fantasy life and nigerian food
Suya (soo-yah). Pepper Powder Steak
Agbalumo (ah-gbah-loo-moh). Sweet Star Apple
Agbado (ah-gbah-doe). Grilled Sweet Corn
Boli (boh-lee). Roasted Plantains
Dodo (doe-doe). Fried Plantains
Ikokore (ee-koh-koh-reh). Water Yam Pottage
Coconut Candy.
Sugar Spears.
These are the names of dishes, treats, snacks, and sweets people in my world will eat.
I realized the other day (while writing a synopsis for one of my characters) that the more I imagine the kinds of food my characters love to eat, the more real the characters become.
This food flavor characterization has happened three times so far.
First with The Island Girl -
a young, strong-hearted warrior of noble descent, who patrols her native island defending her people from bandits and ronin pirates, while struggling to prove herself as a worthy representative of her family’s honor. A visual came into my mind of what ‘Island Girl’ does when she’s NOT training, or practicing throwing her weapons as she scales the high cliffs of her island home, or diving of the edge of a plant-saturated precipice into hidden crystal pools, or riding the edge of a towering waterfall… all just for the thrill.
Island Girl hunts boar, pheasant, and rabbit in between her warrior training, soaking up the sunny afternoon and cooling herself in the constant breeze from the surrounding ocean (a stretch of brilliantly topaz-colored sea). She loves to braise her kill in oily stews made from the red bark seeds near her home, simmering all her favorite dishes in her family’s giant wood oven. Island Girl also loves collecting fresh fronds from behind the tallest waterfalls she can find, turning the frond leaves into crispy Waterfall Frond Cakes, light wafers that go very well with some salted slim-fish crackling. When life becomes stressful, or her warrior family gets on her nerves, she finds solitude sitting by the lake near her family’s village, savoring the sounds of the surrounding nature, and watching the water lilies shift around on the surface of the lake water, nudged by the Lotus Crabs swimming underneath. As I imagine her character, I can taste the flavors of the food that compliment her huntress side, hear the rush of the tall waterfall as she dives to gather ingredients - fresh rewards for her thrill-seeker side, and I see the ripples in the water made by the Lotus Crabs, a unique delicacy she can only access when she seeks stillness and reflection.
Second with The Bloody Chef -
a character that lives as a ruthless body guard one moment, and as an aspiring culinary artist the next. The Bloody Chef makes his way around Feast City, the culinary capital of this fantasy world. It is a city that never rests, filled with the noisy hustle and bustle of packed restaurants, never-ending food festivals, cooking demonstrations and musical celebrations, sprawling artistic feats and countless lantern lights, and - every so often - violent skirmishes between rival gang members and the restaurant owners they serve.
The Feast City is a tourist filled destination with no single leader, where power is distributed among food merchants and the violent gangs that keep their restaurant businesses thriving. The feasts go on day and night, for as long as there is food to eat and beverage to drink. And The Bloody Chef wouldn’t have it any other way. He is a master of technique, creating courses from scraps he finds in any kitchen he happens to be in. His creations are always at the forefront of the city’s culinary conversation. People live or die by his recipes - literally - as merchant-lords wage war to take over the restaurants he has cooked in (if they can’t simply buy his allegiance outright).
The Bloody Chef frequently explores the most remote parts of this world to perfect his cooking techniques with his custom made Cod Slicer - a tool custom-crafted out of the bones of a giant fish The Bloody Chef once came across (and killed, and cooked). He uses his Cod Slicer both for preparing his dishes and slaughtering his opponents, throwing his passion and energy equally into each craft, for The Bloody Chef aspires to be as good a feast-maker as he is a hired killer, and is well known in the Feast City for being a master at both.
The last food characterization was really an excuse for me to celebrate some of the delicious food memories I had as a child growing up in Nigeria.
Even after living in the Unites States for all these years (I’ve been here since 1995), my memories of certain Nigerian dishes - some of which I haven’t had since the 1980s - still feel incredibly distinct and exciting to think about. I remember the food merchant who posted his portable stall outside Lara Day Nursery and Primary School, selling snacks I never really knew the name of* (but that I could never get enough of). I’ll call them “Coconut Candy” and “Sugar Spears” - crunchy, smoky, sweet concoctions the food merchant dipped in honey/caramel and then roasted over a makeshift grill. As classes ended for the day and my classmates and I gathered outside school waiting for our parents to pick us up, the roasted candy aroma saturated the afternoon air. It was obvious the food merchants knew exactly how to manipulate their potential customers, but I never cared. They were like a combination of artistic geniuses and bonafide rock stars to me. Please take my money.
Coconut Nests and Sugar Spears will be a regular food diversion in my fantasy world. As will Suya (delicious flank steak roasted on spits and coated with red hot pepper powder), Boli and Agbado (ripe plantains and sweet corn on the cob, each grilled to perfection), Agbalumo (a round fleshy fruit whose hidden seeds are arranged in the shape of a star), and Ikokore (a ridiculously delicious yam pottage that changes my life’s core decisions every time I eat it). These snacks and other Nigerian-influenced dishes will be exclusive to the Nubian lands, home to gold wearing warrior tribes and Sun-dust carrying shamans that I have envisioned living in that part of Įrē.
This land, unlike the Feast City, does not encourage tourists, firstly because its people are very close-knit, and protective of the treasures they have inherited from their forefathers (and accumulated over thousands of years from the land itself), and, secondly, because the Nubian lands are on the outskirts of the known world, and are the last bastion of protection from The Dark Amazon, a giant stretch of corrupted forest terrain known to host many of the most terrifying creatures ever encountered on Įrē. The Nubian shamans frequently pack Nigerian-style snacks to take along as they roam the Dark Amazon - for days on end -to perfect their hunting skills, and to train the newest members of their elite clan (but that’s another story for another day).
Nothing that lives within the Dark Amazon dares to cross the Nubian lands, effectively making the Nubian tribes the most important protectors of the known world. It is a mystery whose secret is very closely guarded. While visitors are tolerated under special circumstances, world travelers know very little of that part of Įrē, and the secret of how the Nubian people protect the rest of the world from these terrors of the Dark Amazon continues to remain so. A double-edged sword, as it is a secret that will leave the rest of the world completely unprepared for the even greater terrors that are yet to come.
But, at least, the food in this world will taste great! 🔥👍🏽🔥
*Food Update:
Found more Nigerian food names!
Coconut Candy is called Shuku Shuku, and Sugar Spears are called Ekana Gowon or 'Tofi'.
