SUCKING

When I first saw them sucking, so many thoughts ran through my mind; I couldn’t help but wonder what manner of food that could be. Although I was very young, I could still replay the look on their faces whenever they sucked.
I’m referring to the ‘Calabar’ neighbor we had, whose kitchen was marked by the unique redolence. The aroma alone does a public announcement that they are “Calabarians”. I dunno if you’ve tried this sucking before; but my first time was with Afang soup.
Afang soup makes no sense without  “suckables” in it. Omg…I lack words to describe

By now you’re wondering what exactly this thing is …
“Mfi”, as it is locally called, is simply unshelled periwinkles. It is mostly eaten by Cross Riverians and Akwa Ibomites; and it is characterized by so much sand content.

You can tell when someone is cooking with “Mfi” during the washing… The process is so tedious. Enough water and enough patience are the basic tools for washing, as it makes so much noise during the process. And even in your pot, while cooking, as you stir with your spoon, it announces its presence as it does “Shaku shaku” in the pot of soup.

It is best enjoyed with any kind of vegetable soup. Especially with “Afang” or “Edikaikon” soup. My imagination travels across continents just to figure out my pose when enjoying this meal.

As I took a short break to travel back home in Warri, I decided to give mom and dad a touch of “Mfi” in all the veggies I prepared. This was something they were not so familiar with. We were not used to “sucking” while swallowing, and dad complained, in his words: “this one na suffer-head o. What if person kor mistakenly swallow am na, nai be say, na die o”.
He grumbled about how inconveniencing it was for him to swallow one mold of eba and take a break at intervals, just to suck “Mfi”. I understood his pains, because he wasn’t used to that style of eating.
But for Cross Riverians, it is fun. As a matter of fact, there’s no soup they cook without sucking; I know some of them even add it to tea sef
As a Corper adapting to their lifestyle, I almost became a vegetarian; so so leaf. I even added it to my noodles, e remain small, I for put am for pap

I can remember my neighbors; one was from Akwa Ibom, and the other was Deltan, they started a beef with me and ended up making a hell of noise when washing this unshelled periwinkles. They deliberately used a covered stainless steel container, and be dusting it upandan, with all power and might just to get me pissed; And because they’re next door, the noise was deafening. They’d continue till they get tired of their own wahala.

Trust me, you wanna suck too
I bow out!

Shelled periwinkles

Unshelled Periwinkles