LOH Contest 77 - What’s your favorite childhood food?

Hello dear Hivers.

It is me again with my entry to this week’s contest on the #LadiesofHive community.
They have presented yet another interesting topic that pushes you down the memory lane;

WHAT WERE YOUR FAVORITE FOOD AS A CHILD AND DO YOU STILL ENJOY THEM NOW?

Before I proceed I would like to give a shout out to @asherrobert for inviting me to the previous week’s contest but unfortunately before I could begin with my entry, the contest was already over. Thank you @asherrobert and I apologize for my delay.

That aside, reminiscing about my childhood gives me so much chills.

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Those were great days, how I wish to relive every moment once again.
Oh well let me not deviate.

Growing up in an African home was different.
We play our own kind of games, we eat our type of meals, it’s basically very different from the ones portrayed on television.

Moreover, after I passed the stage of breastfeeding and I began taking soft food like oats, pancake, custard, cereal etc.
According to my mom, I enjoyed eating all these but the one I loved the most was Pap.

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Pap is an African meal made with Maize/Corn grains.
It is prepared by dissolving the pap in cold water or room temperature water, then add boiling hot water to the mixture while mixing it until it transforms and has a syrupy consistency. It is basically prepared the same way as custard and is best served with milk and honey/sugar.

My mom always reminds me of how much I love pap as a toddler. Whenever I am upset and start crying, they immediately prepare pap in my sippy cup with enough milk because apparently that is how I like it.
Once they put it in my mouth, it works like magic. I suck and doze off almost immediately.

I got so used to pap that I hardly take any other food.

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At one point my mom had to make me stop taking it because I was getting too addicted and dependent on it as well.
That was the first struggle I had to deal with as a child. I would cry and cry for my pap until one day I stopped crying.
As I was deprived of my favorite food for so long I gradually became used to it. I started adapting to enjoying other meals and it wasn’t long till I learned to take control.

Fast forward to present times. I still take pap but thankfully this time I am not so addicted.
Whenever my mom tells me about the story of how I couldn’t do without it I laugh.

Thanks to this week’s contest speaking of my favorite childhood food, it added to my curiosity on how they transform a whole maize to pap.
I asked my mom and this is how she explained the process to me.

They soak the corn grains for a few days preferably 3-4 days in order for it to be well fermented and soft for the next process. Then they pass the corn grains through a sieve and wash it thoroughly before taking it to an engine to be grounded adding a little bit of water. After grinding, the remains would be transferred to a sieve sack specially made for this purpose. Gradually a portion of the solid is manually massaged into the sieve to extract the main content from the shaft. After all the portions are done, the remaining content is transferred to another sieve bag (also specially made for this purpose) and kept overnight for the excess water to leave the pap.
Once that process is over and the water is gone, the pap is ready.

Even if pap is considered a meal for toddlers, I disagree to accept that fact.
Till this day I love drinking pap and I don’t think I will ever stop.

Everyone is welcome to join this delightful contest but I would personally like to invite @asherrobert and @youwilllikethis to participate with me 💕

please note those images above are not pap, they were the closest free image I could find that has a similar resemblance to pap

Thanks for reading. 🤗