This African continent is so rich in amazing culture and yet, if I’m honest it is place I know very little about. I have been to Morocco but beyond that I have never ventured into sub Saharan Africa. I have South African friends and I dated a boy from Zimbabwe many moons ago but my knowledge is really limited. I also know that Africa is a continent rich in many countries and cultures and I am as keen as my children to learn more about them as such i was really excited to plan a pretend trip to Nigeria.
We are keen to go to a Safari Park soon and so will definitely be heading into Africa again- hopefully focusing on Kenya – any suggestions please let me know. I am really aware of my own limitations. We also intend to visit Morocco this year, both in reality and on a made up day trip. So, this day was a start!
Breakfast and Tears
We decided on plantain (actually banana) bread for breakfast with a fruit salad consisting of pineapple, mango and papaya. I really liked it – the fruit salad was brilliant but Freddie demanded Weetabix and is yet to be convinced about the idea of fruit for breakfast.
Penny quite liked it – next time I think we’ll make the banana bread together as she loves to cook.
There is a pretty good recipe for banana bread here:
We watched the Lion King. It’s been ages and I had completely forgotten the tragic nature of the story line. Mufasa died. There were tears. It was a bad bad thing. It was switched off.
The project
I had vaguely seen an idea on Pinterest for kid-friendly crafting of Nigerian drums which looked really cool. We went to Cafe Nero and asked for four cups and then went home and stuck them together using masking tape to look like an egg timer.
Then we cut a circle of baking paper and taped it carefully to the top and painted them brown. Finally, when they were dry we stuck spots around the edges (left over from our school Easter bonnet creation) and behold our very own Nigeria Drums!
To be fair, they didn’t really make much of a noise but I was really pleased with the result and it was incredibly easy – and free! We are trying to keep our budget down because we have a secret project to visit all five continents for real this year and so money is very tight!
Lunch
I made ‘Chips Mayai’ basically chips made into an omelette. It’s Tanzanian in origin but eaten in Nigeria and throughout Africa and tastes like a Spanish Omelette. We really liked it. Penny loved it (Freddie napped and missed it and ate a banana when he woke up but I’m very sure he would have loved it too). We served it with peas and ketchup.
Here’s a recipe (I used oven chips).
Dinner
After a few hours away from Nigeria – at a children’s birthday party – we went to an African restaurant in Liverpool called Roots. The vibe was really friendly and laid back and because its also a night club there were loads of cool rooms for Freddie to explore. He very much enjoyed dancing in the VIP section. He’s going to be trouble. Roots restaurant Liverpool
I am admittedly ignorant about Nigerian cuisine but the waitress was really helpful and the Kiwi and I both had jollof rice with chicken. Penny and Freddie had a fried sort of curried vegetable rice (which Freddie LOVED) and some chips (just in case)! It was delicious but strangely over priced. Nigerian food was the least available I have found so far in Liverpool but I’m hopeful that this really gave us a flavour of the country and it really was excellent food (the wine less so – but I was basically eating in a night club so what do you expect!).
Crafting
As well as the drums, I bought an African Colouring book and Penny loved looking at the national dress and the wonderful diverse animals you find in Nigeria.
Next time
There is so much more to do to explore this amazing part of the world. But the opportunities to do so are harder to find and seem more remote. There are so many Italian Restaurants, for example, and yet I struggled to find an African one which meant that I had to be less specific to Nigeria than I had hoped.
I’m definitely making some beaded necklaces next time. My friend lent Penny her necklace to wear and I thought that would be a brilliant craft to do. Somewhere I think I have a bead loom to weave tiny beads which could also be very cool.
We have Kenya, Morocco and Egypt lined up to visit at some point in the next few months and I’m excited to learn as much as I can as we ‘travel’.