Last November 29 we had the pleasure to have Lauretta Ojo with us as our speaker for the Nigerian International Night. It was truly worth the wait! Always ready to feed an army, Lauretta arrived to the centre with a loadful of goodies she insisted to cook herself. For the cooking demonstration, she presented three dishes: the first one is a soup called "Pe Pe Soup" (pe stands for bell peppers or capsicum, one of the main ingredients). The second dish was thick savoury sauce made of blended peppers, tomato and onion and green vegetables and the third dish was our equivalent of the rice: a porridge-like paste made of rice flour. And yes, she prepared a citrus drink made of pineapple, orange, pomelo, mandarins and...ginger!.
Its truly amazing to discover the richness and variety of Nigerian cooking! I think all of us were surprised how the dishes came out.
Another novelty for the evening was how to eat: we ate with our hands! Lauretta demonstrated how they would eat using the three fingers of the hands. How elegantly she did it, even more refined than the way I would eat using the knife and fork!
There was so much to learn that the time was not enough. She also brought with her traditional cloths and woven fabric to show to us. She introduced to us an instrument similar to the maraccas made from hollowed-out gourd. We could only admire the creativity and resourcefulness of the Nigerian people who made something useful out of ordinary items they had around.We look forward to having her again!
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