As a Real Yoruba Girl: Aso-Oke Love

Okay I know what this looks like, you think I have once again desserted you and neglected my baby but I promise I haven't! This time I have a legit excuse, I've been out of the country and without wifi for about a week or so; I went to the heart of Ondo Kingdom, Nigeria for my granddads' funeral and though it was generally  time of extremely mixed emotions let's focus on the not so sad shall we? My Warrior Angel would have wanted it no other way!

It's been more than a while since I last dressed up in the full Yoruba attire but this past week I must have worn all the different types of aso-oke (top cloth) in Ondo! from the lovely purple and pink in alari, to the subtle gold in sanyan and the deep blue of etu!

Pink, pearls and alari, excuse the messy room in the background, that is what happens when you put six females together AND make them rush to get dressed quickly everyday! This is a typical yoruba traditional outfit, the head piece is called a gele, the top is a buba and the wrap around skirt is called an iro. I'm missing my iborun in this picture which is another piece of cloth, the same as the gele that is wrapped around your waist but you can kind of see it on my Aunt in the background. Trust me when I say there is no rushing this outfit! The gele (head piece) will be tied to perfection!

Gold, corals and sanyan and the massive necklace around my neck is called an 'igbaku'. I think it's only used at funerals if I remember rightly.

My brothers and cousin in sanyan agabadas (the long gown over the trousers), filas (men's hats) and igbakus. Those agbadas are heavy! I never realised how much so until I tried using one as a duvet!

Cute lil cuz in his own mini agbada

The girls in lilac and purple, honeslty I don't even remember what this outfit was for!

Sleeping in church. tut-tut!

After this trip I have a really deep love for aso-oke now! I always hated wearing it before but I think I have been well conditioned to it, I've even gone as far as daydreaming on what my aso-ebi (family cloth) for my wedding will be made out of and what colour it will be! just have to learn to tie my own gele so that poor Aunty Toju doesn't have to tie about 20 every morning the next time the whole family gathers God bless her soul! Once again I'm sorry I left you for so long! Hopefully you see that I haven't just ditched, thanks to all my readers for always coming back and to my favourite anonymous commenter and all the readers in Russia, thank you especially!

P.S: Posting this month might continue to be sparse as I prepare for summer exams but I will try very hard to not leave for too long again! Blogging is a nice study break. :)

Reni x

Plantain Party! (For Cool Kids Only!)

After the sad news I got on Wednesday I was thinking of ways to lift my mood when all of a sudden, the idea of a plantain party popped into my head! I thought I'd also lift the mood here a little too so the tribute post isn't the first thing everyone sees when they visit! The party was fabulous, oh my goodness, does anyone else share my infinite love for plantain? I honestly believe it is the best food on the entire planet! Second to none. For those of you who might not know plantain is pretty much a type of banana, but it's usually bigger and less sweet and needs to be cooked. And this is what I spent my Thursday evening doing, cooking plantain in as many different ways as I could think.

I had them lightly salted and fried:

Peel and chop the plantain into little circles, sprinkle some salt and shake them all together, then fry in vegetable oil on medium-high heat turning once till they are a lovely golden brown. 

Some rather unfortunate burnt ones, but they still taste yum!

Seasoned and grilled:

Peel and chop the plantain, get your spice mix (mine was cayenne pepper and Aromat multi purpose seasoning) Place on a foiled covered oven tray and grill at about 200 till they are golden brown. I didn't put oil on the foil because I didn't feel like it but you certainly can. Also, allow them to cool down before trying to take them off the foil!

I have a feeling if these were cut a little thinner  and cooked a little longer they'd make really good plantain chips!

And Sugared!!:

By far the worst but most delicious of all the recipes! I think this recipe is quite common in Latin/South America and they usually use really ripe almost completely black plantain but I didn't have any so I just used regular ripe ones. Peel and chop the plantain, fry in 2 tablespoons of butter, when golden on one side, flip them and add a mixture of 2 tbsps brown sugar and 1 tbsp ground cinnamon, continue cooking till the sugar just caramelizes. This is DIVINE! But just looking at the recipe again is making me feel sick with sugar overload, it was great for satisfying the sugar craving I've been experiencing of late though! Loved it! Oh this is also one of the reasons for that detox I spoke about earlier!

