As much as I love traveling out of Lagos to regain a bit of balance and sanity from the daily hustle and bustle of the fast paced city, I always start cheesing like mad when I look out the plane’s window to see my homeland as we descend.
On the first day I get back, almost everything amuses me. The fact that the airport road is still a hot mess, the airport officials joking about my last name while hinting for some cash (I share the same last name as the ex-Lagos state governor), the traffic, the danfo buses trying to end my life as they impatiently vie for the space my car is moving in. For one day only, everything is amusing.
By the next day, the reality of ‘Lagos Living’ hits me in the face. Weirdly enough, I love it. You really never know what the day could bring as soon as you step out the door. It keeps me mentally limber, and I find it exciting navigating through the hot messes that gets thrown my way. Some times it knocks me down, but when I conquer a really difficult day, I feel like a King for 1 week!
Any who! In early March, I saw a video by Battabox regarding the process behind the making of the famous Agege bread.
I loved it!
And I just had to experience it too (I am always a tourist eh?)!
Luckily, I have awesome chef-friends that were keen on doing the same, hey Ramon and Tomi (they run Eko Street Eats)! Initially, I thought the bread making production was under one company with a very wide reach in Nigeria. Not the case at all!
There are so many folks that make it and they all seem to follow the same process of making the delish bread. For those that have no clue about what Agege bread is…whaaaaaa??? You don miss oh!
I do not know the genesis of Agege bread, all I know is that at 7am in the morning, as a kid, I usually had my ears stuck out waiting to hear a street hawker shout ‘ewa ra bureadi Agege!!’ (Come and buy Agege bread).
Our malam/semi security guard tended to doze off on getting it for us, so if mum had made some correct fried eggs and stew as a perfect partner for the bread, then it was our duty to open the balcony door and listen out for the Agege bread street hawker. Whoever hears the hawker first would then run to balcony and shout back with ‘a fe ra bread oh’ (we want to buy Agege bread!) We’d shout out the quantity for the family, then someone would go down to pick it up at the gate and pay the hawker.
Now the taste of Agege bread! Growing up, it was the shiznits for me. It tastes sooo good with fried stew with geisha and it was made, in my mind, just for ewa a goin! (a very special beans with an even more special fried stew…I don’t know a name for it in English)
And when you get it fresh, the early morning batch, the balance of a great tasting, pretty thick and soft bread just makes so much sense that you may end up eating the whole loaf before remembering you bought it to grub with egg, stew, or ewa a goin. In the past decade or so, it became popular to stuff it with akara (friend bean cake) aka Nigerian burger. If the akara is hot and has enough spices and pepper, the combination makes some serious sense oh. Chai, hunger is now catching me sef!
Back to Agege bread maker hunts! We drove off to Agege market and asked around for a nearby bread maker to check out…and that’s how we found Ayokunu Agege Bread factory.
I’m not going to share my thoughts sha, just check out my pictures and the awesome video by Ramon, enjoy…
An awesome video by Ramon that shows the process and narrated by Tomi aka chef Imoteda of Heels in the Kitchen aka Baddest babe that ever liveth. hehe
The video that got us so excited that we HAD to go to Agege for the experience too!
If you have no clue of what Akara is or have never tried out akara burger, pele oh!
Luckily, Ramon also has this video that shows what it is. Check it out!
Just a random thought, if Nigeria decides to wake up to the tourism business, please add Agege bread tour to the package. Just make sure to find an Agege bread maker that has a much cleaner environment so as to not scar the minds of the tourists. IMHO. This is the stuff tourist live for, I know I pay for exlike this other countries.
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