Category Archives: General Afrolems Posts

How to Clean Shrimps and Prawns

Recently, I have started monitoring how people arrive at my blog through their Google Searches and that has been really helpful in crafting a few of my posts. This post is one of such post. Someone recently searched how to clean shrimps so this post is for you whoever you are.

Steps to Cleaning Shrimps and Prawn

There are several methods to dressing shrimps and prawn as different people like to eat them differently. For example my mum and I like to leave half the shell on so we can chew on the shells later especially for the jumbo shrimps. Some people cannot stand the shells and that’s ok. Some people like completely bare shrimps and some others like everything plus the head on the prawn or shrimp. It’s really a preferential thing.

For the Full Shrimp with everything on, You may want to take off the extra hangers on with a pair of kitchen scissors. That’s all the antennas and the legs of the shrimp. For the leg of the shrimps, you can easily break them off. For the antennas, if they don’t come off easily by you pulling them out, then use a pair of Kitchen scissors.

how to dress shrimps

For the Half-dressed Shrimp, Take off the head by pinching it towards the bottom part of the head of the shrimp or prawn. You would also need to pinch towards the bottom of the tail of the shrimp so you can pull out the tail without breaking the shrimp.

Dressing jumbo shrimps

For the full dressing, You need to completely peel off the shell on the body of the shrimp; head and tail inclusive. You would turn the shrimp over and devein it by using a small knife to cut across the back of the shrimp or prawn and pull out the black thread-like substance. Do the same for the front of the shrimp and rinse it.

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Brunch at Southern Sun Ikoyi Lagos

Sunday Morning brunch after church wasn’t exactly something I grew up with. It was more a case of church is over, head on to Mr Biggs or Tastee fried chicken to pick up something quick or my mum was going to cook up a storm. That was what I was used to.

Fast forward a few years and we are having brunch at Southern Sun in Ikoyi. The ambiance was lovely and the waiters were very courteous. Not something you would typically find at a Nigerian restaurant. They smiled as they served us and made small but funny conversation while serving the drinks. Everything from the plates to the utensils were all clean. Trust me, I’ve been to some supposedly high class restaurants and was appalled by what I saw but that is talk for another day.

The people that walked into the restaurant were your typical Lagos people who like to form (lol) Couldn’t help but chuckle at some of them. My mum and I went around looking at what was available and we were surprised to find Asun on the menu. “Who has Asun so early on in the day? ” After our amazing meal, My mum and I decided to speak to the Sous Chef at Southern Sun, Mr Stanley Mwangi. He was telling us that Nigerians loooove their food. In his words; “Nigerians can eat the same thing in the morning, afternoon and come to Southern Sun and eat the same thing.” He is Kenyan by the way and makes amazing Nigerian food. If you haven’t been to Southern Sun, I’d say wear your really nice clothes (So you don’t feel like a lesser relative) and get ready to have an amazing dining experience.

southern sun ikoyi lagos

southern sun ikoyi

dining in lagos island

brunch at southern sun ikoyi lagos

Why Eating Okro is good for you?

Okro soup is a soup I feel only a few people get right. If you miss the taste mark with okro, you are stuck with this slimy soup that no one wants to eat. It is very important to cook okro well and make it really tasty. Apart from the taste benefit, Okro also known as Okra or lady fingers has many health benefits. Some of them are listed below;

Okro is a dietary fiber that contains several minerals and vitamins. It does not contain saturated fats and is recommended for people on a weight loss journey and cholesterol control journey.

Okro has healthy amounts of Vitamin A. Vitamin A also has many functions in our body. Okro also has anti-oxidants that help protect against lung cancer.

Okro cleanses the liver: The slimy substance in okra contains substances that bind bile acid and cholesterol to detoxify the liver.

Okro helps maintain the elasticity of the skin making it smooth and young looking. It also helps in preventing acne.

You can indulge in some Okro Soup this weekend. Afrolems has a recipe for you of Ila Alasepo 

Enjoy xoxo

okro soup and pounded yam

May Food Holidays

Everyday I see food blogs posting national food holidays. Last month or 2 months ago was National pancake day. Boy did I have a lot of pancakes that day. Sigh! Oh the guilt of all these holidays lol. This month of May brings to you more holidays. Not sure if you are familiar with them or not. I know most of the holidays on this list I will not be partaking in. The calorie count will be so high but if you do make any of these things, please share the picture with us and we would publish it. We would also be trying some of the things on some days but some of them are very oyibo-ish(Foreign) Without further ado, I bring to you the national Food Holidays for May.

