Christy's Wheels of Indomie Noodles with Fried Proteins

_{picture of this street-food vendor}

Christy Queen and Fams is one notable place in my area which had a lot of extensions in one. There's division of labour following this brand name. Is it barbering, hair styling, makeup and women's beauty, a snooker ground, a bar and restaurant? This brand name covers all these divisions.

Street food isn't exempt in this place. Like, they literally want to do everything to satisfy their customers. It's the street-food I'm particularly interested in because I never knew such a place existed in my locality. Thanks to this challenge that made me move about in search of street-food vendors.

Most women that sell street food in my area won't allow you to capture their food or stand because they say it's their privacy, and putting it on camera would expose them. I had to talk to the manager of CQF to allow me to run this coverage. Fear women...😁

This place is located in Uyo, the capital city of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. To be precise, in Uyo, you can see this place at Oron Rd, after Akpasak Estate, if you're coming to Ifa Atai Big Junction. The normal address as shown on its banner is

Ifa Atai Big Junction

I think I've explained how to get to this place. It's just by the second entrance of Akpasak Estate, close to Ifa Atai Big Junction in Uyo. So if you're coming to Ifa Atai, this place is before the big junction. If you're leaving Ifa Atai, this place is after the big junction.

_{screenshot of its location}

This is actually a recent place, established in February 2025 by a man named Mr Patrick. He's Igbo, and as we rightly know, Igbo people don't joke with their business. They are always serious, and we can see his seriousness in the lines of shops he collected on rent. These shops were people's residential areas until the government bought their houses, demolished them and used them for roads.

_{a picture of me and the place}

The small space left, which wasn't used as roads, was used to build lines of shops for rental. The founder is also the manager of the place, as it's still a baby brand of business, and leaving it in the hands of outsiders may bring the business down. I had a friendly conversation with him, and he bought the idea of promoting his place or brand.

_{picture of the street food place from street view}

Several activities are carried out in this brand, but since I'm talking about street food, I'll be specific about the activities carried out here. This street-food vendor is a lady, and she places her stand on wheels that can be moved to the warehouse of Christy Queen at closure. She runs as a sole proprietor in this small stand, close to the tarred road by the walkway.

She cooks and serves noodles with eggs to her customers, and she has a seating area where they can sit to enjoy these noodles. She also gives takeaway to her customers when the need arises. She does the cooking, cracking of eggs, frying and dishing all by herself, as that kiosk space is just for one person.

_{pictures of the food vendor, doing her thing}

_{a picture of the back view of the place}

Like I said, this street food is detached from the brand called Christy Queen and Fam where other businesses are done. This food stand doesn't have an outright facility, as it's not a shop. Just a moveable kiosk or stand, pinned to the ground. If I'm to be specific, the facilities in her moveable kiosk or wheel include

• the gas cooker area where cooking and frying are done.

• the cupboard area for storage of mortar, pestle, cooking utensils and ingredients and kept.

• the back space for trash and placement of her small cylinder, connected by a hose

• seating area for customers who want to have their meals there on plates

picture of their seating area	A picture of how neat the place is with a waste bin carton

As to cleanliness, I'll say she has beaten other street-food vendors in this. Like, how can someone be this clean? It's unlike their nature of business. She doesn't litter, and she ensures her table and moveable wheel are kept clean always. Even the surroundings can attest to this. If you notice, you'll see a small carton for waste disposal. The seating arrangement is more of a round table or table of four in four sets, as that's how sizable the space is to accommodate chairs.

_{picture of how clean the environment is}

The environment is quite safe and free from unchartered activities that could cause chaos. Her wheel isn't by the road, as possible accidents could happen if a car veers off the road. She sets her wheel across the walkway and a big gutter. She ensures she's safe first, then provides a wooden walkway for customers to access her place by crossing the gutter, which tends to be a barrier.

It's actually in a natural space and not in a shop, which most times isn't visible for the nature of her business. Light comes in once in a while, and at night, she gets connected to the host brand so that her customers can see her wheel with the radiation of the light and know what she's doing. This place never gets dark at night.

I keep asking myself how street-food sellers prepare their food that makes it taste different from how we cook. The way I cook noodles is not the way she did. Hers tasted much better than mine. According to her manager, she paid to learn the recipes, and she doesn't share them with anyone except if they pay to get them. She doesn't cook her noodles. She fries it with groundnut oil, which makes it taste better than direct cooking.

The addition of enough pepper is what makes her noodles special. If you can see, I didn't allow a strand of noodles to remain in the takeaway plate I was given. Why? It was too sweet to waste a strand.Since it's just noodles she cooks and sells, her prices are fixed at 2,000 naira for 2 noodles and eggs. 1000 naira is their gain for cooking. How?

_{pictures of the lady preparing her noodles}

They cook this brand of noodles called Mimee and this noodle is sold at 250 naira for 1. So if you purchase 2, that's 500 naira. Raw eggs are sold at 250 naira for one. They don't cook a noodle pack but can cook without eggs.

You do the calculation based on the amount of noodles and eggs you want as your meal.

I wasn't allowed to go close to their wheel at first, so I didn't see how she was preparing it and the ingredients she put in. Then later on, I was allowed to go take some videos. From what I saw, she had a sieve, a groundnut oil bottle and a smooth pan. These are a few steps I saw. ...

• Heat a considerable amount of water in a pot on the fire and allow it to boil at 100°C. Once this is done, don't break the noodles. Put it full and allow the noodles to reach their breaking and soft point.

• Using the sieve, you filter the noodles out and parboil them in an empty pot. The parboiling is done by putting groundnut oil in a pan with the ingredients inside the noodles pack with your onions, carrots, cabbage, etc.

• Once these ingredients are merged with the oil, you empty the noodles inside the pan, stir and allow for 3-5 minutes. You get your noodles ready.

It's different from how we do ours because we don't fry as if we're cooking Jollof rice. We cook straight without even parboiling.

I decided to create this menu list for this street-food business using canva pro.

_{Picture of their menu}

She gives her customers the best service while encouraging them to wait for a little while for the meal to be prepared and served. As for the quality of her noodles, I think you can outrightly see this in the pictures I dropped above, compared to most food vendors around. Her Boss has a licenced certificate on this since he also run a restaurant in the place.

picture of the meal	After eating the noodles

In conclusion, quality is best served when the prices are exorbitant. But in most cases, it's not all expensive deals that are rich in taste. This street food surpasses all. She's rich in price, taste, quality, service and the like. If this location were to be close to a campus, she would be printing thousands of naira every day.