Whether it’s from your dad’s side or your mum’s side, whether it’s that well-known comparatively or not. It don’t matter. Let’s just come in here and discuss about indigenous foods from our respective parts of Naija. Whether you-dey from the East, West, middle belt, north or far south.

South West.. Ekiti..
Pounded Yam and ishapa stew

1000Capacity:
South West.. Ekiti..
Pounded Yam and ishapa stew

Yeah, I know that one. You can just call isapa zobo-egusi. That’s basically what it is, like onugbu/bitterleaf egwusi, ugu egwusi, okazi-egusi, whatever the predominant vegetable is in any one case, if any). Egusi cooked with zobo (hibiscus) leaves.

Anambra uses the most onugbu (bitterleaf) in Igboland, whereas what’s more characteristic of Imo and Abia states is okazi, and it reflects in the way egusi’s cooked. There are tonnes of Igbo leaves you can use to cook egusi but ugu, onugbu and okazi (all with or without a sprinkling of uziza leaves) are just three common ways to do it (some of the other vegetables, like azu-igwe/goat weed, are a fair bit more uncommon; not blaming indomie for that but, y’know, the less common leaves are less known to each younger generations, except the ones who study culinary traditions or remarkably have it passed down to them).

Egusi soup in general is very important to the Igbo but you’ve got styles, just like there’s Delta egusi pepper soup, Akwa Ibom egusi (tastes Igbotic but slightly different) egusi made with akwu (banga egusi) that cuts across both Deltans and (more rarely) Igbos (some people use akwu to cook egusi, instead of palm oil; egusi-ocha, a Delta-Igbo thing, hardly uses either if at all). Then there’s akpurapu egusi with achara (elephant-grass). Benue egusi. Igala egusi. Egusi Ijebu (yuck but, for better or worse, it is unique). Ondo/Ekiti egusi that’s always served with pounded yam. There’s probably several forms of it indigenous to so much of Nigeria, and that’s why it’s annoying when both Igbos and Yorubas alike try and claim egusi as belonging solely to them. Countries as far as Ghana and just other parts of West Africa have some form of egusi so it’s not much of a stretch that basically every Nigerian tribe has a type of egusi particular and good-as native to them, and that actually is the reality. The concept of egusi soup in general, for all the variations, is general, not tribal.

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Probz:


Yeah, I know that one. You can just call isapa zobo-egusi. That’s basically what it is, like onugbu/bitterleaf egwusi, ugu egwusi, okazi-egusi, whatever the predominant vegetable is in any one case, if any). Egusi cooked with zobo (hibiscus) leaves.

Yes that's true, that isapa is used to make zobo drink. Hibiscus leaves.

Starch/owho soup
Starch/Banga soup
Ukodo

Delta state(isoko/urhobo precisely)


Pics from my kitchen