Being a picky eater is a serious hustle, especially considering how limited Nigerian cuisine is; you end up being stuck with rice and maybe your choice swallow every other day. When someone suggests that you try something new out (like the generally hated semo, for example), you end up patronizing the poop house for hours because your tummy can’t hold it in. It’s a serious struggle.
On that note, we talked to a few people about the foods they would most definitely place a ban on and got some interesting takes.
Tola is sure seafood is designed to kill people. She says,
“For me its octopus though.
I saw them eating live octopus once in secondary school. Those Chinese people. Recently, I went to a bistro to eat seafood pasta and saw one black thing but didn’t ask. The thing was now looking like tentacles. The waitress eventually said it was squid. I was just there like Mad o, I just ate black squid.”
Aisha has some bad throwback thoughts about the generally hailed gbegiri,
“Is gbegiri food? Because that thing needs to thrown into the pits of hell! How can you be eating Yellow watery poo and be happy? How?!
My uncle hosts this annual Ramadan lectures so I would always go. After breaking for the day and it was time to eat, I opted for amala. The woman in charge asked if I wanted to gbegiri and mumu me said yes. I didn’t know what it was o. From the look sef, I was already disgusted. I tasted it like this and it tasted like poo. Not like I know what poo tastes like but at that moment, I could imagine it.”
Emeka has an agenda against Amala,
“Definitely Amala and ewedu, especially Amala
That stuff shouldn’t be a meal, it should be reserved for times of food crisis when there’s no other option.”
Tolu can’t stand your fave swallows,
“Fufu and pounded yam. The first day I tasted both.
That fufu one ehn. I took it around 4pm oo and had to force swallow the few morsels I took. I felt so uncomfortable afterwards like stone was in my stomach. Summary is that I did not sleep overnight and kept turning. And the odour…uugghhhhh.
That pounded yam…sha yam with plenty stress abeg”
Chi can’t fake the love for a number of ingredients.
“It’s more like certain ingredients that destroy whatever dish they’re in.
Cinnamon, salad cream, ketchup, mayonnaise. Anything that contains any of these smelly things.
For salad cream and mayonnaise, I actually wanted to try them out, because I’d seen my seat partner in primary school eat a mayonnaise sandwich. It was just too smelly, I could perceive it as I chewed. I never tried it again, the smell stills disgusts me.
I soon realized I hated all the others, because they also smelled bad.”
Bella has terrible recollections regarding pancakes.
“Took pancakes to school in primary 1, my seatmate vomited all over my foodflask. The teacher washed it but while eating all I could think about was the vomit ….Put me off it for life.”
