#MARKETFRIDAY WITH @DSWIGLE: SHOPPING FOR VEGETABLES AND FISH

Hey lovelies ❤️
It's your favorite girl @debbie-ese 😍
Welcome to my blog 🤗

It's another Friday. Does that ring a bell? Of course, it's time for another #MARKETFRIDAY with @dswigle. Let's showcase our market experience to the world once again...

Earlier in the week I went to the market to buy the ingredients to prepare a spicy vegetable fish soup made with spinach leaves, also known as efo riro. Vegetable soup is one of the most nutritious and healthy soups that provides the body with the necessary nutrients to stay active. This soup is quite easy to prepare. It is basically mixing vegetable leaves in peppered sauce with other ingredients like locust beans (iru) or ogiri, crayfish, fish, cow skin (ponmo), stick fish etc.

The price and quantity of food items keep increasing each time one goes to the market. It is either the quantity is reduced and the price remains the same, or the quantity remains the same while the price increases. The last time I prepared a pot of efo riro I bought three spinach for #100 but this time around I noticed that the quantity has reduced compared to the last time and the man insisted on #50 per 1. I made my observations and displeasure known to him and he explained how it is difficult to get fresh vegetables and that I was lucky to get them fresh at that particular time. He continued by saying that if I had come later that day he'd have exhausted his stocks he was unable to purchase in large quantities.

However, I had to buy about five of the vegetables at the rate of #300 so that I will have enough to prepare my soup not considering the market situation. The thing about food items these days in this country is that the more the price increase and the quantity reduce, you just have to increase your budget so that you can end up buying what you want for you and your family. One thing about vegetables is that they look big in size before they are cooked, the size reduce drastically the moment they get heated. For a soup like efo riro that is majorly vegetables the quantity must be much if it is for a large number of people and for about three meal sitting unlike egusi or ogbono soups that have "egusi" and "ogbono" as their base.

A pot of efo riro isn't complete without protein and fish is the best form of protein that will bring out the "beauty" of this soup. While I was entering the market I saw some fish sellers and I tried to ask for their prices but I discovered it was excessively expensive. I remembered I bought from them at an expensive rate sometimes ago when I didn't have the energy to enter inside the market, so I came to the conclusion that they probably intentionally make their prices high because of their location. You'd not know that there are affordable vendors if you don't take the pain to walk into the center of the market.

I had to go to the vendor I usually buy from and trust me he didn't disappoint this time. Not only does he have a reasonable price but his fish are always big and worth the hype. I bought two big fishes for #1600, that is, #800 per 1. I bought two fishes so that I can add one to my pot of stew that is already short of meat and fish. There are different grades of fish displayed on his table, their taste, size and price differs. So, it is your pocket that will determine the kind of fish you are going to buy.

I have most of the other ingredients needed to prepare my soup in the house, so these are the two major ones I need to purchase in the market.

Stay tuned on my blog and don't miss my post on how I prepared this spicy soup that turns head.

Thank you for your time lovelies.

The post is originally written by me 💕@debbie-ese💕

Your comments, criticism and votes are highly appreciated.