INTRODUCTION

Hello steemians, let me start by saying a wonderful good morning, good afternoon, and good evening from around the world. Hope you all are doing good? And hope you are all happy to participate in this awesome, fantastic, outstanding, and enjoyable Contest.
I thought of this same idea some weeks ago. I wanted something that has to do with meals, but only the Steemit food community has Contests like this.
This contest will enable a lot of us get to know about different meals and which country we can get them. As for me, I will say that I can even contest for this post more than a hundred times.

I haven't been to any country before. I was born and brought up in my country, Nigeria. So I can't say I know about any other meal outside my country. Through this contest, I will get to know about many dishes in different countries, most especially, India, my dream country.
Just before we dive into it, let's look at my table of contents.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

S/N	TOPICS
(1)	Words of Appreciation.
(2)	What is my Favorite dish?
(3)	Reason why I like pounded yam and Egusi soup?
(4)	How to cook it (recipe)
(5)	Does its style vary in different cities?
(6)	What are the different selling rates?
(7)	Some pictures of my favourite dish.
(8)	Where i visit the most to eat pounded yam and Egusi soup.
(9)	What are the rates there?
(10)	The percentage of people that loves pounded yam and Egusi soup in my area.
(11)	Conclusion.

1. Words of Appreciation.

First of all, I thought of appreciating the admins and moderators of this great Community for the previous week's contest. I learnt a lot of things, I was among the winners and I was well rewarded for it. I love this community and I want to say keep up the good work. Thanks once again. Thank you all.

2. What is my Favorite dish?

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Oh!!! Yeah..... Another week with a wonderful topic to discuss. I can bet that most of us don't know the favourite dishes of our friends, or even, love ones.
For today's Contest, I will be honoured and glad to reveal my 1000% most favourite dish in the whole world, yea for now, though subjected to Future changes.
My favourite dish is pounded yam and Egusi soup. Gosh!!! Have you tasted this meal before?
This is a very tasty and delicious meal in my country Nigeria.

3. Reason why I like pounded yam and Egusi soup?

How do you feel when you taste your favourite dish? First, there's a lot of reasons why I love pounded yam and Egusi soup, both nutritional and for sweetness.

Let me start with the nutritional aspect.

(a). The pounded yam is from boiled yam that was pounded. We all know that yam contains carbohydrates which are the main source of energy in our body. In fact, carbohydrate activates the brain. When you eat meals like pounded yam, it fuels your body system. That's the power of carbohydrate.
(b). The pumpkin leaves used in cooking the Egusi soup is highly rich in vitamin A and Vitamin C.
The vitamin A has much effect in improving our eyesight and also, help to build healthy skin and hair.
Now, what about the Vitamin C? Going back to your highschool notes?? Well, it helps in healing wounds and forming scar tissue. It is also good for maintaining healthy bones, skin, and teeth.

The nutrients in this pumpkin can also boost your immune system.
Just add this meal to your menu and see how good you will look.

(c). Now what about the main ingredient, Egusi(melon seed)?
The melon seed contains both protein and Vitamin A. We know for sure that the protein helps in building our body while the Vitamin A is responsible for maintaining healthy bone and teeth formation.
It also contain both vitamins B1 and B2 which functions in body growth and the production of red blood cells.

Lastly, I love this meal because it is too too sweet. It doesn't matter the person who prepares it, it just okay and taste good.

4. How to cook it (recipe for pounded yam and Egusi soup).

Okay, let me go straight to the point.
First, let's know how to cook the pounded yam.

(a). Recipe for pounded yam.
Pounding the yam pieces

Make sure you pound it very well.

Pounded yam ready for consumption.

Source Link for the three images

Ingredients; Yam
Procedure: pill your yam and cut it into smaller sizes, boil it and pound it very well in a mortar and pestle. You're done. Sound easy, right? That's one reason why I love this meal.

Now, let's dive into how to make the Egusi soup.

First, let's start with the ingredients;
5 cups of egusi (melon) seeds( grind the melon seeds).
Goat meat
Stock Fish (dry cod)
Ponmo (cow skin)
Red palm oil
3 tablespoons grinded crayfish
Habanero pepper (to taste)
Pumpkin
3 small stock cubes
1 Ogiri Okpei (traditional locust bean seasoning)

Cooking Directions.
Start by cooking the meat and stockfish. After cooking it, remove the fish and meat put in another different pot or plate.
Remove the bones from the stockfish and break it into medium pieces.

Put the stockfish into a big pot. Add the grinded crayfish and egusi to the stock and stir.

Cook with a medium heat.
Make sure you keep stirring and adding water into the pot, until the melon seeds is well cooked.
Now is time to add the pumpkin leaves and red oil, and make sure you leave it for about 10 minutes, stirring it often.
The soup should be yellow when ready. This shows that the red palm oil has completely integrated in the soup.

Add the pepper then the cooked meat and fish. Stir and add salt only if necessary.
Egusi Soup can get salty very easily.
Cover and cook till it boils again then turn off the heat.
Your soup is set, ready to be devoured.

5. Does its style vary in different cities?

Based on my little knowledge, and from what I've seen so far, the preparation of pounded yam and Egusi soup varies in some places of the country.

6. What are the different selling rates?

The selling price for pounded yam and egusi soup in my country Nigeria varies. Where I stay(cross river state), different restaurants has different prices for their meals, including the pounded yam and Egusi soup.
Though the price starts from $0.60-$3, depending on the location and rating of the restaurant.

7. Some pictures of my favourite dish.

Let me wet your mouths now with these pictures.

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From the pictures above, you can clearly see that the egusi soup is served with the pounded yam. What a nice meal...

Now let's look at some pictures of the pounded yam and Egusi soup differently.

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Let's check out the pounded yam.

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Unlike some continental dishes, we Africans believe in swallows, we call them fufu, mostly contains starchy solids like the pounded yam, eaten with may available soup.

8. Where i visit the most to eat pounded yam and Egusi soup.

There's a lot of places to eat such meal. I don't usually eat outside, but one of my best restaurants where I get my meals sometimes, including the pounded yam and egusi soup is the cool bar, besides ayola in ikom, Cross River. State.

9. What are the rates there?

Not much from what I have already mentioned above. They sale at $0.55. with quality and quantity.

10. The percentage of people that loves pounded yam and Egusi soup in my area.

This is not something about my area, this meal is loved and eaten by 99.9% of all Nigerians. I haven't seen a single soul in my area who doesn't eat egusi soup and pounded yam.
The meal is like a general meal for all Nigerians.

11. Conclusion

This contest is one of a kind. I so much love it. I want to say that I've read some entries and I'm beginning to like some dishes already.
I want to say thanks to everybody participating in this contest, because you guys has truly shown us different meals around the world. It's wonderful. Thanks everybody.

Thanks for reading my entry.