Garri: All you need to know about this award-winning food

Ah, garri! Garium sulphate. G₂S₄. The Great Garrison. African corn flakes. The food of champions and gods alike that needs no introduction. You yourself tell me, have you ever seen an advert for garri? It doesn’t need it, the same way Bugatti and Ferrari don’t need adverts. Its name is enough to introduce it.

Garri is one of those few foods that originally started as local but then managed to become a national mascot and achieve international status, to be consumed by the rich as well as the poor. It is your go-to food for when sapa is tired of shadow marking you and switches to tight marking, or if you’re just feeling ticklish and want to put something in your belly. If there was a Grammy for food in West Africa, you can be damn well sure that garri will monopolize it.

But where does this legend hail from? Is it a gift from the gods, or is it a god itself masquerading as food to give us joy and help us survive on our worst days? Or perhaps, just perhaps, it is a Terminator from the future that got warped by its journey through time and space and then managed to fall into the hands of an Ijebu woman. Let’s find out.

And at the end, we’re going to be giving an award to the state with the best garri in the entire nation, and probably start another civil war in the process. So stay tuned.

Table of Content hide 1The Origin of Garri 2Production of Garri 3Yellow vs White Garri 4Eating Garri 5Benefits of Eating Garri 6Dangers of Excessive Drinking of Garri 7Which State Has The Best Garri in Nigeria?

The Origin of Garri

Well, as it turns out, garri is none of those things listed above, and thank goodness for that, but it is obtained by processing the starchy tuberous roots of harvested cassava, which results in a creamy, granular flour.

In Hausa, the term garri can also mean the powdery granules gotten from the processing of other crops like maize, yam, rice, plantain, guinea corn and millet. For example, garin alkama is gotten from processing wheat, while garin masara and garin dawa are derived from processing maize and guinea corn respectively. Garin magani is a powdery medicine.

Flour foodstuffs mixed with cold or boiled water are a major part of the ethnic diets in numerous West African countries, and among them, garri is king.

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Production of Garri

As said earlier, it is made from tubers of freshly harvested cassava, of which there are two types: bitter and sweet cassava. Cassava contains cyanide, which is unsafe when consumed in excess, hence it is important that it undergoes different stages of processing in order to remove the harmful cyanide before it can be forged into garri.

And although the sweet cassava variant can be safely eaten through peeling and exhaustive cooking, as it contains less than 50mg/kg of hydrogen cyanide, bitter cassava requires more thorough processing due to its higher cyanide content (up to 400 mg per kilogram). The method of processing follows a sequence that starts with harvesting and then moves through peeling, washing, grating, fermenting, pressing, sifting, and frying.

No wonder garri comes out swinging; it has really gone through a lot.

• Harvesting and sorting: After the cassava is harvested, the good tubers need to be sorted from the bad ones.

• Peeling: While this can be done by using a knife to take off the skin, this method is often only used by small to medium-scale garri makers, as it is time-consuming. Big manufacturers, however, use machines for this process.

• Washing and cleaning: After peeling, the cassava is washed to remove all the dirt.

• Grating and fermentation: The cassava is grated and placed in a sack to ferment to help reduce the hydrocyanic acid. Fermentation usually takes more than a day.

• Pressing and sifting: The fermented cassava, still in the sack, is then placed under a heavy weight in order to drain any excess water. This weight causes the grated cassava to become a lump, which is now broken and sifted to make it finer.

• Cooking: This is done by either frying or roasting.

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The end product is best stored in an airtight container at room temperature and low humidity, to prevent mold from growing in it.

Yellow vs White Garri

There are also two types of garri, based on their colour: white or yellow, and this phenomenon is due to the addition of palm oil to the frying process. The yellow variety has palm oil while the white variety is plain with nothing added. And while the white garri, especially Ijebu garri, slaps hard when soaked as a cereal, yellow garri, in my opinion, is the bomb for eba. Feel free to argue with your respective keyboards.

Eating Garri

Most of the time, it is taken in many parts of Nigeria as a midday snack, though depending on sapa‘s hold on you, it can also be taken as breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even at midnight to hold belle. While some people take it with just water (in my opinion, these people are one step below ritualists and on the same level as assassins), it can be sweetened with sugar or honey with milk or chocolates added. It is also more enjoyable when eaten with groundnuts, cashew nuts, peanuts, cooked beans, bean cake (akara), roasted meat, coconut, kukikuli, etc.

Oh! My! God! Look how the sugar cubes, groundnuts, and coconuts in the right frame line up like a Roman legion. Now I’m salivating! Just a minute, please.

Okay, I’m back (wipes mouth)… where were we? Yes, apart from taking it as a cereal, garri can also be prepared into another food called EBA; this is made by pouring the flour into a pot or bowl of hot water and kneading it until a… no, not with your hand. It’s hot naa. You knead it with a flat or round wooden baton that the Yorubas call omorogun (even I don’t know what this means, and I’m Yoruba. You can just call it a turning stick) until a stiff dough of garri is formed. Eba is generally eaten with different local soups like vegetable soup, okra, ewedu, egusi, afang or edikaikong.