  • May 1: National Chocolate Parfait Day
  • May 2: National Truffles Day
  • May 3: National Raspberry Tart Day
  • May 4: National Homebrew Day
  • May 4: National Orange Juice Day
  • May 4: National Candied Orange Peel Day
  • May 5: National Chocolate Custard Day
  • May 5: Cinco de Mayo
  • May 5: National Hoagie Day
  • May 6: National Crêpes Suzette Day
  • May 6: International No Diet Day
  • May 7: National Roast Leg of Lamb Day
  • May 8 National Coconut Cream Pie Day
  • May 8: National Empanada Day
  • May 8: Have A Coke Day
  • May 9: National Butterscotch Brownie Day
  • May 9: National Moscato Day
  • May 10: National Shrimp Day
  • May 11: Eat What You Want
  • May 12: National Nutty Fudge
  • May 13 National Apple Pie Day
  • May 13: National Fruit Cocktail Day
  • May 14: National Buttermilk Biscuit Day
  • May 15: National Chocolate Chip Day
  • May 16: National Coquilles St. Jacques Day
  • May 17: National Cherry Cobbler Day
  • May 18: National Cheese Soufflé Day
  • May 19: National Devil’s Food Cake Day
  • May 19: World Baking Day
  • May 20: National Quiche Lorraine Day
  • May 20: Pick Strawberries Day
  • May 21: National Strawberries and Cream Day
  • May 22: National Vanilla Pudding Day
  • May 23: National Taffy Day
  • May 24: National Escargot Day
  • May 25: National Brown-Bag-It Day
  • May 25: National Wine Day
  • May 26: National Blueberry Cheesecake Day
  • May 26: National Cherry Dessert Day
  • May 27: National Grape Popsicle Day
  • May 28: National Brisket Day
  • May 28: National Hamburger Day
  • May 29: National Coq Au Vin Day
  • May 30: National Mint Julep Day
  • May 31: National Macaroon Day

Win Credit on Twitter this Friday

For a chance to win Etisalat Credit this Friday, answer a simple question on Twitter. What city did Afrolems spend Easter in? Tweet your answer with the hashtag #Afrolems Winner would be selected at random! Good luck

Tiger nuts and its Benefits

Everyone in Nigeria grew up eating Tiger nuts. Ok that is an assumption but for most people we grew up eating it and we even called it “ofio” I think that’s the spelling. Anyway, it always came out a few weeks to rainy season. At least I always remembered eating it around March. Tiger nuts has a lot of benefits that we do not even realize and I’m increasingly realizing that a lot more can be done with it apart from chewing and spitting it out or swallowing it for the fiber property. I made some tiger nut milk by blending the tiger nuts and squeezing the juices out of it the same way you would do with coconut. This could be used in many desserts as it would add a different level of flavor to it. There are a few benefits of tiger nuts that I know and you can find them below;

  • It has the ability to help you get rid of excess fluid in the system thereby helping you lose water weight.
  • It helps soothe the gums if you have ulcer of the gums
  • It has a great anti-inflammatory property. It helps reduce inflammation in the body. It is especially good for people with arthritis or people suffering from gastro intestinal tract inflammation.
  • It also has great protein content and is a good source of vitamin E and we all know the benefits of Vitamin E.
  • It contains great minerals like Iron and potassium and Iron is especially important for women so please take note. 

tiger nuts or ofio

Easter in Calabar

For those that are following the Afrolems account on Facebook and Twitter, I promised you guys a video of my Easter trip. It is not solely related to food but hey what’s a general video going to do once in a while :) Enjoy

Table Manners: 7 Tips to Dining Out

There are many rules when it comes to dining out and for people that may not have gone to finishing school, these rules sort of never come up in any curriculum. Luckily, Afrolems is here to the rescue to give you seven quick tips to dining out. Just in case you have a work function, a date or just happen to be eating with those annoying etiquette know it all people, you wont be left out.

Tip 1

It is considered good table manners to wait until you have finished chewing and have swallowed your food to take a sip of your drink.

Tip 2

Large dinner napkins should be folded in half when you open it and placed on your lap.

Tip 3

For my ladies that love to pop out their makeup at any given time, it is not table manners to apply them at the dinner table. You should always excuse yourself and proceed to a private area or the restroom to apply your makeup.

Tip 4

If you need to blow your nose, please do not do it at the table. Always excuse yourself to blow your nose and do not use your napkin from the table either.

Tip 5

Always wait till everyone on the table gets their food before you begin eating. (This is a common mistake with many people)

Tip 6

When passing food around the table, they should always be passed to the right or counter clockwise.

Tip 7

When eating meat at the dining table, always cut and eat a small piece at a time. Do not cut up everything at once and start eating. If you are eating American style, you can put your knife down after cutting and switch the fork to your right hand or if you are eating continental style, you can cut your meat without putting the knife down.

Source: Debretts.com

I hope you learned a thing or two? What are some other table manners or etiquette rules you know?

Promote your Business on Afrolems

afrolems logoHappy New month everyone. We hope you had an amazing Easter holiday. I thoroughly enjoyed my Easter break as I spent it in Calabar visiting my Grandma. I will be posting pictures shortly. This is the Afrolems month to give back to the community in the form of free promotion. I would be posting a few recipes in between but the focus will be other businesses.

If you have a food related business you would like to promote whether directly related to food or even a food photography business or actual restaurant, please send us a tiny write-up with interesting pictures. By tiny write up we mean about 250 words.

We would not put up any post if the grammar is wrong or the picture is not up to standard. So please get creative or get your creative team to help you out. This offer is open to any country for the month of April. We will not be accepting any posts after April 30th. So if you know someone that has a food related business, tell them to fill out the form below and we would get in touch with them and help promote. Have a great week All :)

Disclaimer: Afrolems does not directly endorse any of these businesses. We are merely trying to help our followers find these products and services easily. 

Puzzle time Blessing time

So i was trying out a few things for this food account I am handling and promoting and came up with the idea of puzzles. It should be fun to watch everybody guess what words they can find in my puzzle. They are obviously all food related so shouldn’t be rocket science. Enjoy. Leave a comment with the words you find.

Afrolems puzzle

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