Today’s Yoruba dish: Moin-moin.
On the plate above, moin-moin are the two reddish things next to the egg.
Yoruba people have been eating the same dishes since beginning of their existence. We will get into other dishes later, but for today, I want to talk about Moin-moin, also called Olele. Moin-moin is made out of beans. The consistency is soft, like mashed potatoes, but is stiff enough to have shape. Today, Yoruba eat it with rice, but it is traditionally eaten with gari or ogi, custard like foods made out of corn. I don’t care for gari or ogi yet myself, so I eat moin-moin with rice. To make moin-moin (which I learned how to do this weekend) you wash black eyed peas until they are all white, then you blend the beans with water, hot pepper, onion, lots of salt and oil. You spoon a half cup or so of the liquid into a little silver cup, or traditionally in leaves, and steam it for 50 minutes. The result is a moist, spicy, bean pudding ball. Delicious.
North of Lagos 