Buka Week: Olaiya Food Canteen

Olaiya Food Canteen

109 Akerele Street, Surulere, Lagos

FOLLY: I love how all the bukas we visited are on Google maps are were extremely easy to navigate to. Some might say that says a lot about the types of bukas we visited on our mini tour but tbh I don't care about the opinions of some. 

NOSA: Actually, when Google opened up shop in Nigeria, their main business was getting local businesses online. So whenever you open Google Maps, you'll always find bukas listed.

I think the one thing that shocked me the most was how "spacey" Olaiya is. Maybe it empties out on weekends, but I expected something a lot grimier.

FOLLY: Buka women are so stingy with ewedu my God. I already don't like buka ewedu because it's of how "cheaply" it's made and by cheaply I mean they mise the ewedu leaves, and make it so thin and add fillers e.g. okro and egusi to make a little go further.

Even if you offer to pay, they still won't give you more. It's so annoying. 

FOLLY: I don't like Gbegiri even though I've never tasted it, the colour has always put me off so it was a very hard pass. The stew was a bit peppery for me, but nonetheless, it was my second best amala I've had from a buka.  It didn't taste chalky aka when there's too much elubo than water and the entire thing is dense af and sticky like eba.

NOSA: As you've probably guessed, I got rice. I went with rice & stew for the blog, so you can never say Nosa has not done anything for you

I hate rice and stew on most days, but I actually liked this one. It wasn't clumpy like the one I got at Mama Ebo. This was also my first experience with "local rice" and I was pretty impressed. Why do people complain about local rice anyway?

NOSA: The moin-moin tasted like party moin-moin. The one where old women sit on stools and make it? Yeah, that one.

FOLLY: I was also pleasantly surprised that I could still chew the fried meat here, normally it's either I allow the meat or sacrifice my teeth for the cause. 

NOSA: Oh yeah, the meat was really tender. Can't forget that. Tiny, but tender.

POSTSCRIPT

FOLLY: The stew was basic compared to that at Bank Olemoh but more on that in the Bank Olemoh post. 

NOSA: I disagree. The rice was significantly superior, but more on that later.

VERDICT

DAMAGE

Moi Moi - N100

Meat (per piece) - N100

Rice (per portion) - N100

Amala (per portion) - N100

PARKING

Street parking. N100