I love tinned sardines and have loved them for as long as I can remember which is when they sold at 3naira or was it 5naira per tin? Then, when you opened a tin of sardines (popularly called Titus; the brand name) , the quantity was often enough to go round. If we were lucky, we’ll open it and there’ll be 7 or 8, enough to go round everyone at home, one each! … oh the good old days…! Then came the brand of sardines named ‘queen of the coast’, they penetrated the market, offering a lower price but even though it still tasted nice, as children, we ate it with fear and scepticism for its name... I can’t help laughing when I remember! Now its about 120naira and you’ll be lucky if you got 3!
After work yesterday, I got home yearning for a refreshing, quick and easy salad, no stress and no cooking required… The sardine, tomato and onion salad has never failed me and didn’t yesterday. The tin I opened had 2 large sardines so I made 2 portions of salad, one for dinner and one packed and refrigerated for breakfast at work. So refreshing…
I opened up a tin of sardines and poured into a small bowl
Took a few bunches of lettuce leaves, soaked them in a mild Milton solution for a few minutes after cutting off the root and rinsing out the sand, rinsed out drained and cut them into large slices
Cut a generous amount of tomatoes into wedges
Halved and sliced a medium yellow onion
Pitted some black olives
Mixed the lettuce with tomato, onion and pitted black olives and some ground black pepper, placed the mix on a plate
Topped with a sardine, drizzled with the oil from the sardines and garnished with lemon slices!
P.S. The very fresh lettuce you see is from one of my customers I call Alfa. He is situate at the small market under the bridge at Ozumba Mbadiwe, very close to the Lagos Law school. He also sells a selection of fresh vegetable and herbs, from spinach to rocket, mint, dill, basil, parsley, spring onions etc.
There, you can also get a selection of fresh seafood from prawns to shrimps, lobsters, calamari and a wide variety of fishes….
Oh yeah - the trusty market under the bridge...Get most of my sea food from there...Last time i went, didnt see any veggies so this must be a fairly recent development...Hope i can make a trip there this weekend....
ReplyDeleteMy dear, when i started buying seafood there, i didn't realised there was a vegetable section until much later. Its really hidden so when next you go, ask the women that sell seafood and they will show you the path that leads to the fruit and vegetable market. Please let me know if you find it. xxx
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