While I was in secondary school, of all the important things boarding house students must pack, two provisions are vitally important - cereals and cassava flour, fondly called 'garri'. Seriously, I did not know how the culture started, but except one is from a rich family, garri definitely took precedence as the one important provision that must be packed.
Supported with a pack of St. Louis sugar and groundnut cake for good measure, garri was always the first provision stuffed at the basement of my travelling bag. I never realized how lifesaving the food will be until after my second week in the boarding school. By then, I already exhausted my 'pocket money' on shiny little things and was basically running on fumes. As usual, food served by the school was nothing to write home about.
By the time we were done with prep class at 9:30pm, the dinner I ate about two hours before would've flown into the wind. There's no way I'm shutting my eyes without eating anything so, gradually, garri became my consolation. And within a few weeks, it graduated from being the consoling food to the main dish. After school hours, I rushed to the hostel to enjoy a round of the popular food; just before going to bed, I downed another round to ease me into dreamland.
Needless to say, garri is the cheapest meal I've ever had. Before the economy went haywire one could enjoy itl with about a hundred naira. Even during my undergraduate days I depended a lot on the food whenever time got hard, especially during the exam periods when scarcity was rife. It's probably the most popular food across public secondary schools and universities back then. I don't know about it now though, because it seems everyone is now too rich for a simple meal. Can't help but laugh when I see some dudes from humble backgrounds pretending as if they never tasted garri before.
Enough of the eulogies on the seemingly poor man's food. As for the most expensive meal I've had, it definitely has to be pounded yam with egusi soup. In terms of cost, the food combination is not really expensive to prepare. What makes it the most expensive food I've eaten is because the few times I've enjoyed it in recent years, I made sure it was with a lot of meat. Besides the abundance of grilled fish and meat already used to prepare the soup, I love to eat my pounded yam with some serious amount of meat to match. This makes it a very simple but expensive dish.
In terms of frequency, I had a lot of garri. And that was mostly because it's the cheapest around and also doesn't require any form of serious preparation. Just pour the garri, add water and other additives. Boom! You have a meal. The last few years, I've replaced garri with noodles as the goto fast meal. However, that doesn't stop me from having garri once in a while.
And as for pounded yam, it's more of a festivities meal down here. Also, it's an incredibly difficult meal to prepare at home because of the amount of stress and energy required. On a couple of occasions that I've relied on eateries for pounded yam, I have to admit I was disappointed. And those eateries will never cook the egusi soup like I want it. Due to that, I rely on home made pounded yam and egusi soup for my fix. And this is maybe twice or thrice a year - once during the Easter celebration, another during Christmas, and maybe some other feel-good times. I will prefer to eat it more often though.
