Both Igbos and Akwa Ibom/Calabar people, it goes without saying, are known for being strong contenders for the best overall cooks in Nigeria (although every tribe has its niche, including Yorubas, Hausas, Igalas and Edos) but what are you really having when the utazi-laced cassava/abacha-chips (or Cajun-spiced + utazi-sprinkled French fries coated in wheat and fried in groundnut oil and duck fat in a semi-cast-iron air-fryer, if you will) are down and you need to comfort-eat your way out of a bad break-up, an embarrassment that did not need to happen or a wet Sunday? Is it afang, onugbu, abak atama, Mama-Ekaete’s beechwood-smoked coconut seafood jollof rice, ukpo-ogede (plantain mai-mai), igba di-oku (Enugu okpa now), isi-ewu or ofe Owere?

What’s it going to be? Team Hilda or team auntie Nkechi?

Op, if you talk of Akwa ibom and Cross river, i'll tick you right but addin igbo, Chaii...you're a joker!

Shalommy:
Op, if you talk of Akwa ibom and Cross river, i'll tick you right but addin igbo, Chaii...you're a joker!

It’s natural for every tribe who has anything like a tangible claim to it in some way to say they’re the best at what they do, all tribalistic sentiments even aside, but food’s something you just can’t take away from Igbos and I’m not just saying that because I’m Igbo. Yoruba people are good, often really good, at cooking rice, moi-moi, party food and a select-few other dishes (and none of these are even theirs in the first place) and individual sub-groups (Ekiti, and God knows I love ndu Ekiti, Ilaje, etc.) have more variety than others but you can’t bank on being able to eat egusi soup from them that won’t make your stomach purge like you can with an Igbo or Akwa Ibom person who can cook (Osun, Ondo and Ekiti are the Yoruba states that make good egusi; the others range from nichely mediocre to very bad). There’s no unifying strength when it comes to their soups and stuff like that and that’s where Igbos come in more specifically. Just the way it is.

There was a time I was living with ungrateful, semi-narcissistic bastards (and I mean scum of the Earth) who I still hate with a passion but I still let them eat my food and some of it went down particularly well. Versatile Nsukka-Awka-Nri Igbo hands rarely let mandem starve once they’re past the age of 15. I’m a closed book who doesn’t cook for the world as such but either way I just know I wouldn’t be as good a cook if I wasn’t from the Southeast or have that kind of blood in me.

In a land (S.E.) where between us we have okpa, utazi, onugbu, okazi, ukwa, snails specifically for jollof rice and onugbu soup, okazi/Afang, ofe akwu, catfish pepper soup, edikang-ikong, coconut rice, etc., you’re going to need to have a lot of bases covered to say you’re better. We can all learn from each other but it doesn’t kill to admit certain things. So in my books it really is Calabar and Igbo leading the roost. Urhobo third. But negodu yourself, my friend.

Shalommy:
Op, if you talk of Akwa ibom and Cross river, i'll tick you right but addin igbo, Chaii...you're a joker!

Oh peh-lease! 🙄
Their soups are overrated. (Not nutritionally though)

Just a combination of water leaves, and any other leafy vegetables with proteins and excess palm oil, then give it a different name.

mariahAngel:


Oh peh-lease! 🙄
Their soups are overrated. (Not the nutritionally though)

Just a combination of water leaves, and any other leafy vegetables with proteins and excess palm oil, then give it a different name.

You talking about ndi Ibom-Efik?

Probz:


You talking about ndi Ibom-Efik?

Yes.
No much creativity required in most of their soups, and some of their foods (like ekpan-nkwukwo) are unnecessarily tedious.

And they brag a lot too. 🙄

mariahAngel:


Yes.
No much creativity required in most of their soups, and some of their foods (like ekpan-nkwukwo) are unnecessarily tedious.

And they brag a lot too. 🙄

Mhm, but the thing is they’re meticulous in the way they cook, they use good vegetables (like utazi) and the ratio of tin tomatoes to fresh ones (and the rest) could not be more perfect. Maybe the ones who live in interior Uyo villages don’t do it that well but as someone who’s been in and out of both the U.K. and Nigeria I do feel like they do exceptionally well when it comes to things like that. A typical Yoruba woman wouldn’t be able to get their kind of consistency without elevating the amount of oil even if it would still taste amazing, as it often does, but because Calabar people are meticulous cooks they use the best ratios.

But I agree that their shades of vegetable soup can be a bit repetitive and same-y. They don’t seem to have much variety of swallow either so it doesn’t tend to be mostly garri or pounded yam. When it comes to variety of actual swallow I’d say Igbos, Yorubas and Deltans lead the roost to be fair.

Probz:


Mhm, but the thing is they’re meticulous in the way they cook, they use good vegetables (like utazi) and the ratio of tin tomatoes to fresh ones (and the rest) could not be more perfect. Maybe the ones who live in interior Uyo villages don’t do it that well but as someone who’s been in and out of both the U.K. and Nigeria I do feel like they do exceptionally well when it comes to things like that. A Yoruba woman wouldn’t be able to get their kind of consistency without using too much oil but because Calabar people are meticulous cooks they use the best ratios.

But I agree that their shades of vegetable soup can be a bit repetitive and same-y. They don’t seem to have much variety of swallow either so it doesn’t tend to be mostly garri or pounded yam. When it comes to variety of actual swallow I’d say Igbos, Yorubas and Deltans lead the roost to be fair.

Igbos' all the way.

Probz:
Both Igbos and Akwa Ibom/Calabar people, it goes without saying, are known for being strong contenders for the best overall cooks in Nigeria (although every tribe has its niche, including Yorubas, Hausas, Igalas and Edos) but what are you really having when the utazi-laced cassava-chips (or Cajun-spiced + utazi-sprinkled French fries coated in wheat and fried in groundnut oil and duck fat in a semi-cast-iron air-fryer, if you will) are down and you need to comfort-eat your way out of a bad break-up, an embarrassment that did not need to happen or a wet Sunday? Is it afang, onugbu, abak atama, Mama-Ekaete’s beechwood-smoked coconut seafood jollof rice, ukpo-ogede (plantain mai-mai), igba di-oku (Enugu okpa now), isi-ewu or ofe Owere?

What’s it going to be? Team Hilda or team auntie Nkechi?

Bubu4Sea:

Lolz, yeah?