Something Nigeria loves is colorful dishes. Different types of yams and other vegetables create bursts of color and this does make everything quite decadent looking. Nigeria uses all sorts of spices to add richness, variety, and flavor to their dishes and as I mentioned before when discussing Zimbabwe, they are also keen on groundnuts and have their own version of Groundnut Stew. Now along with groundnut based stews, their cuisine is bursting with soups and stews. Variety definitely has a strong role here in their soups alone.
A vast array of dishes isn't the only thing Nigeria has going on. I had no idea that Nigeria was the most populous country in Africa or that it has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. If you asked me to list countries with rapidly growing economies, Nigeria would have never crossed my mind. Of course I'm a Biochemistry major so what do I know about world economics, but it still surprised me. Perhaps a part of the reason may have something to do with Nigeria's status as an oil exporter. Putting the economy aside, I focused back on the cuisine and went with something referred to as Kekefia, which is a type of yam "porridge" or stew served with fish. I thought that this dish, among all the others I've done up to this point, would really allow me to buy some interesting ingredients.
It required a plantain for one, which is sort of like a banana but a little harder with a different flavor. My roommate during sophomore year used to fry them and they were always delicious so I figured why not stick them in a pot with some sweet potatoes? I do have to say one thing, this recipe called for smoked fish and here in Arizona smoked fish is either expensive or nonexistant and I went with smoked clams. I wish I had the fish. Clams are gritty and very strong and I only used a tablespoon or so of them. I also used my first ingredient with its eyes and heads still attached for this dish, crayfish or crawdads. I will say one thing, strange ingredients or not, this is one beautiful looking dish. The orange of the yams, the yellow from the plaintains, the green from the spinach - very lovely.
However, it doesn't taste as beautiful as it looks and by that I mean, it wasn't as flavorful as I expected. After reading about how wonderfully flavored the dishes in Nigeria were, I didn't get that from this. Perhaps it was the clams, I really think fish would have been better. I also couldn't find uzuza leaves, which I have no idea what those taste like, but they could have impacted the flavor a lot. It was slightly spicy, but more in the sense of flavor and not because it was hot. I did like the sweet potatoes and spinach, but it wasn't like that was anything to rave about. In the end I don't know what to think about this, there must be another way to combine these ingredients in a more delicious way. This was another meal that I ate because I was hungry and tired and I didn't exactly jump at having seconds. I've now come to the conclusion that some African food is incredibly delicious and I would make many times, and some of it is just sort so-so. This was definitely just so-so and the only redeeming factor for me was my love of yams and fish. I am going to have to return to Nigeria and try another type of soup, perhaps I just picked one with too many hard to find ingredients.
