Contest| The future of food; Innovation meets Tradition!

Hmmmm, when it comes to traditional dishes, my mind goes back to my Grandma in the village, how she made me fall in love with this particular dish. The way she normally prepares it is always an enjoyable delicacy.

Screenshot from Google

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• 1. Which traditional dish from your culture do you believe should gain worldwide recognition, and what is your reasoning?

I would love this amazing traditional dish, White Soup with Goat Meat, known in my dialect as Afia Efere Ebod, to be recognized worldwide.

Let me quickly run us through the preparation process.
First, gather all necessary ingredients, depending on your choice.

Ingredients

Yam (5 - 8 slices )
Goat Meat
Dried or Smoked fish / Catfish
Chicken
Ponmo
Snails and Periwinkle
Uziza seeds (ground)
Uziza leaves (sliced)
Uyayak (Aidan fruit)
Pepper
Salt
Cubes of Maggi
Clean water

Simple steps to prepare Afia Efere (White Soup)
Wash your pot and ensure it's clean, prepare your goat meat, chicken, snails and Perewinkle, ponmo, etc. Put them inside the pot, add seasoning spices, add Uziza seeds, the Uyayak and a little quantity of water, then steam for some minutes.

	Seasoning and steaming of meat and others ingredients

Screenshot from Google

While steaming your meat and others, cut a few slices of yam and boil them without salt. When it's ready, take them out of the water and ground.

	Sliced yam, boiled and grounded

Screenshot from Google

Now your meat and others must have steamed properly, add the normal quantity of water to the ingredients, allow it to boil, then add a few quantity of the grounded yam to the soup and allow to boil (the grounded yam is to thicken the soup).

Screenshot from Google

Taste for salt and Maggi, and other ingredients, add the Uziza sliced leaves, then check if the soup is thick enough (if watery, then add a few ground yams again). Allow it to cook properly, then bring it down from the fire, and your White Soup is ready to be served.

	Soup is ready

It can be served with Fufu, Pounded Yam or Garri. But I enjoy it with Garri a lot, because I'm allergic to Fufu.

White Soup is a very popular dish in my tradition, apart from making it at home, it's mostly used during occasions.

It's always a top-ordered dish on every occasion, it's a dish with super natural abilities, truly speaking, this dish could bring different people together.

I strongly recommend this dish for worldwide recognition.

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• 2. If you had the chance to create a new food item or dish using technology (like 3D printing, lab-grown ingredients, or AI recipes), what would it be?

Honestly, I do enjoy snacks a lot, so I will go for that.

Maybe I will create a snack inform of biscuits, then program it in such a way that when eaten, it will be able to provide the person with the essential nutrients, detect the mood of the person, and if he is tired, it will provide him with strength immediately.

It may taste differently in people's mouth so as to suit their condition, it will even be able to detect your health conditions and also the ability to make anyone smarter like a computer.

I will call it Smart Cookies.

Source	My Smart Cookies 🍪

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• 3. In what ways can we enhance the sustainability of our food systems while preserving cultural food traditions?

The possible best ways we could achieve this are: Encouraging people to grow more local vegetables.

Source	Source

Supporting farmers either with fertilizers, tools or farming space to grow more local foods, to sustain everyone.

We should not abandon our local methods of making traditional meals. Parents should take it as a responsibility to teach their children how to make traditional meals, so that our tradition may not get lost eventually.

We shouldn't let the modern cooking methods take advantage of our traditional methods, remember that traditional meals are still the best, no matter what, especially when Grandma prepares them.

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• 4. What is one food trend you think will be prominent in the next decade, and what makes you think so?

Well, I will say that the gradual advancement is also causing problems to us, like a high intake of meat may lead to health issues.

But consumption of vegetables and plant-based food is a healthy routine, and I will say that plant-based food will remain prominent forever.

Even shortly, if proper farming systems are maintained, most food products will be plant-based throughout.

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Traditional may be old, but it's still gold. It isn't anything we should let go of easily, because there was a life there, local but pleasing to our ancestors.

If we could still carry on at least 40% of this lifestyle, then the world would be more pleasing and enjoyable.

Our traditional dish will always be the best, no matter where will find ourselves in the world.

Tradition will always be the voice calling you back home, because it's in our blood already, no matter how much we try to advance, it will still drag us back, yes, there is no place like home.

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I will love to invite @imohmitch, @precious9 and @julietbella to also share their best traditional dish...

Cc,
@ninapenda

All screenshot images are from Google