Sometimes, you cannot help but wonder the ingenuity that backed up the early food discoverers who found out how to blend unrelated food items to give wholesome meals that soothe the palate.
The South-South part of Nigeria is amazingly blessed with several exotic native delicacies. Top on the chart and also common to the East is the popular Banga soup. It is made from palm fruits with assorted meat and fish (fresh, dried or smoked); local oburunbebe, etaiko, and iroghoje spices; Banga spice leaves obeletientien (which can be substituted with scent leaves or bitter leaf); pepper, crayfish, beletete and rohojie flavours; onion and salt.
Banga soup, oghwo amiedi, is native to the Urhobo ethnic group of Delta State in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Here it is traditionally served with a yellow thick starchy paste, usi, made from cassava but can also be eaten with eba, fufu, wheat, semo or cocoyam pudding kwacoco.
It is called izuwo ibiedi in the Isoko ethnic group of Delta State and ofe akwu in the eastern part of Nigeria where it is served with white rice or yam.
Banga soup is healthy and is rich in potassium and vitamin E. The palm nut oil extract is rich in heart-friendly, low saturated fat and is cholesterol-free.
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