of the equation and I am a happy bunny.

Food makes me smile, especially good food, and there’s many a time I have been cheered up by the smell of good food-like my mum’s chicken curry or my aunt’s fried chicken; and felt like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulder when I bit into a good piece of barbecued chicken.

Once in a while I do venture into the kitchen to try some recipes- I am what you would call a lazy cook. I can cook, I just prefer to eat :-). Every weekend was a culinary experience with my mum- we would decide during the week what we wanted and the weekend would be spent making it- spring rolls, samosas, meat pies, pizzas, bread, cakes- you name it, my mum could make it. I was always the food taster. I especially loved the batter from the cake.

My real foray into the kitchen started seriously at the age of 12. My mum decided it was time to hone my culinary skills. We started off with the basics- boiling eggs, and then moved to boiling rice and then pasta. Being the child that I was- and preferring the eating side to the preparing side, I devised a plan. I would sabotage every meal that I made- too salty; not enough salt; undercooked; overcooked- in the hope that my family would not eat my meals. Unfortunately, my plan didn’t work and they kept on eating it (gluttons for punishment). Once I realized, I had to cook, I started taking it seriously- and I realized it was actually quite fun- but the cooking, not the cleaning. And I have to say I am eternally grateful for my mum doing that.

xx