African Foods Will Always Be My Choice.

The importance of food can't be quantified and whether it is my regular local dishes or intercontinental dishes, the goal is to stay healthy and strong. The last time I had this same conversation with my sibling who was born abroad, she said I was missing out on so many intercontinental dishes because I do encourage her to try African dishes.

I have come to realize that one of the things that influence our choices of food is our upbringing and the environment we grew up in. I was raised with African solid food and today, if I don't eat any solid meal in a week, I always feel unsatisfied no matter what I eat. I always miss that rich African flavour, taste and even recipes.

It could have been the other way around if I was raised with intercontinental dishes or grew up in the Western part of the world, I would automatically crave intercontinental dishes no matter how satisfying the local meals might be.

If asked a million times to choose between the African meals and Intercontinental dishes, I will definitely go with what I am familiar and comfortable with. Anyone who has been following my food blog will realise that I prepare more local dishes than intercontinental dishes and I have my reasons. Aside from the taste and how satisfying the African meals are to me, there are still several reasons why I will choose these local meals.

Cultural Identity and Heritage.

Food is one of the things that distinguishes culture and without revealing my identity, it is very easy for anyone to tell where I come from with my choices of food. African cuisines represent my culture and as an African man, I am always proud of that.

I was at a party a few years ago and it was a massive one. There were lots of food and drinks but people weren't taking the local dishes. I requested Amala from the servers and the guests at my table looked at me as if I just requested poison but it didn't bother me.

The package arrived and as I rolled my sleeves up, they started whispering. A few of them ended up asking for Semo, pounded yam and others before we left, they still ate with a spoon just to feel like they were civilized.

Being ashamed of African meals means I am not proud of my culture. There was a time someone teased me about joining a cooking competition and I told the person that all through the competition, I would prepare African dishes and the next thing I heard was, you can't win. It is okay if I don't win, going there to do what I know how to do best in a win for me.

Deep Connection With African Ingredients

The abundance of fresh and local ingredients will always make me choose African meals. The likes of locust beans and some vegetables aren't what you can find in lots of intercontinental dishes and these things are just part of me already.

I am so obsessed with these recipes to the point that right now, I can tell these recipes in an African meal just from the aroma. These recipes will always make me crave local dishes and they just make every meal satisfying for me.

Affordability and Accessibility.

I find African meals quite affordable in my environment and it's easy to get them from any market. It's the same for people in the Western world, getting the recipes for their meals wouldn't be a problem and just like African local recipes would be expensive at their end, the recipes for intercontinental dishes are quite expensive at my end.
Choosing African cuisines will help me live within my budget and it's a big deal for me.

_{Please note that I do not discriminate against intercontinental dishes and in fact, I take them many times when I do not feel like having local meals.}