Remember when I said music speaks to the soul??..well, food on the other hand is the way to a man's heart
When I say a man's heart, I mean both the female and the male genders. In as much as a man loves a woman who knows her way around the kitchen, the woman also loves a man who can spoil her with different delicacies, taking her out to get pizza, shawarma and other delicacies they love...
Food surely can get you to a person's heart. I've lived for almost two years now without tasting the wonderful delicacies of my mom and I must say life has been really different. She's stolen my heart and even though I get other people around who cook or I go to get food from a vendor, it's nothing like my mother's delicious delicacies. The difference is the taste and the taste is the difference.
For someone like me, I wouldn't say I have one favorite dish, I love to eat and I appreciate good food. I've tasted all kinds of food, ranging from different traditional soups to snacks like hamburger and the rest and I most say they're lots of amazing foods in this world and I'll love to try majority of them but right now I'm stuck in this country, lol.
My favorite food at the moment isn't really a favorite food it's just something I'm comfortable eating anytime and anywhere. My Eba and Afang soup gives me joy anytime and every time I eat it. The Afang soup is native to the people of Akwa Ibom State and Cross river and this is one of their most cherished soup.
The Afang soup is considered a very rich soup because most times it comes with a lot of meat and kponmo and periwinkle. When you see a properly cooked afang you'll know what I'm talking about. The soup goes hand in hand with well made Eba, or Fufu, whichever you decide to use just add a sachet of very chilled water to the side, it'll do the trick.
Why I love Afang?
Well, for someone like me who's really skinny and eats a lot they'll not be any tangible reason. I just love to eat good food and Afang is a sure bet. Apart from it's magnificent taste when properly cooked, it is quite healthy, according to what I've heard the leaf actually helps you clear your blood from impurities (this is not researched by me yet, hehe) and it's really satisfying.
Afang is the kind of soup you'll taste and want to come back for more. A lot of other tribes have started to adopt the Afang soup, I'll not be surprised to go to the North and see Afang spots, it's something that wouldn't surprise me at all because who wouldn't like good things.
How is Afang prepared?
Well, I wouldn't lie, I'm not a great cook so I don't actually attempt cooking most of the time. I leave it for the one's who are good in that aspect. But then I got some recommendations, so here goes:
Ingredients
• 4 handfuls Okazi or Afang leaves, ground
• 2 handfuls water leaves, sliced
• 1 large dry fish
• 1 large stockfish
• 1kg assorted meat
• 4 tbsp crayfish
• 2 cups palm oil
• 5 pieces of fresh yellow pepper
• 5 stock cubes
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup of periwinkles, washed
• Salt to taste
Method
- Place your assorted meat, stockfish, dry fish and two cups of water into a pot. Add one onion, three stock cubes and salt to taste. Cook until soft.
- When the meat water is almost dry, add the water leaves, leave to cook for 3 minutes. (Tip: No need to put in more water because water leaves produce a lot of water on their own.)
- Put the periwinkles, ground crayfish and five blended yellow pepper, let that cook for another three minutes.
- Add your ground Afang or Okazi leaves and let cook for two minutes. Lastly, add palm oil and leave to simmer for about two minutes.
Serve hot with your preferred staple food.
Source
With these processes i think you can actually cook yourself a good Afang soup and have the time of your life eating it.
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