5. Akara

Akara is morning food. Black-eyed peas are soaked, peeled, blended, and fried into cakes that are crisp outside and soft inside. In the North it is called kosai. The best way to eat it is hot, split open and stuffed into Agege bread with a little pepper sauce. The beans are the batter. There is no flour hiding in a proper one. The colour should be deep gold, not pale. Pale akara means the oil was not hot enough.