Nigerian Independence Day

The Nigerian Independence Day celebration was a blast. It was definitely a scene. We caught the end of the parade, which included floats packed over capacity with dancing Nigerians...in addition to those dancing in the street. It was great! Huge turn out! I tried to take a pic to show how many people were there, but I just couldn’t get everyone. Here’s the best I could do. Everyone was decked in the country's colors: green and yellow or in more authentic garb. Who knew there were so many Nigerians in NYC? It's cool to think about how so many different countries celebrate their Independence Days in the city. And it's nice to partake in the multicultural events. I mean, if nothing else, there is always delicious ethnic food to be tasted. Onto that...  

Suya

Corn, plantains, whole fish!

As promised, I hit up the All Things Roasted vendor and had some seriously delicious chicken. I mean seriously...delicious. We must have really been enjoying ourselves, letting out mms and oos and licking our fingers, because a random girl, who had nothing to do with the food vendor, came up to us and asked "You like our chicken?" Hell yea I do. This particular chicken was brined overnight (no kidding around at this booth), grilled and seasoned with secret Nigerian spices. I tried to get more details, but no dice. I couldn’t even begin to guess what spices were in it, but it was definitely hot hot hot! After we devoured the chicken, we moved onto the suya…which earlier I described as West African shish kebab, but I’d say it’s closer to a satay. Really, though, it’s just suya! I mean meat on a stick has its own name in every culture, but it's not the fact that it's on a stick that makes it delicious, it's the meat that is delicious. So onto suya...this was sliced beef on a stick cooked on the grill as you can see in the pic, and again topped with those great spices. Somehow this was even hotter than the chicken, but so good! We took our suya to go (and finished it, I promise!) and walked around a bit more, checking out the cool tees and random circles of people dancing. It was a great vibe and a great time. 

Thanks to the All Things Roasted chefs for waking up my taste buds this Saturday! Any idea where we can get delicious Nigerian food in the city? Or do we have to wait til next year's festival? Hope not!

Craving that chicken...

- The Wandering New Yorker

Something to do this Saturday! One Day Only Street Festival

Nigerian Independence Day Street Festival

I want to make sure to write about things that everyone can go checkout for themselves after reading, but sometimes there are cool things going on only once a year and I don’t want to tell you about it after the fact…so here’s a pre-post on one of the things I’m doing this weekend: Nigerian Independence Day Street Festival!

Flag of Nigeria

I’ll be posting some more about it after the fact, but I wanted to let you know about it now so you can enjoy it as well.

Nigerian Independence Day is on October 1^st and celebrates the country’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1960. Doesn't it seem like every country has had to win their independence from the Brits at some point? Greedy! Anyway, woohoo for Nigeria!

In celebration, this Saturday October 9^th, there will be a parade and street festival.  Now I’m not a big parades girl, but if you are…the parade starts at 11am and will be on 2^nd ave from 54^th to 44^th streets. I am, however, a big street festival girl, so I will be hitting that up, at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (what?) on 47^th bet 1^st and 2^nd aves from 10am-6pm.  Since I am more than anything else, a big delicious-food-eating-girl, I will most likely be lingering around the “All Things Roasted” booth, where they’ll be selling some yummy Nigerian treats. Check out the flyer below (note: suya is a West African version of shish kebab. mm!).

Click to Enlarge

Of course I wouldn't let you go without some fun facts about the country (thanks to our friends at Wikipedia):

- Nigeria is located in West Africa, sharing its borders with the Republic of Benin on the west, Chad and Cameroon on the east, and Niger to the north

- Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the 8^th most populous country in the world

- Although the official language of Nigeria is English, there are over 500 documented languages spoken throughout the country (whoa!)

- For more fun facts, checkout the Facts Page of the Organization for the Advancement of Nigerians website

Alright so you'll know where I'll be. I'm super pumped because I don't really know what to expect, but I know there's going to be tons of food and clothing for sale and lots of entertainment. Maybe some dancing? (maybe I'll just be dancing, you don't wanna miss that!). Hope to see some of you there! More photos to come post-event. 

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND

- The Wandering New Yorker