The food that reminds me of Home.

There is an advert that's runs on SuperSports during EPL games and the advert is making a case for getting eatouts and buying already-made meals from restaurants. I can relate to that on a special level because I've been living away from home for over a decade. The first time I left home was in 2018 and I've come to adapt to eating meals that are not made by my Mum.

I've had all sorts of junks and I've eaten from all sorts of food vendors. However, whenever I'm at home and get an opportunity to eat something that's made by my Mum or siblings, the taste I get from those is always miles ahead of whatever I get from the ones I eat in restaurants.

It almost feels as if there is a special recipe used to cook at home. Even if it's a cup of tea, it still tastes so much better than the ones I can find away from home. Maybe it's not the food. Perhaps, this has more to do with the fact that Mum always cooks with so much love. Haha.

Is there any food that reminds me of home?

Yeah! There are so many of those and I can't even find these food anywhere around here because I'm living in a region that has a language and culture that's completely different from mine. Hehe. I'm far from home and all the meals that are famous in my hometown are nowhere to be found here.

There is a meal we call Achịcha in my home town. There is another we call Ayaraya. We also have Otipi. Then, we have the ones that are relatively more common like Abacha and Ọkpa. Within the two years, I've stayed in Ibadan, I've been able to see someone selling Ọkpa twice and it's only once that I've seen someone selling Abacha.

The first time I saw Okpa here was in the first quarter of 2022 when I was on my way back from UCH (University College Hospital, Ibadan) after getting my Vaccination shot. I was not feeling okay that day, yet I paused my journey and bought a lot of Okpa which I took home. Haha.

The other time I saw someone selling Okpa was around July 2022. We just dismissed from church that Sunday morning when I saw a young lady selling it at the Gate of our church. Boy... Did I spend my last penny on it? Haha. I sure did!

As for Abacha, it was just last month that I got to eat Abacha for the first time in 3 years. I was coming back from a shopping mall when I saw a woman selling it. I was so happy to see the seller, I couldn't stop yapping about how much I've missed Abacha. Haha.

If I was at home, eating any of these meals would never be a problem. But once I'm away from home and find myself in the Northern or Southern part of Nigeria, I just zero my mind from them before chances of spotting them are always rare.

These meals sure remind me of home.

Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop Or Comma.
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