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Benefits of Eating Garri

This is how you know that you’re dealing with a true legend, because not only does it bail you out on your worst days, but it also helps your body system in the process. Here are some benefits of eating this food:

• It is great for your digestive system: Garri contains fibers that are insoluble in water, and these help to absorb toxins that enter your intestine. This way, it improves your digestive health and keeps it chugging along nicely.
• It is great for weight-watching: Are you trying to lose some weight, but it’s hard because you’re the definition of point, kill and eat? Garri is here for you. Because while it is very starchy, it is also very low in calories, and the high fiber content in cassava helps you stay fuller for longer periods and prevent binge eating.
• It is perfect for combating diarrhea: I’m pretty sure it’s not only my mum that has bragged about the healing powers of garri, and I’m glad to tell you that they are true. Its pasty and starchy texture absorbs water like what you wouldn’t believe (if you ever leave garri Ijebu unwatched for three seconds, just know you’re coming back to meet Olumo rock), and this helps it address conditions like diarrhea. Just munch on it or drink it with water twice a day, and you can be sure to go out without having a pants-related emergency.
• It is packed full of folate: Pregnant women need a lot of folates and vitamin C, and a cup contains 15% and 47% of your daily folate and calcium requirement. These two vitamins also help boost the body’s immune system.
• It helps prevents cancer: This is probably hard to believe, but garri also helps in preventing life-threatening diseases like cancer. Cassava is high in B17, which helps in stimulating the contents of red blood cells, the loss of which often leads to cancer.
• It is good for eyesight: Ha! The myth is broken! Many people, especially when mocking someone who likes garri, are fond of saying that it causes poor eyesight. Memes and funny videos have even been created with this concept. But I bring good news, my fellow Garrites; IT’S A BIG, FAT LIE!!! It is actually rich in Vitamin A and bakarotennya, a compound that improves the health of your eyes and prevents future blindness or poor eyesight.

Dangers of Excessive Drinking of Garri

Now that we’ve dispelled the popular myth of garri leading to blindness, what are the dangers that people who see garri as a secondary lord and savior face?

• It can cause eye defects: Huh, that’s weird. I thought we dispelled the myth already. Well, as it turns out, cassava, which is garri’s parent plant, contains hydrocyanic acid which can lead to serious eye defects when consumed in large quantities. However, thorough processing is sufficient to reduce this concentration to a tolerable level.
• It may worsen ulcers: Cyanide can also lead to intestinal issues when consumed in excess, and this can worsen an ulcer patient’s condition. So, if you’re an ulcer patient, you probably shouldn’t be consuming too much garri, so as much as it breaks my heart to proclaim this, on behalf of all Garrites, you’re hereby banished from the Guild. Oh, don’t cry; there’s still corn flakes and oats (ugh!)
• It can be fattening: Garri seems to truly be a double-edged sword, as its benefits can also become harmful when taken in excess. By virtue of being the most abundant nutrient in cassava and its derivatives and the body’s primary source of energy, carbohydrate, when consumed in excess, can lead to weight gain and obesity-related health problems.

Truly, garri giveth and garri taketh.

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Which State Has The Best Garri in Nigeria?

Finally! The time we have all been waiting for has arrived. Which state has the best garri? Is it Ogun State, famous for its Ijebu garri? Is it garri Ngwa from Abia State, or the one from Oyo or Ondo? Or is it yellow garri, which has no subgenre of its own and is representing the Igbos? This has quickly escalated from a tournament into a free-for-all, royal rumble, and fans from each state are going apeshit as they egg their candidates on.

Oooooh! Yellow garri called garri ngwa a local champion and socks him across the face, just as Ijebu garri single-handedly puts the Oyo and Ondo fighters to sleep, much to the crowd’s consternation. Now watch these two titans square off in the middle of the ring, embodying a decades-old rivalry of white versus yellow. Inaudible words are being exchanged which will soon lead to blows, and the referee has wisely decided to oversee the fight from outside the ring. Tension continues to build… oh wait, we have an unlikely challenger!

Courtesy of his hypeman The Nigerian Voice, garri Ikeji, hailing from the town of Ikeji-Ile Ijesa in Oriade Local Government Area, Osun State, approaches the ring. Coming in as fried to a crisp, with finer grains, a coarser texture, and a pleasantly sharp taste also known as the slappiness, it is said to be very good for soaking, less starchy and lasts longer in storage. GARRI Ikeji is the finest on earth, the Nigerian Voice proclaims.

But wait a minute, if this challenger is as good as claimed, then why haven’t we heard of him before today? Look how the spectators are glancing at each other in confusion, wondering who this newcomer is. This isn’t doing wonders for Ikeji’s confidence… ooooh! Yellow garri and garri Ijebu have taken advantage of the confusion and descended on the newcomer; they’re turning him to eba! Where did they get hot water and edikaikong from? This is wild!

And now, these two fighters who were about to tear each other to pieces just a moment ago are now sitting in the middle of the ring, eating garri Ikeji as eba, and according to them, he’s not that bad. The referee has no choice but to call the match a tie, because as said earlier, while Ijebu is fire when it comes to soaking, the yellow one is the bomb for eba, you can’t soak him; not unless you want to eat an oily paste. And if you enjoy it, you’re probably a serial killer!

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