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My food love
Discovering Monika – Nigeria’s Spicy Grilled Fish was the greatest find in my food adventure. Food features a lot in my writing. It brings us together at gatherings, eateries or significant events.
I consume food programs and watch the exotic ones set in far-flung places where people cook and gather to eat their meals.
It is a strange thing because I am a functional cook. I go into the kitchen and cook quickly and efficiently, especially if it is a delicacy I fancy.
Food nostalgia
Nigerian food makes me feel nostalgic and reminds me of when I lived with my grandmother and how close I was to the authentic street food in Lagos.
Many Lagos residents, popularly known as Lagosians, do not cook but buy their food from street food sellers or local food joints.
Breakfast might be the hot and tasty akara, made from ground peeled beans mixed with chopped onions and pepper, then deep fried. If you want to take it to a different level, add a dried crayfish to each dollop of akara before frying it. The crunch of the crayfish and the moist akara can send your taste buds spiralling!
But my writing today is about my quest for fishing and the first time I ate Monika, the Nigerian spicy grilled fish.
My fishing quest
I have always been attracted to water. But not the rolling, foaming, thundery ocean but the gentle, clear river or the tinkling brook. Clear enough that you could see the pebbles and the tiny fishes fluttering and darting. We used to have a brook near where I lived as a child in Ibadan. On my way home from school, I would crouch over it and watch the tiny fishes, imagining how it felt to live and swim with such abandon.
Fishing at Ologbo river
But as I got older and became a teenager watching fish was no longer satisfactory. I wanted to go out and catch them. I was now living with my parents in Benin City, a town in the middle belt of Nigeria. My adventurous father must have felt or heard that longing in me and decided that the whole family, myself, brothers, mother and him, would find a river, some fishermen and fish! I danced that week and looked forward to the weekend with glee. Dad caught my enthusiasm and decided on the Ologbo River.
There, the fishermen took us on their canoe across to their huts on stilts. They showed us how to fish using homemade fishing rods. Perhaps it was our excited garbling, but we must have scared the fishes away that day. I was disappointed that we only managed to catch some tiny fish that they placed in clear bags for us.
Years later, I realised our adventure had been fraught with danger. The river was one of the deepest, with strong currents. We had trusted our lives to fishermen with nothing like a life jacket in sight!
Near accident
My next adventure in search of fish was after graduation when I went to do a mandatory government service in Kano, in northern Nigeria.
A friend told me that there was a lovely spot out of town for fishing and picnics. I was excited! A crowd of us set off for this place in a convoy of cars.
But on the way, a near-tragic thing happened. The driver of our vehicle lost control and flew off the road into the bushes. It was my second experience of a near accident in that town. My brain processed the car flying through the bush like a film in slow motion, and it jerked to a stop before a massive tree. We were shocked and could not believe we were alive. We laughed with joy, turned the car around and continued our journey. I did not catch fish that day, but the river was beautiful and idyllic.
From fishing to eating
Once I returned to Lagos, I stopped trying to fish and instead concentrated on eating fish. I lived where market women would sell fish and crabs straight from the ocean. They were delicious and did not need much spices to tantalise our senses.
I had many more adventures where friends would take me to the marina and a yacht restaurant where we ate lavishly cooked freshly caught fish.
Discovering Monika – Nigeria’s Spicy Grilled Fish Delight
But it was when I came to England, I first encountered the spicy grilled fish. It is a whole Croaker, Tilapia or firm fish, grilled with spices and garnished with red, orange, green pepper and onions. I prefer the croaker because it absorbs the spices better and is a crisper fish. Tilapia is moist but does not absorb the flavours as much.
This tasty dish is accompanied by fried plantain or fried yam cut like chunky chips. Monika, the grilled fish became popular around 2001 when 805, a popular Nigerian restaurant added it as a dish on their menu. It garnered fans who trooped to the restaurant to experience this delicious fish.
My Monika was smoky, spicy, and fleshy and went well with my fried plantain and dundun, the yam chips which I dipped in a sizzling red-hot fried stew in a side dish.
Nowadays, Nigerian restaurants always have the Monika on their menu, or they might call it barbecue or grilled fish.
Cooking the Monika – Nigeria’s spicy grilled fish
Am I tempted to create a home version of the fish? Perhaps. England is dull, wet and damp, but I might make the Monika on the barbecue when the weather changes and share my recipe with you!
If you can’t wait and are impatient to try it, here are the ingredients and spices. You can pick up recipes from the net. Do come back and let me know.
What ingredients and spices make Monika the barbecue fish in chilli sauce?
Ingredients: You can use a whole fish (croaker, tilapia, catfish)
Onions, tomatoes, bell peppers (red, green, or yellow), garlic cloves, ginger, lemon or lime
Spices: Paprika, pepper (chilli or cayenne), thyme, black pepper, salt, stock cube.
Other countries that cook spicy grilled fish
Here is a list of a few delicious spicy grilled fish dishes from various countries and cultures, along with the type of fish commonly used in each dish:
Thailand
Dish: Pla Pao
Fish: Tilapia or Snakehead
Mexico
Dish: Pescado Zarandeado
Fish: Snapper
India
Dish: Tandoori Fish
Fish: Various (commonly Pomfret or Salmon)
Jamaica
Dish: Jerk Fish
Fish: Snapper or Mahi Mahi
Korea
Dish: Sardinhas Assadas
Fish: Sardines
Portugal
Dish: Yangnyeom Tongdak
Fish: Varies (often a mix)
Happy cooking!
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