Mama's Secret Ingredient

The first time meeting with my mother-in-law was one of the most memorable moments of my life, even though the 12-hour road trip was a nightmare as I suffered from morning sickness throughout the journey, her warm welcome and affection melted it all. Mama, as we fondly call her, is an agile, beautiful woman in her early 60s, but one would think she was younger with the kind of strength she puts into everything she does.

I was born in the city, so it was not uncommon for me to see some chores she did as very strenuous, for example, we had the gas cooker which made cooking easy for us, but in the village, they used firewood woods, which involved putting fire to some pieces of woods and often you have to bend and blow breeze into it or better still use a fan for it to ignite well so it can properly heat your food, and by the time you are done cooking, it wasn't only the food that would be cooked, because your hair and body would also have the smell of smoke.

For this reason, I never really fancied cooking in the village though I often helped her out, being the helpful daughter-in-law I was, and also because even though the method of preparing meals this way was stressful it often ended up with a very unique, smoky and tasty local flavor that I loved so much.

What intrigued me the most was how Mama was very resourceful, in the city, we use seasoning cubes to add more flavour and taste to our meals, but I never found any with mama, yet her food tasted even more delicious, I wondered what her secret was, and when I couldn't hold it any longer, I asked her.

She replied first, with a smile then pointed to the bones and little fishes I often helped her with, which was my favourite thing to do while helping her out in the kitchen,

"That is my seasoning cube," she said, pointing to the tray of sundried fish and bones

"Rather than throw them out, I blend them with our local spice to make this." She pointed to another jar containing bigger cubes of a blackish substance. My eyes widened in astonishment,

"Can I have a taste of it?" I asked, stretching my hands as she handed me the jar, opening it up, I picked one of the locally made cubes and cut a piece of it into my mouth which sent my taste buds into overdrive. It was indeed the local taste I had fallen in love with every food I had tasted since my arrival, rich and intense, nothing like the normal seasoning cubes we used. It was like the combination of different flavours coming together in perfect harmony to form the sweetness of the fish and the savory taste of all the spices.

I was amazed by Mama's creativity. She had taken something that would have otherwise been thrown away and turned it into a valuable resource. This was the essence of "waste not, want not," a lifestyle that she lived by every day. As I watched her cook, I realized that she was not just making food, she was creating something with love, care, and attention to detail because not only are the locally made seasoning cubes more tasty, but it is also very nutritional and medicinal to the body.

I learned something new and fascinating from her that I would also pass down to my children.

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