By Lindsay Sterling
I was thrilled recently when the
director of The Museum of African Culture (13 Brown Street, Portland, ME 04101,
africart@museumafricanculture.org
207-871-7188) offered to add another country to Immigrant Kitchen’s culinary
world tour. Last week he taught me how to make his favorite foods from Nigeria
and gave me a guided tour of the museum. His name is Oscar Mokeme. He is a 52-year-old
father, grandfather, art collector, and traditional West African healer.
Oscar’s relatives mail him the specific ingredients
he needs from Nigeria. As for how I would get them, he said, “The only way to
get a good authentic yam is to go to Boston,” specifically, Tropical Foods
Supermarket (2101
Washington St. Boston, MA 02119) in
Roxbury. Nigerian yams, unrelated to what we call yams in America, range in
size from a ping pong ball to a large sweet potato. They are not sweet. Oscar
says yams are so important to Nigerian culture, people have yam banks like we have
banks for money. I will also need to find at the market: crayfish powder, the seeds
of the egusi melon, and palm oil, a red oil produced from the fruit of a type
of palm tree.
Oscar peeled 3 pounds of yams with
a knife and cooked large chunks covered in water in a deep pan. He added one diced
yellow onion, tomato paste, rosemary, thyme, and a cup of crayfish powder. Then
when the yams were soft but not falling apart, he opened up a can of corned
beef and mixed that into the red broth. He couldn’t find the right smoked fish
here, and he found that canned corned beef created the right texture. Once this was all hot, he called it, “yam
porridge.” I’ll admit, the canned corned beef scared me. The crayfish powder,
too. But yam porridge looked and actually tasted a lot like beef stew with
potatoes, the crayfish powder adding a slight twist.
Oscar showed me some photos of his
home in Nigeria. I was surprised. It looked like San Francisco with
skyscrapers, cars, motorcycles and highways. But it also is a place of culture
rooted over 7500 years ago. He demonstrated one traditional healing practice
that he would use to cure a migraine. It involved him facing the migraine
sufferer, finding the source of the migraine, and then channeling the migraine into
an egg, which the migraine sufferer and the healer held between them. Then the
egg, containing the source of the migraines, would be discarded.
He used the egusi melon seeds,
ground up, to thicken a different meat and seafood broth into a cottage cheese
like substance. To that he added chopped onions, chopped kale, and palm oil. He
called this “egusi soup” and served it with his favorite kind of foufou, which
looks like mashed potatoes but was made of brown rice flour cooked with water.
At the Museum, I came face
to face with stylized boobs, bellies and phalluses, beaded wall hangings, ceremonial
regalia, and statues. I found the exhibit shocking and exhilarating. I highly
recommend asking Oscar to guide you through it. The Museum is open
Tuesday-Saturday 11-4pm. Admission $5. Also, the museum is hosting a series of
pop-up Haitian dinners, $50 (Dec. 13, 27; Jan 10,24; Feb 7, 28; March 7,28) as
part of its Haitian Voodoo exhibit. Oscar performs healing by consultation Tuesdays
and Thursdays at the museum. Call for an appointment. Lastly, drop by for drumming
and music this January First Friday Art Walk.