All that brown goodness is cinnamon and caramelised sugar! I burnt myself with this one, was waaaay too eager to try it! I even almost forgot to take a picture so this plate has been about half eaten!

When I was making the sweet plantain, the bf remarked that it smelt like some food he eats back at home called kelewele (pronounced kay-lay-way-lay), so of course I googled the recipe for that to add it on to my list! This particular version didn't turn out too good, it just tasted like plantain seasoned with ginger! It didn't really look any different either so I didn't bother with a picture. So now I'm searching for the perfect kelewele recipe to add to my list of things to do with plantain! You can also boil them, boiled plantain and Efo Riro (spinach stew, not sure how else to describe it!) is the food of kings! And you can roast them to make Boli too, I've tried doing this before but it just didn't have the same taste as the ones you buy from the women on the streets of Lagos!

Several plantains later (between the two of us!) I was full and ready to sleep! Unfortunately it was time for pole dancing!! Lifting my body weight yesterday was something of a chore but I managed it and even felt strong enough to let go of the pole while sitting on it! The instructor was impressed! :) If I had to pick only one food to eat for the rest of my life, best believe it would be plantain! Speaking of, I think I have some plantain chips waiting to be munched on in my kitchen! *happy dance*

Bye for now,

Reni x

More Than Just Chickens: Super Eagles Victorious

This weekend has been one of epic proportions in my life, both personally and in the media. I wouldn’t even know where to start describing to you the awesomeness! And the decision on what to focus on the most is unthinkably difficult!

1. I started writing a new series, a la Staying Single. (Yay!)

      2. Nigeria beat Burkina Faso.

      3. Rihanna sounded AMAZING at the grammy’s.

      4. I learnt some difficult life lessons about insecurities.

          5. Nigeria won the AFCON

      6. Rihanna and Chris Brown… **sigh**

          7. Nigeria carried GOLD in the African Cup of Nations!!!!

I’m sure you can already tell what this post is going to be most focused on! When I first found out the news of our victory, I thought it was a lie. Surely someone was playing a cruel trick on my heart. You see I have never been one of those people that believe that nothing good comes out of Nigeria, and that we are a country with corruption so deep into the fabric of our nation that we have begun to rip at the seams. No no, not to say that the above is not true, but I have always been a proud Nigerian. Supporting quietly, wishing and praying but never truly believing that we could come together as a nation and achieve something truly phenomenal. I think this has something to do with being an Arsenal supporter, haven gotten my hopes up so many times only for Arsenal to fail me, imbibed in me a certain attitude towards football and the teams I supported; Don’t scream too loudly when you score or else when Ghana or Man-U win those supporters would never let you hear the end of it. Well guess what, today I am screaming and it’s never felt so good!

This will never not be funny! Lol.

A lot of people have at some point accused the Nigerian football team, the Super Eagles, of being no more than mere chickens. Yesterday they finally proved us all wrong. The Super Eagles gave me even more reason to be a proud Nigerian! They allowed us in their own way to regain our titles as the GIANTS of Africa! Not Mali, Not Burkina Faso, Not Ghana. N’tooo. #phuckyoteam, #phuckyocountry #phuckyooil, #therecanonlybeone! I can only imagine what the atmosphere would have been like when we won yesterday. Scores of women and children dancing in the street singing and clapping “When Jesus’ says yes! Nobody can say no!”  And many other chants of victory, grown men celebrating, wrecking havoc on the streets. Just a massive street party, owambe style! I’m so sad I wasn’t at home; enough uncles would have felt the need to dash me cash just because and Likwid would have been so live! One can only hope that this year would continue to be a year of victory for Nigeria and Nigerians everywhere.

I don’t believe I’ve ever written a post specifically dedicated to my country so thank you Super Eagles for granting me this opportunity and for allowing me bragging rights for the next 2 years! UP Naija!

I hope the prostitutes association are ready to make good on their promise. Smh.

Reni x