STREET FOOD: AKARA/KOSAI, A FRIES MOSTLY SOLD ON THE STREETS IN THE MORNING & EVENING

Hey lovelies ❤️

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

Bean cake which is known as Akara in Yoruba or Kosai in Hausa languages of Nigeria is a fries that is consumed by all classes of people. The only difference is the quality from class to class - there are people who add more ingredients to make theirs rich and on the other hand some few street sellers who want to make more profits mix their beans with other ingredients like corn so that they'd have more to sell.

Akara or Kosai is that one food in Nigeria that you can see in most streets especially in the morning and in the evening. In the morning, the seller may have finished selling if you don't go out early to buy yours. Let's say by 10am to 11am they may have ran out of stock. Its an early morning business. It is a popular street food that most people eat as breakfast and it is often accompanied with bread, pap (akamu) or cassava flakes (Garri). In other words, when you take a bite of akara, you also take a bite of your bread or take your pap/garri.

For someone like me, I like to prepare my akara in the house but for some rare days when im too tired to cook, I would go down the street to buy some. But some people would prefer not to buy on the streets because of the hygiene factor. Some of these street food sellers may sell their foods in an unhealthy and unhygienic condition with flies from the drainage flying all over the place. However, there are some neat ones that take care of their environment and display the best hygienic practices. Neatness is a virtue that every business owner must imbibe even if it isn't a food business.

This is one business that is commonly located in busy areas such as near schools, hospitals, bus-stops/motor parks, busy streets,etc. It is not a business that will thrive in an isolated environment especially if you want to make good sales. Talking about making good sales, bearing in mind that there are many competitors, a person that wants to do this kind of business must be on top of his or her game. One thing to bear in mind apart from neatness is consistency. Imagine when you get to your favorite akara spot and they are not opened, you'd definitely go somewhere else and buy. If this happens for some days or weeks the customer will shift to the new reliable vendor.

Akara/Kosai is easy to prepare especially if you have mastered the process after a few trial. The first step to take is to pick your beans by removing the shafts, stones etc. Then you soak the beans for some minutes and peel off the outer layer. It is important not to soak it for too long so that it will be easy to peel.

There are two methods (or more) of peeling the beans. You can either rub the beans in between your two hands, use a grinding stone or use a blender. After that you can use a sieve to separate the beans from the shaft and grind it using your blender or a grinding machine depending on the size. You will add some habanero pepper, onions, crayfish and other ingredients of choice and grind all together. After that you begin the frying process.