My Present Favourite Pub Food

What comes to your mind when I mention pub food?  A slider?  Beef pie?  Snails?  If you answered snails, then you have probably lived in Nigeria at some point in your life.  I have grown to relish snails in pepper sauce/stew; it has become my pub food of choice—not only because they taste great, but they are low carb too!

There was no pubbin’ for me tonight.  Funds are low.  Plus, after a 12-hour work day all I could think of was coming home to roll out some homemade pasta to make ravioli.  I mean, it does not get more relaxing than cleaning up a kitchen dusted with flour.

My first thought was to fill the ravioli with suya, but my within-walking-distance-on-a-night-like-tonight guy was not around.  So I wondered down to the local liquor store/booze bar to buy snails.  Yes, this is the same booze bar that my very, very, very good friend got trashed one night on American Honey and practically fell into the ditch and had to be carried to a waiting car.  Just sayin’.  

As simple as it is, the little structure outside of this liquor bar has a reputation locally for producing excellent snails.  Now, I confess to have tried them from this particular place only twice.  The first time I can only say was good because they did not give me enough stew to satisfy my craving.  Tonight?  Well, let’s just say they scored more points.  I sat and waiting outside as the woman cooked up the stew, and my nostrils were very happy.

Yes, I may have cheated a little with this one.  I did not cook the snails.  I have never cooked snails.  When called a friend and told him I was making snail ravioli, the first thing he asked was, “How did you clean off the slime?”  I told him it was not problem; I licked it off. 

Before tonight, I had never made ravioli at home before, but I do have a hand-cranked pasta machine.  I used this simple and good recipe for the dough:

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/eggs/fresh-pasta-dough-for-ravioli/

Cranking pasta thought the machine is an excellent activity for exercise after the end of a long work day.  You get the best of stress relief world:  exercise that will result in carb therapy.  It is win-win.

I am going to be as humble as I can and say that the sauce I made to go on the ravioli was one of the best things I have put in my mouth in a long time:  a pesto-ish sauce made from garden egg leaves, curry leaves, olive oil, palm oil, sesame oil, salt, black pepper, onion, garlic and a splash of fish sauce.  I was initially a bit cautious about using the leaves because friend here warned me about using raw leaves in recipes.  But I read online that the Igbo eat garden egg leaves raw, and since everything on the internet is true (and there was no mention of parasites on the discussion board), I knew I was safe with this experiment. 

I wish I were better at describing how things taste.  My descriptive words to express the affirmative are pretty much limited to good, great, amazing and fabulous (and none of these really describes taste or flavor).   Some of my experiments in the kitchen come out ok.  Some are even pretty good.  But this one exceeded any expectation I might have had.  On the first bite, it was like my taste buds did a double take.  The flavours all worked together, better than well. 

After a long day, one that was albeit productive, I will go to bed very satisfied and happy.  Did I mention that a bottle of wine accompanied this experience?  I might not have made it to the pub tonight, but the wine bar followed me home.