Longthroat Memoirs

WINNER – JOHN AVERY AWARD, THE ANDRE SIMON FOOD & DRINK BOOK AWARDS 2016

“One of the most enduring myths on the Nigerian Femme Fatale –  mammy-water, ‘winch’ or husband-snatcher –  has to do with the cooking of fish stew … A woman can do what she likes with a man when she knows how to satisfy his appetite for food.”

Longthroat Memoirs presents a sumptuous menu of essays about Nigerian food, lovingly presented by the nation’s top epicurean writer. As well as a mouth-watering appraisal of the cultural politics and erotics of Nigerian cuisine, it is also a series of love letters to the Nigerian palate. From innovations in soup, fish as aphrodisiac and the powerful seductions of the yam, Longthroat Memoirs examines the complexities, the peculiarities, the meticulousness, and the tactility of Nigerian food.

Nigeria has a strong culture of oral storytelling, of myth creation, of imaginative traversing of worlds. Longthroat Memoirs collates some of those stories into an irresistible soup-pot, expressed in the flawless love language of appetite and nourishment.