Joinsupermoms

I’ve never been a foodie. I love good food but get bored of too much of it. I eat small portions of everything, almost like I am picking for a taste and like to discover new flavours.

What I do binge on are in fact snacks. My favourite eats are unselfish. They are those that let me sit in front of a good show, movie or book or let me bite my nails while I analyse or daydream. I like hot or cold snacks depending on the mood. They should be functional, pack nutrients and be filling.

My go-to snack used to be homemade salted popcorn. I’d pop the kernels on low heat in my favourite wok pan in a healthy oil, mostly canola or sunflower. Then I’d sprinkle salt and dry ground hot chilli pepper in it to add a dash of antioxidant and flavour and toss. It tastes glorious. Plus, it satisfies the need to convince myself that in one snack, I’ve had my balanced diet. Whatever.

My wok pan was cool too. It had a tiny vent in its lid so the popcorn doesn’t come out soggy. I also tell myself that thanks to the vent, the oil never gets to toxically hot temperatures (but that’s a science experiment for another day).

The popcorn would come out crunchy yet moist. I loved it, the kids loved it, and it was filling. If you asked me this question 4 years ago, I would easily scream popcorn.

But then COVID lockdowns, illness and deaths came along and changed a few things. Just before the lockdown, I stocked up like a doomsday planner and then retreated into my house to hibernate. My whole basement was full of grains, food and supplies and I must have had a zillion packs of popcorn kernels.

Then the lockdown was called off but I couldn’t overcome my new phobia for crowded places, and since I still had enough food to cover me for 2 more years (I’m serious. I had to give most of it away), I wouldn’t go to the market.

Alas! One day, I ran out of popcorn kernels, and maybe it’s my imagination, but when my friend did restock, I felt the taste and quality of popcorn kernels (and some other foods, to be honest) has just not been the same since covid.

That’s how I invented plantain pops. To be honest, I don’t remember exactly what motivated the plantain pops discovery. I know I had no or funny tasting popcorn kernels in the pantry, but I recall I also did have a bundle of plantain in my kitchen. I have plantain trees in the garden, so it could very well have been a fresh harvest.

In West Africa, we fry plantain when it is ripe. When unripe, we either boil, grill or fry it into thin crips – not chunky popcorn sized cubes as I was about to do.

These plantains weren’t fully ripened but they weren’t completely unripe either. Their skin was at that stage where you could break it off and they would crack open leaving firm, dry flesh. The flesh is stiff to cut through. I cut the flesh into roughly 1-1.5 cm cubes, massaging them with a little over a pinch of salt.

I waited for my wok half full of oil to start boiling and for the onion leaves I threw in to start frying, then deep fried the cubes on medium heat for 15 minutes or until a golden bright yellow and browning. Onion leaves flavour the oil and the flavour infuses into the plantain as it fries. It comes out crunchy on the outside but bursts into a chewy savoury treat on the inside.

That was the beginning of an era. The era when covid had just passed and we were peeping out of our homes with masks and sanitizers. We were working from home some days and reporting physically to the office on a few.

In the evenings after a long day dodging coughers at work or exhausted from Zoom meetings, it became a ritual for my friend and I to guzzle a bucket of plantain pops in front of 90-Day Fiancé and argue over each crazy couple. Then we would move on to Say Yes to the Dress and yuck almost every dress the brides chose. Then I would call the kids who by now were school bound and we would talk each other to bed. It was the daily evening ritual: Plantain pops, TV, kids.

It’s been about 2 years. These days I tell myself I’m older and healthy is the new norm. I haven’t had plantain pops in quite a while, and I’m mostly at physical meetings or travelling the world making new discoveries and helping my kids navigate the intrigues of adult life.

If I could have a snack now, it would be plantain pops but instead of deep fried, I’d try an air fryer. My sister air fries everything she eats and when I tasted her traditional Nigerian fried plantain out of her air fryer, I couldn’t tell the difference.

I promised myself I would get one last year, but the transition has been slow coming. Since moving to Portugal and falling in love with the food – by food, I mean fish – what I did get is a grill and considering how much I eat fish, the world might soon run out of it.

What I would love to try is grilled fish and plantain pops with a shot of Madeirense poncha. And I would give the world to add a litre of fresh coconut water from Lomé to my order.

It would be a clash of snacks but a blend of culture and a testimony for every supermom that there is joy in novelty and finding satisfaction outside your comfort zone.