Garium Sulphate (Saturday Special)

Garri (or gari) is a popular West African meal, popular in especially in Nigeria. There is almost no family in Nigeria that doesn’t offer garri to members and guests. And honestly, Garri is one of the only things all Nigerian cultures now have in common. It’s a filling meal and it is carbohydrate rich ideal for making people plumper and fatter (as in many Nigerian cultures looking robust is a sign of wealth.) Personal experience with garri has taught me about its ability to save lives. I know of Sunday afternoons in school when you’re about to drop from hunger, only to remember that plastic bag of garri you have stashed somewhere in your closet. Nigerian youths and undergrads have nicknamed garri garium sulphate. It may be consumed with milk, sugar, suya, groundnut, kulikuli, coconut, fried meat, fish (raw, cooked or fried) and the list is endless. Some take it as a form of snack, others have it as real food. It may also be “transformed” and consumed as ‘Eba’, that is when it is prepared with hot water and eaten with soup. Garri has numerous benefits as it increases vitality in consumers.

Garri might also have some negative eye effects. There is cyanide in garri that causes a decrease in eyesight. But this can be reduced with proper processing.

For all of you that don’t know…
WHAT IS GARRI?
Basically, garri is dried and fried cassava powder. Cassava is peeled, grated and soaked. The water is then pressed out of it and dried leaving a fine powder that can then be fried with palm oil (or without). After frying garri with palm oil it becomes yellow this is the magic behind what we all call yellow garri; it’s still the same cassava. The white garri is simply not fried with palm oil.

WHERE IS GARRI FROM?
Garri’s name actually originates from the Hausa tribe of northern Nigeria. Garri meaning powdery foodstuff. The availability of garri as a travel-ready meal made it a necessity for powder storage among travelers at that time. Yoruba people call it eba and Igbos call it utara although now the Igbo name is no longer as popular as it must have been in the past. Because I haven’t heard any Igbo person near me use it.

SO… HOW DO WE EAT THIS POWDER?
Well, it depends on you. I already stated in the first paragraph what you can eat with garri. But if you want to make the standard garri meal you have to add boiling hot water and turn the mixture until it hardens. Ideally then you can eat with any soup of your choice. Or even stew as some Yoruba people do.
Another common way people eat it is to just get cold water, sugar and peanuts and add it to the powder and enjoy yeself.