"SLC-S25/W1 | Community World Tour : Traditional Cuisine"

_{Picture of my traditionally prepared cousin}

Na mumu dey go eatery. This was said by one of our titled men who, after tasting Bole and Fried Fish vowed never to eat any white food, as he called it. The meaning of these hospital words in English is — You have an expensive natural kitchen at home, but you choose to go to a readymade kitchen to spend money.

It's only fools that do so. This is quite funny because he was insinuating that the rich are seriously missing the enjoyment from natural resources, locally made. No filter. Now comes the bone of contention. Roasted plantain with Fried Fish.

As a traditional man, I'll solicit to be permitted to use my traditional language when speaking. This roasted plantain with fried fish is called —Ukom Sitsit

Narrative & Human Story

Ukom Sitsit is a locally made food that started in the 20th century. It has a historical background with good cultural heritage that is preserved by Nigerians as a whole. This plantain is a natural food product which is cultivated in homes and large farms. When the plantain is strong though unripe, it is roasted on fire traditionally and eaten with oil.

It has been a continual process by those in rural areas until the integration of fish and sauce. The integration of fish and sauce is to make it look presentable, as rich visitors usually complain of a lack of proteins whenever they taste it just like that. So fish of different types was used to prepare sauce and eaten with the roasted plantain as a delicacy.

I can remember when I was young. I usually visit the village often then. While others are eating soup of different mixtures, I'll tell them I want to do a campfire with unripe plantain. They'll grant me access to cut from one sucker. I'd peel the plantain, set up my firewood, roast it on the fire and then use red oil and salt to eat dinner that night. This was always my meal anytime I didn't eat what the villagers were eating. My grandmother introduced me to this roasted plantain called ukom sitsit. Since then, it became my favourite. Even when I finally return to town, I don't joke with such a delicacy because of its richness in iron and other vitamins.

One funny thing is that I usually have hiccups after eating the plantain, which would need to be watered down my throat to normalize. The question is, why do I usually have hiccups after eating ufófóp ukom and sauce? I still don't know. The below is a detailed narration and description of how I preserved this traditional dish and made it in my urban home. If you haven't tasted Bole before, you're missing out.

Recipe (ingredients + steps)

Bole	Yoruba Name
Ukom Sitsit	Ibibio Name
Barbecue	Official name
Roasted Plantain	English Name

Bole is a popular dish that most Nigerians are familiar with. This is a Yoruba way of saying roasted plantain. It's just that it's official and widely known by many. Other tribes and cultures have their own way of calling it. Roasted plantain, or Ukom Sitsit is prepared differently, but I'll be stating how I prepared mine, traditionally, for this contest. One can prepare it normally without including sauce, while others can include sauce to taste. Now barbecue is used when it is added with fish. Let me show you guys my way of making local barbecue. These are my ingredients.

Ingredients	Quantity	Cost in naira	Steem amount
Fresh Fish	1	1000	5.9
Unripe plantain	2 bunches	4000	23.5
Onions	1	200	1.2
Udom Pepper	6 pcs	200	1.2
Crayfish	2 heaps	200	1.2
Tomatoes	5 pcs	200	1.2
Curry powder	1 sachet	100 Naira	0.6
Maggi	8 pcs	200	1.2
Salt	DP	DP	DP
Palm oil	1 bottle	DP	DP

The above shows a breakdown of the ingredients used to prepare this food. The DP means I didn't purchase them. I had them in my storehouse. The below shows a sample of all my ingredients together, used for making this traditional desert meal a success. You may see how few the ingredients are to show that preparing this meal isn't as complex as other traditional meals. An appetiser? . No, because just two of the roasted plantains can satisfy you. It's a heavy meal.

Steps in preparing this Traditional Meal

As a traditional man, cooking with firewood is far sweeter than cooking with gas. Why, direct exposure? The smoke and everything add to the taste of the food. Don't worry; I'll explain.

• I took my fresh fish and washed it in running water. After washing, I segmented it from head to tail so I could remove impurities in the fish and clear its intestine. After doing so, I placed the fifth in hot water to remove the smell, as it has a repulsive smell. I placed it for 3 minutes so the fish won't be completely soft.

• I then used that time to peel my plantain and place it on a plate. I didn't have to wash the plantain because it's just uncovered from its peel. That's where the sweetness comes from. I applied salt to the plantain to hold. Without the salt, the plantain would be tasteless when roasted.

• Switching over, I added 6 ground pepper and a teaspoon full of salt to the fish, including 3 cubes of Maggi, then allowed for 2 minutes for the seasoning to hold in the body of the fish. I then ground 2 sachets of crayfish and emptied onto the plate with dry pepper used to cover it. Adding tomatoes and onions was to garnish the fish, especially when frying it.

• After all was done, I took them with my red oil to my firewood kitchen. My fire stand called Mfiok was in place with bamboo sticks used as firewood. Lighting firewood isn't that easy. I had to use nylons to aid the ignition. I would have used an empty red oil bottle, but it would make the place smoky and the air would be polluted with carbon monoxide.

• The flames came up gradually until it burnt the firewood and made the fire flammable for work. Traditionally, we do put the plantain in-between the firewoods, as we don't have a fire pallet. I put all of them inside my created fire and used a knife to bring them out when they were burnt enough and soft. This is a picture of my plantains on fire.

• After pulling all the plantains out, I placed my local frying pan on the stand and put a reasonable quantity of oil to fry the fish. After 2 minutes of exposure, I added my fish inside the pan with its ingredients and used a turner to turn the fish to avoid breaking it into pieces. When I saw that it was dry enough to be brought down, I took the pen off the fire and contained everything on a plate, still garnishing it.

• I scraped my plantain to remove the charcoal from its body and contained it inside the plate of fish. I added oil from the pan to make it stew. And that was how my Ukom Sitsit and Ufofop Iyak were ready. This is the final product.

Location + SteemAtlas

I prepared this dish in my house, and my house on Steam-Atlas is indicated in the screenshot below.

Steem-atlas	[//]:# (!steematlas 4.96857258 lat 7.9856658 long Bossj23 Kitchen d3scr)
Location	Google Maps

Media (photo required)

This is my local barbecue, as it's called in English.

Phrase "TYPE LESS SMILE MORE"

Don't judge a plantain wearing black. You get gold for house, but you still dey find silver. Chop one, chop two for your house and appreciate nature. You no know sey na gold you get so? Why you go dey chop white food or spend money to get silver?

Man-made Gold in silver covering	Natural Gold in plate

Steem-atlas	[//]:# (!steematlas 4.96857258 lat 7.9856658 long Bossj23 Kitchen d3scr)

You have gold that you can see, but you're looking for silver that you cannot see. 🤣 This is a video of me eating my delicious Ukom Sitsit ye Ufofop Iyak. The taste cannot be defined. The above is the steem-atlas as it has been mapped there. I invite @basil20, @kidi40 and @kafio