Two Alike, The Difference is in the Taste

If you're from Nigeria ( a country in the western part of Africa), you most likely would've heard of moi moi and there's a high probability you've eaten it since it's a very common food amongst the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria. Although it common with many other tribes, I don't think it's as big as it is with the Yorubas.

A lot of people know about Moi Moi, but not many know about another similar food called Apapa. Apapa is a food common amongst the ebira tribe of Nigeria which bus where I come from. Apapa is regarded as the traditional food to be used in most ebira ceremonies or festivals like the annual masquerade festivals which take place.

There isn't much difference between the Moi Moi and the Apapa, both are made the same way with only few differences. For the Moi Moi, the coating of the beans is removed while for the Apapa it isn't, and this is evident in the final product as Moi Moi is smoother and has a lighter shade while Apapa looks darker and a bit coarse.

Below I will be showing the ingredients needed and the preparation of each of them.

INGREDIENTS

The ingredients for Moi Moi and Apapa are the same with the exception that it is common to add fish, meat, eggs when preparing Moi Moi, but this isn't the same with Apapa.

MOI MOI / APAPA INGREDIENTS

Beans (Preferably brown beans)

Pepper

Salt

Seasoning

Onions

Vegetable Oil / Palm Oil (Red Oil)

MOI MOI PREPARATION

For this I'll be choosing to use 5 cups of beans.

1. First we wash our beans properly.

2. Then soak the beans in water for about an hour till it's properly soft.

3. Remove the water then begin to peel of the coat covering the beans till you have the white coatless part.

4. Wash and add ur red pepper and onion to the beans.

5. Grind the beans, pepper and onion till you get a mixture resembling a paste.

6. Add about two or three cubes of seasoning to the mixture and salt to your preference.

7. At this stage you add your vegetable oil or red oil to the mixture.

8. Depending on how thick you like your Moi Moi, you can add water to the mixture to reduce the thickness.

9. Use a turning stick to turn the mixture till you get a a favorable mix.

10. Moi Moi can be cooked using small containers or Using well washed leaves. Put some of your mixture into each of the containers.

11. If you're adding meat, fish or eggs. At this stage you carefully insert them into your containers after boiling them.

12. The containers are now carefully arranged inside a pot of water. Make sure the water level is below the top of each container.

13. The final stage is to let the water boil till your Moi Moi is properly cooked and ready (Preferably about 40 minutes to an hour).

14. You can use a knife to check if the Moi Moi is properly cooked. If some parts are not cooked you'll see your initial mixture still coating the knife.

APAPA PREPARATION

For Apapa preparation we follow all the steps above with the exception of peeling the beans coating after soaking it.

We leave the beans coating on it and Palm oil or red oil is the oil used for Apapa unlike Moi Moi where Vegetable oil is used.