#streetnextturn : Cooking on a budget

mbiedabasi (41)in #nigeria • 7 years ago

I woke with so much energy this morning and decided to cook a little soup on a budget of a thousand naira. I had spent quite some money yesterday to see Avengers: Infinity War and was left with a few twisted notes. My pocket literally weeped.

Man on a mission, I set out to a tiny market down my street with a list of stuff I may need to make myself a meal or two. The genius plan was drawn out:
Beef 200
Fish 200
Okro 100
Adusa 50
Fresh Pepper 50
Stockfish 150
Crayfish 100
Seasoning cubes 20
Salt 20
Onion 20
Palm Oil 30

Weaving through the market came with its own amazing challenges as i bowed my head with a hunched back, I walked in between the stalls and kiosks to avoid bruising my head or brushing against the low corrugated roof sheets. The chitchat and noise of buyers and sellers weren't lost on me as i pushed through cat-calls of 'customer buy na', 'fresh tomato dey oo', 'Oga check my table'. I just smiled and gave absent-minded waves of disinterest.

Ticking items off my market list, I bought almost everything without exceeding my budget, which was amazingly still under a thousand naira. For some of the items, I had to drop entirely. As expected, beef was so small for the planned price and since I wasn't a big fan, I dropped it and instead, split the money to accommodate periwinkle, more fish and crayfish. Not bad for an amateur shopper, i complimented myself.

Thirty minutes after I left my house, I was back. I threw an apron over my head, made a cute bow tying it around my waist, I started to the kitchen to do justice to the pot and its members. After cutting, slicing, dicing vegetables and readying the other ingredients, the actual cooking took only a little over an hour.
Brunch was served!
For picture lovers, I'm going to break your hearts a teeny weeny bit. A photoshoot wasn't part of the plan, demolishing the food was!!!