A perfect plate of 'Ibom pottage

At first glance, it sets one salivating. The contents of the plate; an assortment of three colours; pale and dark green lumped vegetables mixed with a soft- yellow -hued- sauce- look-alike that has the fairly thick consistency of melting butter. The magic had been completed thus; a thick red liquid content known as palm oil gotten from the well prepared juice of palm fruits is generously poured over the steaming pot of green-leaf wrapped grated cocoyams as hot water is gently poured in from time to time. A perfect plate of 'Ekpang Nkwukwo' meaning cocoyam pottage.The smiling-faced girl, Edidiong places the plate in front of me.
The Akwa Ibom people of south south eastern Nigeria in West Africa of the Efik speaking tribe celebrates this delicacy. On one of my rare trips to Ikot-ekpene an upcoming industrialized town unlike its past in that part of the state. Now it boasted well constructed buildings but still retained its traditional flavour. I met Edidiong at this local restaurant from Annang in Akwa - Ibom and she talks about the delicacy proudly in her vernacular which I at least understand. She says "In Akwa-Ibom the ground is very fertile for the green vegetables that we use to prepare 'ekpang'". No doubt the region is around the mangrove and wetlands.
She says "We use pumpkin leaves and scent leaves for 'ekpang' including cocoyam leaves." The delicacy was used for very special occasion; sometimes the New Yam festival. She mentions the old days when their girls ready for marriage were kept, nurtured and trained in 'fattening rooms' to make better wives. She says "they were fed plenty of this good leaves so their skin shone for their wedding day". She let me into the secret of 'ekpang' being a delicacy; the painstaking wrapping of grated cocoyams in each leaf, sprinkles of cooked periwinkles in their shells atop, variety of beef, offals, fish, snails, and spiced shrimps and crayfish in a mortar and pestle. She made my mouth water.