FOODSTUFFS SHOPPING WITH @DSWIGLE #MARKETFRIDAY

Hey lovelies ❤️
It's your favorite girl @debbie-ese 😍
Welcome to my blog 🤗

It is time for #MARKETFRIDAY an initiative by @dswigle which is a platform to showcase different markets and products around the world so that people from across different continents can see if they have one or two things in common in terms of their market or mall setting, goods, among others.

This week has been eventful with so much activities but it would not be complete without stopping by at the market to get some few stuffs. Like I said in one of my posts about two or three weeks ago where I lamented about the lack of constant power and how it is preventing me from storing my food in the refrigerator. The situation is yet to change so I have to go to the market at least once every week to get the necessary food items needed in the house especially soup and stew ingredients.

Vegetable soup is a type of soup that loses its taste and greenness, so to speak, when it is being heated several times. Also, draw soups like ogbono, for instance, loses its feel once it is being heated every day. Therefore in the absence of constant power supply to keep it frozen in the refrigerator and in order to consume healthy foods that still have all its nutrients intact, I have resulted to cooking soups that will last for at least two to three days.

So, I intended to prepare vegetable soup with Waterleaf and Ugu Leaves. I had to walk round the market to get good green leaves until I spotted this young girl who is helping her parents out with their business after closing from school. They have fresh green vegetables and it caught my attention. Since I will be using two vegetables for my soup, it means that one have to be more than the other (this is based on my own personal opinion). I bought more of Ugu Leaves and less of water leaf. Each of the Ugu leaves were sold for N50 but all my efforts to buy three for N100 was futile. I was met with complaints of how vegetables are scarce in the market due to lack of rain and all.

The same thing goes for the water leaf as well. It was very green and fresh but expensive compared to some months ago. I enjoyed the fact that they slice your leaves for you in this particular market, making your cooking process easy. The only efforts you may have to put when you get to your house is to wash the leaves thoroughly in different bowls of water if you don't want to crack different stones in your meal. Most of these leaves are exposed to a lot of dirt from the farm after harvesting, during transportation to the market and when they are displayed openly in the market.

After the purchase of vegetables, I moved to the fish section of the market and I was not seeing what I like. The fish were so small, yet expensive. I had to check from about three sellers to see if there would be some price and size difference but it was just the same thing. It was obvious they got all their stocks from the same wholesaler. The fishes were tagged N1000 but all my efforts to get it for about N800 was futile. It took a lot of talking for my negotiating skills to save me a N100. Moving on, it was time for the seller to cut the fish into sizes and he began to cut them very big and I gave him so weird look telling him to cut it smaller or he isn't aware of the present economy.

I have been willing to make some zobo drinks for my family for a while. Just as I was walking away from the fish section I saw a man selling zobo ingredients nearby. So, I bought the main ingredient and some flavors, pineapple and orange to be precise. I also bought some ginger to add to the drink but the seller was surprised I wanted to add ginger and he urged me not to add it.

I asked for the reason but he was not able to explain himself well due to language barrier. I still bought it anyways because I have been using it for a long time. I'm still willing to know the reason but maybe I will ask someone to interpret what he's saying to me in English. I'm yet to make the drinks and the reason is because I don't have bottle that I will use for storing them at home. I may have to buy a pack of Bottle Water and use the empty bottles when I'm done drinking the water.

Thank you for your time lovelies.

The post is originally written by me 💕@debbie-ese💕

Your comments, criticism and votes are highly appreciated.