James eats plantains.

James visited Nigeria nearly 2.5 months ago and sent me the following blog post two weeks later.  And one week ago I took a picture of plantains to include in the post, which I'm finally getting around to putting online today.  Oops.  Well, better late than never (which is what I’ll be writing as I continue to post about Nigeria for months after I’ve returned to LA)!

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I'm sure that everyone out there who reads this blog has been wondering when I would do a guest post.  I know people need a break from perfect sentence structure and grammar.  So, here it is. 

Dodo!  I finally had Dodo!  No, not the dodo bird but the Yoruba word for fried plantains.  It has been five long years without a proper fried plantain.  Sure, you can get them at Cuban restaurants or by busting out your frying skills (with a fire extinguisher) at home.  But, they just aren't as good.  The market women really know how to fry up a delicious plantain. 

{dodo with moin-moin and vegetable}

The banana family is not indigenous to West Africa, but they have been around a good long time.  Plantains are plentiful all year long and are a staple in Nigerian cooking.  You can pretty much do what ever you want with a plantain: boil, fry, mash, and roast.   Another bonus is that you can have it savory or sweet.  I'm a little curious what a plantain pie would taste like (wink, wink Regan).  One of my favorite snacks is a roasted plantain right off the grill.  

{boli}

I usually go for the sweet ones, because the "green" ones make me too thirsty.  Of course, that is a good excuse for an ice cold Coke.

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E kuuse, James!  Remember how you ate that entire bowl of pepper soup the first time we visited my host family in Ghana and they told me that you were the better African?  Alas, it is probably true.  (Thanks for visiting me and for writing a post with good sentence structure.  You're awesome.)