Festival
Iri Ji: the festival of the new yam
Why nobody in Igboland eats the new yam until the community says so, what happens on the day, and why the celebration meal is the plainest one of the year.
Akwụkwọ anyị · The journal
Kitchen Journal
Where the food comes from, and how to eat it. Stories from Igboland for people who have never been, and plain guides to ordering, cooking and feeding a crowd.
Akụkọ · Stories
Stories from Igboland
The festivals, ceremonies and everyday customs the food comes from. Written for people who have never been to Owerri, by people who have.
Ceremony
Ịgba Nkwụ: the wine carrying
The Igbo traditional wedding, in which the bride carries a cup of palm wine through the crowd to find her husband, and everyone present becomes a witness.
Custom
Ọjị and mmanya: kola nut and palm wine
Why nothing serious in an Igbo house begins until the kola nut is broken, and why palm wine is alive, sweet at dawn and strong by dusk.
Calendar
Izu Igbo: the four-day week
Eke, Orie, Afọ, Nkwọ. The Igbo week has four days, every town's market falls on one of them, and this page tells you which day it is today.
Guides
Read before you order
What to order, how to eat it, how much a party needs, how to cook it, and what the words mean.
Cooking tips
Twelve things every Owerri cook knows
Why egusi has to clump, why ogbono goes into oil not water, why you never stir the jollof, and nine other things nobody writes down because everyone assumes you know.
The signature dish
What is Ofe Owerri?
The soup Igbo people call the jewel of the South East. What goes in it, why it costs what it costs, and how to eat it properly.
For newcomers
Soup and swallow: a beginner's guide
Nigerian soup is not a starter. What to order first, how to eat with your hands, and what every soup tastes like.
Catering
How much food for a Nigerian party?
Real numbers per head for jollof, soup, swallow and protein, plus what guests actually go back for.
Practical
Storing and reheating Nigerian food
How long soup keeps, why you should never microwave pounded yam, and how to bring a tray back to life on day two.
Words
A glossary of Nigerian food words
Ofe, obe, swallow, draw, yaji, ogiri, ponmo, shaki. The words you will meet on a Nigerian menu, explained plainly.
Resources
Finding Nigerian ingredients in Calgary
What to look for, what the labels mean, what is worth importing and what you can substitute without ruining the pot.
What's on
Events & occasions
We are a kitchen, not a venue, so most of what we do happens at your event rather than ours. These are the occasions we cook for all year.
Oct1
Nigerian Independence Day
Our busiest catering day of the year. Jollof by the tray, small chops, suya platters and full soup pots for family gatherings across Airdrie and Calgary. Book at least a week ahead — this one fills up.
Aug–OctIri Ji
New Yam Festival celebrations
Igbo communities in Calgary and Edmonton hold Iri Ji through the harvest months. We cook pounded yam from real yam, the good soups by the pot, and roasted yam with palm oil for the table. What the festival is.
Allyr
Weddings, naming ceremonies & burials
The three occasions where the food matters most and the quantities are largest. We cook traditional Igbo menus for these, including Ofe Owerri by the pot, and can advise on quantities if you tell us the headcount. How an Igbo wedding works.
Allyr
Office lunches & introductions to Nigerian food
Feeding a team that has mostly never eaten this food? We put together a mild, approachable spread built around jollof, dodo and grilled chicken, with the bolder things clearly labelled for anyone who wants them.
Resources
If you'd rather cook it yourself
We would still rather you ate our food. But a cuisine only survives if people cook it, so here is what actually helps.
- Start with the tips Technique
- Twelve things an Owerri cook assumes you already know, each one fixing a specific way the food goes wrong. Read them.
- Shop the African grocers NE Calgary
- The African and Caribbean grocery shops clustered around north-east Calgary carry egusi, ogbono, okazi, crayfish, stockfish, palm oil and ogiri. Buy ogbono and egusi whole and grind them yourself if you can.
- Read the real recipes Online
- All Nigerian Recipes, Sisi Jemimah and 9jafoodie are written by Nigerian cooks for Nigerian kitchens, with the measurements and the shortcuts. Prefer them to generic recipe aggregators, which tend to sand the flavour off.
- Get the palm oil right Ingredient
- Red palm oil is not the same as palm kernel oil and cannot be swapped for vegetable oil without changing the dish completely. Look for unrefined, deep orange-red oil. It solidifies below room temperature, which is normal.
- Learn the words Glossary
- Most of the confusion in Nigerian cooking is vocabulary rather than technique. Our glossary covers the sixty words you will actually meet.
- Ask us Free
- If you are cooking for your own family and something has gone wrong in the pot, call us. We would rather talk you through it than watch you give up on the dish.
Enough reading.
The pot is on. Most orders are ready in about an hour.