ULOG: MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE BLACK SOUP

Owk everyone, hope you all are having a good day. Well mine went well, though stressful.

So today I caught some little time for myself away from work and decided to tell you about the little experience I had over the weekend with a soup not common to all here in Nigeria. It is called Black Soup.

A female friend of mine came to my house a certain day and told me her mum came visiting. I asked for what the mum brought for her and she said her mum brought Black Soup. In amazement I asked, “what the heck is black soup?”. Why should a soup be called black, is it literally black? She responded affirmatively and I couldn’t just believe my ears. I asked for how the food would taste and she said it tasted great.

In the Igbo culture, there is a popular adage that says that the eyes eat before the mouth and so I thought to myself, how could a soup which would look disgusting taste great. Black soup???? Gosh!

Well, I am all about the experience and so I decided to atleast see what the soup looks like and so give it a try to know if it would be something I would enjoy like she said. I picked up my phone, called the mum and pleaded with her to bring us Black Soup when next she is coming to pay her daughter a visit.

Low and behold, her mum came visiting on Saturday and guess what? She brought black soup along with her.

Just to clear the air, I currently stay in one of the western states in Nigeria occupied by the Yoruba tribe, Ogun State. The girl in question is from Ekiti State, another state in the western part of Nigeria. Black soup isn’t a soup peculiar with the yorubas but originated from Edo State. The yorubas adopted the soup and devised their own way of cooking it.

My friend invited me over to come and taste the so anticipated black soup and I indulged her. I drove over to her house and asked to see the soup, below is the picture of the black soup in the pot.

The soup is literally black as coal

Heheheh, are you disgusted? Well, I wouldn’t blame you if you are, I also felt so when I took a first glance at the soup. But I told myself, if the soup was eaten by humans, I couldn’t be so bad afterall.

I mustard courage and asked her to dish the soup for me with Fufu. Actually, this rare but peculiar soup could be eaten with either rice or any form of cassava mould. She decided to eat hers with rice, after which she ate it with cassava mould (fufu).

My friend served hers with white rice

And i decided to have mine with cassava mould (fufu)

My friend enjoying her white rice and black soup

Aterwards, she decided to have fufu and black soup just to teach me how to eat it. Awwww she's camera shy

Fufu and black soup

The soup was graced by me with mixed feelings. At first, I was excited that I was trying out a new soup, a soup I know I would never have agreed to let into my mouth if I didn’t know too well the person who prepared it.

After the food got into my mouth, I was like, ”Oh my God, what is this”. I couldn’t exactly place the taste of the soup, it tasted like many different things at the same time and I was just trying to figure out what I would say it tasted like but couldn’t.

Now its my turn to eat mine***

Started off with a smiling face

When I swallowed the first mould, I was like Ewwwwww

Took the second mould

And was like, OMG I will die today

I swallowed the first mould, the second, the third and then I realised that my problem was the fact that I was tasting the soup for the very first time. I immediately got used to the taste of the soup and didn’t feel disgusted anymore.

Two wonderful animals, sorry meats were in my soup. One of them was the skin of a cow, popularly known as Kpomo around here and the second was the flesh, called beef. After I had downloaded(eaten) the food into my system(stomach), I started off immediately with the meats and finished it off. I thanked the lady for the lovely soup she had presented before me and requested that I spoke with the mum to thank her as well and to plead with her to bring another when next she wants to pay a visit.

Started off with the beef

Done with the beef, now eating the kpomo

It was a lovely experience and after I had ate the soup, I asked her to explain how the soup was prepared but she jokingly said I was going to pay for it. Well, why do I even want to know when I could always call her mum and tell her to bring the soup next time, hehehehe.

If you want to know what the condiments of Black Soup is, you could freely check the internet. If eventually, I get to learn how to prepare it, I might just make a video to show you my friends how it’s being prepared so you could have the great feel of black soup like I did.

If you enjoyed this ulog, kindly leave a comment and an upvote if you wish to and stay tuned for more interesting ulogs from me.

Good Night…