My Lagos Food Romance – Lucia Edafioka

So one of my dear friends said I use this column to hate on Lagos weekly. No, I don’t hate Lagos. Ok, it’s a love-hate relationship. So today I am going to write about one of the things I love about Lagos, and that’s food, and how easy and cheap it is to get good food.

There’s a food vendor on almost every street. You see kids in their school uniforms queuing to buy breakfast, or lunch to take to school; workers, parking cars to buy roadside food. Some will even sit down by the road in their suit and delve into their meals. The food is just everywhere. The taxi park I take a taxi from in the morning has its own vendor, they call her early mor mor, before 6am her table is set (when did she start cooking o???)

Is it bread, beans, akara, pap, fried yam, dodo, of course rice, what do you want for breakfast? Lagos will give it to you; along the road. I was in a bus one day and the guy sitting by me bought tea from those Nescafe vendors, agege bread, blue band (the one in a small sachet) and ate his food. I was looking at him like, dude slow down…

All this is strange to me. As a Warri child, outside food was a treat. Once in a while my mum would buy us banga rice or coconut rice, that sort of thing. Seeing it here, as a regular thing is strange indeed. Then I was like, how can you people be eating road side food? Don’t you know you can get typhoid or cholera sef? Do you know how and what these women use to cook? Did they wash everything clean? (remember Styl Plus’ Iya Basira?)

Ah, during my JJC days, I would wake up by 4am to make breakfast, eat or pack it to the office. Then I’d eat biscuit or snacks for lunch just because I don’t want to eat mama put. I would have continued if not for my colleagues in the office. They would send the cleaning lady to get them food and eat in my very before. At first I kept my nose up and ignored them. Later, ‘let me taste small’. Next thing I know I have a regular customer, ain’t nobody got time to wake up by 4am anymore.

Madam, abeg add small pomo for the corner…

That’s how I joined Lagos people o. Even beans I wouldn’t eat if it was prepared by someone I don’t know, I am buying ewa agoyi. Have you tasted that thing? Why did I hate rice/spaghetti together before? I used to snob people eating that combination, it’s now my staple. There is this lady I buy moi moi and pap from (I love pap), her food is the truth. I had to call my mum to gush about it.

If there is nothing to love about Lagos, there’s the food; the cheap sweet food.

Thank you Lagos!

And in case you are wondering, I am in the best health I’ve ever been.

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