My Favorite Traditional Dish - Ofe Onugbu___#210

Is there a traditional dish from my country that is my favorite? Yes. My favorite is Ofe Onugbu, bitter leaf soup, with pounded yam.

Ofe Onugbu is not just soup in Igbo land. It is a special soup made from bitter leaves that have been washed until the bitterness is almost gone, then cooked with cocoyam to make it thick, palm oil, dried fish, stockfish, crayfish, ogiri, and assorted meat. When it is ready, it is dark green with oil floating on top. You eat it with pounded yam or fufu. When you pull the pounded yam and dip it inside, it draws like okro.

Why do I like Ofe Onugbu so much? Because it reminds me of my grandmother.

My grandmother lives in our village in Anambra. She is over 80 years old. Every Christmas when we travel to village, she does not ask us what we want to eat. She already knows I love Ofe Onugbu. She will go to her backyard, pluck fresh onugbu leaves, wash them with her own hands for hours to remove the bitterness, and cook the soup on firewood. The smell of firewood soup is different from gas cooker. It tastes like love.

One time I asked her, "Mama, why do you stress yourself washing bitter leaf, why not just cook egusi that is easier?" She laughed and said, "My child, life is bitter like onugbu. If you wash it well, patiently, the bitterness will go and it will become sweet. That is how you must handle life." Since that day, I never forgot that lesson.

Does this traditional food have any history or tradition? Yes.

In Igbo culture, Ofe Onugbu is a royal soup. It is not everyday soup. In the old days, only rich families and titled men could afford to cook Ofe Onugbu because it needs many meats and fish. So when you visit someone and they cook Ofe Onugbu for you, it means they honor you very much. It is a soup of respect.

Also, there is tradition that a new wife must learn how to wash bitter leaf properly before she is considered a good wife. If you cannot wash onugbu well and the soup is still too bitter, elders will say you are lazy. So young girls learn to wash bitter leaf from their mothers from small age. It is a test of patience and womanhood.

Another tradition is healing. Our old people believe that bitter leaf cleans the blood and cures stomach problems. So Ofe Onugbu is both food and medicine.

For me, Ofe Onugbu is not just food. It is my grandmother's love, it is patience, it is Igbo culture in a pot. Whenever I eat it, even in school when I manage to cook small one with little meat, I remember her words that life may be bitter but with patience it will become sweet.

That is why Ofe Onugbu will always be my favorite.

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