Nigerian Cuisine

The food divides by region as much as anything. In the southwest, Yoruba cooking gives amala with ewedu and gbegiri, efo riro, and jollof rice cooked in a tomato and pepper base. In the southeast, Igbo cooking is built on soups thickened with egusi melon seed, ogbono or bitterleaf, eaten with fufu, garri or pounded yam torn by hand and swallowed. In the north, Hausa food runs to tuwo with miyan kuka, and to suya, thin beef skewers rubbed with yaji, a ground peanut and chilli spice, grilled over wood by street vendors in the evening. Pepper soup, moin moin, akara and fried plantain cross all of them. Chilli levels are high throughout.

What you actually see

• Jollof rice - the tomato and pepper rice of celebrations.
• Suya - the spiced beef skewers grilled at evening street stands.
• Egusi and ogbono soups - the thickened soups eaten with swallow.
• Amala with ewedu - the Yoruba yam flour and jute leaf combination.

When to go

Year round. Suya is an evening food and appears after dark. Christmas and Eid bring large family cooking. Bukas, the small local eating houses, serve at lunchtime and are where most everyday food is eaten.

Honest expectations

Chilli levels are genuinely high and are not reduced for visitors. Swallow foods are eaten by hand from a shared bowl and the texture is unfamiliar to many. Buka hygiene varies and water should be bottled or sachet. Vegetarian eating is difficult since most soups use meat or fish stock.

Nearby

Lagos bukas and street stands; Kano and the north for suya.