A Special Meal

This was one of the numerous meals I made for myself during my service year at Ikot Ekpene, Akwa (Abasi) Ibom State. It's white rice with Efere Edika Ikot. During my service year, I ate mostly vegetables. In fact, that year still tops my years of vegetable eating. You see? Akwa Ibom is blessed, inter alia, with lush, green and edible vegetables. The ugu leaf is usually large and deep green.

My mother had insisted, against my will, that learnt how to cook. Being her first child, with a widened age gap between my sibling, I had no other option than stuck in the kitchen with her, no matter how long I sulked. She just ignored me. Looking back, I thank her immensely for her insistence.

So, during my service year, I made my meals. I can actually count the number of times I ate out. I enjoyed cooking my meals that even when my female friends (the few of them anyway)visited me, we struggled about who should do the cooking. It was a real struggle; and I won all.

They, especially those from Akwa Ibom State did not understand that. The least I allowed them to do was help me chop onions or vegetables. Some Sundays, I invited my fellow Corp members of the National Youth Service Corp to eat in my house at Ikot Otu, Ikot Obong Edong.

I looked very 'fresh' in the words of other lawyers at court. They would always ask: "Who is the Ekaette that is making you look this fresh?"

My usual response is: "I am the Ekaette!".
I remember my service days with smiles. And Nnaemeka Ugwu's post today where he showcased his beautiful 'Ofe Egwusi' made me remember my Ikot Ekpene days and meals.
I remember how I enjoyed ukom with plenty vegetables and mfi (Periwinkle).

On one of my trips to Urua Atoor, I was alarmed that the vegetable was 'too much'. I wanted ugu worth N50.00 and what the woman gave me look like ugu worth N100.00. I complained. It was the rainy season. A passerby, a woman whom I later learnt was Mrs. Essien said to me: "Mmakara, vegetable can never be 'too much'". I held my peace and went home.

Really, I believe, like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie opined, that we should not delegate an issue as sensitive as our nourishment to another person. You know? It's like 'touching yourself'; nobody can do it better than you. (Pun intended)
My mother usually says, that no woman can do shakara for me in a way that makes me think that somehow, she thinks she should not have made learn all I learnt.

This is because there are days when we are not in good terms and deliberately, she will decide not to keep food for me. On getting home, I will fly into the kitchen, if hungry, to make my food. The look on her face on days like this, as I relish my meal, is usually not funny. She has given up. Well, I guess it make her happy too.

CAVEAT: Any Lady who thinks that the way to a man's stomach is through his stomach should look elsewhere. This brother has long been lost!