SLC-S28/W2-“Local Taste, Global Twist| Street-food!

Greetings and welcome to my blog. It’s another beautiful time to be a part of this weeks challenge on local taste, global twist and here my entry for the week.

Take your favorite local street food and give it an international mix. Tell us the name of the street food and why? Show steps. Be detailed enough!

So for my local street food, I picked Akara because it is a a popular street food in Nigeria and people love to eat hot and crunchy Akara both in the morning times and evening as they deem fit.

It’s easy to make and people love to eat it with pap, custard, bread and some even eat it with garri. It’s a street food that’s loved nation wide.

So here I experimented on it with a flavour profile that is different from how it’s been served.

My Twist:

Akara Honey-Chili glaze: This is a Nigerian–Asian fusion where my freshly fried akara was finished with a sweet-spicy honey glaze inspired by Asian street food sauces. Here is the procedures for the making of the Akara and the Honey- chilli glaze.

Ingredients for the Akara:

• Washed beans
• Fresh pepper
• onions
• Salt
• a cup of water

Procedure

I soaked the beans in water and washed it until all the skin is removed. I washed the pepper and onions and added them to the bowl containing the beans and took them to the grinding mill and grinded it. I brought it back home and added a cup of water and salt and mixed until it was ready to be fried. I added oil to the fry pan and began frying the Akara. I fried them in batches until it was all fried.

Honey-chilli glaze

Ingredients :

• Honey
• Powdered chilli
• White vinegar
• Salt

Preparation

I added honey to the white vinegar and then chilli powder and salt and mixed them together. This combination created a shiny sweet-spicy glaze that is similar to the sauces they use on Asian fried chicken and their street snacks.

Then I dipped the Akara into the glaze while it’s still warm and covered the crust with the glaze on both sides and this made it to have a shiny look. I then served with a sprinkle of parsley leaves and sliced onions to give it to that Asian- street food finish.

Final presentation

Which country or culture inspired your combination? Give a clear explanation about your inspiration.

The inspiration behind my combination was Asian street food especially the way countries like Thailand, Korea and Japan use to coat their fried snacks in glazes that are glossy, sweet and spicy.

Their street vendors usually use honey, soy, garlic, chilli and lemon to create coatings that are full of flavour for their tempura, chickens or skewered snacks.

So I wanted to recreate that street flavour that is sweet and spicy but using Akara as the street food since it’s home to us.

What new flavor, or presentation did you create?

The new flavour I created was:

• Sweetness from the honey in the glaze
• Heat or hot feel from the chilli pepper
• The tangy feeling that came from the white vinegar and
• Crispy and crunchy base from the akara.

My New Presentation:

So Instead of serving my akara plainly, I served it like an Asian glazed street snack, it was shiny, a little sticky, and had a glossy feel that the honey-chili glaze gave it and a tangy taste too from the vinegar while the chilli gave it a very spicey flavour.
I used parsley leaves as a sprinkle on it with onions slices, giving it the look of something you would likely find in a night market in Bangkok or Seoul .

How do you think people would react if this food was sold on the street? Explain!

I think the people would be excited about it. Nigerias already know and enjoy spicy and sweet combinations so this would still be approachable.

The shiny glaze would attract attention. The first bite would give them a Woow feeling cos that was how I felt when I tasted it. It was an entirely different feeling from the normal Akara taste. Those that enjoy Asian street food or something adventurous would repeatedly buy it.

Gen Zee buyers would eventually hype it cos it feels instagramable and modern. It could be come one of those street trend captioned

“You need to try this new akara style”!

In conclusion, it was adventurous week with street food in the kitchen. I hope you try out this special flavour I created cos I know you’d like it.