My Suya experience.

It was a day after Christmas, the day folks were scheduled to compete in family boxing bouts. I had decided to visit my suya hangout zone in Ikoyi for a suya treat. Getting to the place, I realised that so many things had changed. It was either they had caught the ‘change’ bug or they merely decided to rebrand. I chose to go with the latter, rebranding, particularly to fit into the season of celebration. After all, it was Christmas, and it was a perfect timing.

I made my selection of the body parts that I wanted to consume; kidney, gizzard, tozo, shaki and any other body parts available. I made it clear from my selection process that I was for nobody, I was for everybody. After all, this is the gospel of the constitutionally established quota system. “I am a good citizen of Nigeria,” I said to myself. I am sure if the suya parts could express themselves, they would have thanked me for my philosophy and appreciated me for my magnanimity. I felt like Bill Gates at a charity already.

I had not concluded admiring the scenery and setting when the ‘my suya’ guy announced that my consignment was ready for dispatch; take away that is. Hot suya in sizzling vegetable oil were laid out bare on the newspaper wrapper (I realised that this had more nutrients that using foil as underlay), dismembered, garnished with tomatoes, onions, cabbage and spiced with the ever famous ‘ata suya’ (suya pepper); in fact, I almost requested for carrots to be added to the suya (and who chops/dices carrot into suya by the way…lol.) “Add more pepper,” I had requested the suya guy. After all, suya without this fundamental and foundational component is synonymous with chicken and chips without tomato ketchup. It was an aberration and an injustice not to appreciate the level of glory that the special pepper has brought to suya and the lives the same has touched throughout generations. Ata suya was the game changer, the icing on the cake! I watched as the my suya guy sprinkled more pepper on my suya meat...

http://www.niyisodimu.com.ng/ata-suya-suya-pepper/