Due to busy schedules or fear of being stuck in traffic, many people do not have the time to settle down to a proper breakfast; thus some of them just gulp a cup of tea or coffee.
Lunch, for some others, may not be necessary because they have series of meetings or appointments to keep, while many probably get home very late at night which makes dinner a no-no for the day.
Although there is the option of quick service restaurants (QSRs), very few people can actually overlook the many street snacks, which can also serve as whole foods, around the streets corners and bus stops.
The beauty of these street snacks is that most of them are usually served naturally or with little processing. They can be cooked, roasted or fried.
Here are some of them:
Corn
As the rainy season sets in, many people are already looking forward to eating fresh corn, boiled or roasted. Whichever way it is consumed, it can only go well with its usual accompaniments, coconut or native pear.
The salted (this is optional) native pear, popularly known as ube (Igbo), can be eaten raw, roasted or dipped in hot water for some time. The strong outer flesh softens and the pulp turns to soft mass like butter.
To get the best out of the coconut, you can either dip it in salted water or leave it beside the fire for sometime.
Garden egg
Sellers of garden egg are not usually stationary, as they are mostly seen hawking between cars in traffic. Garden egg, which could be green or white, is usually eaten with peanut/groundnut paste (ose oji in Igbo language) that contains chilli, salt and ginger or some other spice.
It can also be eaten on its own or with just roasted groundnut.
Plantain
In the mornings and evenings, plantain is mostly sold fried (dodo in Yoruba) which can serve as breakfast for some people because it is served with pepper sauce.
Roasted plantain (boli in Yoruba) seems to be the most popular, especially in business areas where the workers are too busy to take lunch breaks. Boli goes well with roasted groundnut. In the home, it can also be enjoyed after a dip in palm oil garnished with salt and pepper.
Yam
Whether in or out of season, yam is another constant street snack which could be roasted or fried. Roasted yam has embraced so much packaging of recent.
“I had to buy plastic plates to package yam for my customers in the offices around here. They send one person with a list of what they want for lunch and I neatly pack it,” explained Ufuoma Anyanwu, who has been selling roasted yam in Agidingbi area of Ikeja Lagos for the past 10 years.
Over the years, she has added fish, cow skin (ponmo), offal and vegetables to the usual pepper sauce served with the roasted yam.
Bean cake (akara)
You can get bean cake as early as 6am in many areas where workers have to rush out to beat traffic. Bean cake business is no longer restricted to women, as some young men now put resources together to engage in this lucrative business.
Wherever there is bean cake, there is bound to be bread (sliced or not) and/or pap. The combination of akara and bread (tagged ‘A&B’ in some areas) is the best bet for the road.
Potato
Of all these street foods, fried potato is the most delicate.
“You must have water at hand to gulp the first bite down because it can be disastrous if it gets stuck in your throat,” expressed Yinka Odubela, a banker who never misses to buy fried potato every morning on his way to work from his Ikorodu residence.
