2 April 2011

Gari and Water vs Gari and Milk

I love gari, milk and sugar. I have it for breakfast sometimes, like an exotic cereal, or as a snack. Its also great as a big lunch because the gari grains have a way of expanding in your stomach that leaves you fuller for longer.

Gari

But I've been told that drinking gari with milk is odd and that it is normally drunk with water. I think "Ewww," it would taste too bland and unappetising without the fuller, creamier flavour milk gives it, especially when the gari granules are the soft, fine ones and not the tougher, coarser, larger grains.

I know most people drink it with water and even add ground nuts, kuli kuli or beans to it. Not me. Just give me gari, milk and sugar and I'm happy. 

Everybody else just does not know what they're missing.

20 comments:

  1. Kai, actually e don tey wey I see pesin take time explain garri like dis... in fact, I love am!

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  2. Looool! Yessooo! Not enough people are singing the praises of the humble Gari- Naija's most popular food (after rice)

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  3. My guy...i just drank gari and milk today and it was one of the best tasting gari's ive ever drank. So i went online to see if it is a normal thing to use milk. (i thought i just invented something phenomenal) But yes, it is very good. I actually used soy milk because i am a vegan. (I dont eat animals or use animal products). Anyway, tkia.

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  4. Wow, a Nigerian vegan? Lol, I think you're a rarity :) Gari and Milk is the future.

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  5. My man is Nigerian and he introduced me to Gari over 6 years ago. I have had it with water and prepared as a dough (like pounded yam). Honestly speaking I am a cerealholic. I thought as I entered the pantry Gari is very much like Farina (cream of wheat) just a little coarser, so I decided to try it with milk and sugar. Oh my goodness. I'm glad I did it's like a cold bowl of farina. I ran out of milk and craved it all week. Thank goodness I have milk now. I'm enjoying a bowl as I type. :) My man says some enjoy it like this back home but I love it! As you, I eat it as breakfast cereal or midnight snack. (Right now I just wanted it!) Cheers to Gari, milk and sugar.

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  6. I'm American, but have just come home from nearly a year in Ghana. Usually my gari was mixed with powedered milk, sugar, and water. I would sometimes substitute sugar for honey. And I LOVE groundnuts in it! A few of my friends said that fanmilk ice cream is really good with it, but I guess I didn't mix it correctly, because I didn't like that combo...

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  7. If consumed too much Gari can be toxic and can cause cyanide poisoning and malnutrition diseases such as kwashiorkor and endemic goiter.

    Nigeria has a lot of land, I don't know why the people cannot cultivate other better substitutes of carb like potato, more corn and flour.

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  8. A.K.A Garium Sulphate (GaSO4), at least that's what we were led to believe at Secondary School! That garri somehow is derived from the Periodic Table seems somewhat dubious to me though.

    Garri with milk! Kai! My life! I'm willing to try it though. Should your concoction cause my bele wahala - it's me and you oh! Matan Fulani! We'll enter one trouser! :P

    I'll keep you posted...

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  9. Lol! Try it, I guarantee you'll like it. Then come back here and praise it :)

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  10. I'm having to tether myself to the leg of the table. This Garri, milk and honey is like a cross between helium and nitrous oxide: fills you up and gets you bouncing off the ceiling! It's so like woooah!

    You've made my day. I can't think of a better illustration of "the proof being in the pudding."

    Thank you :)

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  11. Yay! Another convert. I'm glad we showed you the light.

    Honey is an ingredient I never thought to add though. I'll try it.

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  12. gari na the best i like cowater gari better

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  13. I've been taking garri, albeit, with powdered milk forever!!!! Love it.
    My favourite way to take garri is the sour kind with cold water, sugar, powdered (full cream) milk and sugar oh, and how can I forget the well roasted and salted groundnuts. Have tried it with milo, honey and kuli kuli but I still love the milk and groundnuts best.

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  14. "...Nigerians are the most well-educated and enterprising Black people in the world." Quite a claim, isn't it?

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  15. Yup it is quite a claim anonymous, and one I stand by.

    Read this: http://www.chron.com/news/article/Data-show-Nigerians-the-most-educated-in-the-U-S-1600808.php

    I rest my case ;)

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  16. hummmmm Garri with evaporated milk i can have it for a whole day am addicted to it, even in winter i still drink it, my aunt after drinking it in winter will now have warm water lool

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  17. OMG, that is so nice. I did not know milk was a rare thing in garri. When I was in boarding school ( in Jos in the early 2000s), the only reason you did not have your garri with powdered milk was because you were too poor to have milk or had run out. I love my garri with milk, sugar and groundnuts. Kuli kuli is also good but I've had a hard time finding good kuli kuli recently.
    Love reading your blog. You've eliminated the need for me to have a blog. You say things just like I'd like to have said them.

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    1. Kuli Kuli on its own is so-so, but with garri & milk? Lovely!

      You should still blog Yanang, because no one can say certain things as uniquely as you :)

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  18. Just discovered your blog an dloving it. Love reading and learning from other tribes especially.

    Now unto the post :) . Quite surprised that some commenters have never tried gari and milk. What?!! That is the business. I love a pinch of chocolate powder in it too. Sometimes with biscuit bits. Sigh..Gari is one VERSATILE cereal! Kelloggs move aside joo, lol!

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    1. Yes! Kellogg's is over-rated lol. Though I tried Gari with powdered milk...awful. The milk granules floated to the top and...eurghk. I've never tried it with condensed milk either. Fresh semi-skimmed or full fat milk is simply the way forward.

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