Cooking is an activity that requires all five senses. You need your sense of touch to appreciate the different textures in your sauces and the pies; the sense of smell to determine if the waft seeping out from the hot oven is coriander or cumin.

At the beginning of each year, I sort my wardrobe into 3 piles. The ‘I have had you for ages but can’t give you away’ pile, ‘the please leave my wardrobe’ pile and ‘the I haven’t rocked you enough’ pile.  This year however I had to further break down the ‘I haven’t rocked you enough’ pile into ‘the yippee you still fit me’ pile and ‘the aww you don’t fit anymore’ pile. The reason is simple; for some reason this year a large number of people told me I had lost some weight. It started with the better- half saying “babe you seem to have lost weight” then my sister goes “Wow! You look smaller” and I pretend to be bothered when deep down inside I have a big smile.  I am a UK 10 and I convinced myself I was without a doubt now a size 8. I further convinced myself that I had to give away the clothes that “won’t fit anymore” Yeah right.

I basked in this knowledge of my weight loss for a while before reality finally hit me. I am a food lover! I cook all the time; nothing gives me more pleasure than cooking. At this point I deployed all my statistical skills as an economist and did some analyses. How does eating a whole bowl of chocolate fudge warm from the oven with cool cream turn me into a size 8, or a large plate of lasagne (although I harboured the slim hope that the side order of the salad could have done the trick).

Cooking is an activity that requires all five senses. You need your sense of touch to appreciate the different textures in your sauces and the pies; the sense of smell to determine if the waft seeping out from the hot oven is coriander or cumin. The beautiful colours of a Mediterranean salad are appreciated by the eyes. The ears to hear the oven go PING, telling you the roast chicken and baked potatoes are ready to be wolfed down. And last but not the least the taste buds to tie everything together, to distinguish if the mushrooms have been sautéed or blanched.

Cooking to me isn’t just a hobby; it is a way of life. It is both science and an art. I find pleasure in reproducing food I have enjoyed when I do decide to eat out. I savour every fork-full and challenge myself to identify all the ingredients and measurements used in the preparation of such meals. Above all it is a panacea for me, an offset to the inevitable emotional upheaval that accompanies my work as a developmental economist.

Like Nigella Lawson rightly said “food is life, its fun, its family” and this is certainly embodied in my family.  With 5 siblings and both parents, food time is family time. This is especially cherished now that we are only able to all be together at holidays or odd weekends here and there. I am more than happy to cook all the different favourites for my five siblings. In them I have honest critics!

Well I decided not to give away any of my clothes that I hadn’t rocked when I realised I had only lost a few kgs (I was so sure all the scales were conspiring against me). That doesn’t translate to my automatic assumption of being a size 8 and I know who to thank for all this.

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Hadiza Adbullahi is an economist and development specialist with a passion to make a difference in the lives of the most deprived. As part of her job and in the course of her research, she has gained extensive local and international experience in bridging the development gap in the remotest areas including a one year stint in a Nigerian village and a few weeks in a Puerto Rican hamlet amongst several other enlightening escapades. She recently won the Future award for Excellence in Service (public) category, and was a speaker at the maiden edition of the TedX Talk in Abuja. She is also a gourmet chef with eclectic taste buds and an avid reader.

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30 Days 30 Voices series is an opportunity for young Nigerians to share their stories and experiences with other young Nigerians, within our borders and beyond, to inspire and motivate them.

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.