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