Yemisi Aribisala is a Nigerian writer and the 2026 Fortnum & Mason Food Writer of the Year. She has written about Nigerian food for over seven years, for 234Next, the Chimurenga Chronic and at her personal blog, Longthroat Memoirs. Her essays on food are a lens through which the complex entity of Nigeria is observed. She has also written on Nigerian Christianity and identity, and her essays can be read online under Yemisi Ogbe.

'A breathtakingly original and fresh piece of food writing, which I found myself compulsively rereading. Aribisala is that rare writer who makes you laugh while also informing you about Nigerian food.' — Bee Wilson, food critic, author, and journalist

• Introduction A Bowl of Aloof Nigerian Soup How to Make Meat The Purist’s Pot of Soup My Mother, I Will Not Eat Rice Today Bones of Choice Eating Dog Akara and Honey Kings of Umami Letter from Candahar Road Okro Soup, Gorgeous Mucilage Long Throat Memoirs The Snail Tree Fainting at the Sight of an Egg Sweet Stolen Waters Forgotten Seasoning Secrets A Beautiful Girl Named Ogbono Henshaw Town Beach Market Ekoki Like Gold To Cook or Not to Cook Okro Soup and the Demonic Encyclopaedia of Dreams Oseani Mellowing, Bursting, Deepening, Merging Institution of Stew Lost in Translation Afang Soup and Hairy Legs Between Eba and Gari Ila Cocoa Nsala with Chicken Fermentation and Fornication Rice in Many Guises Fish Soups and Love Potions Dead Man’s Helmet Peppered Snails Ram Testicle Suya Ewa Oloyin Bush Cuisine Between a Trophy and a Wife The Secret Ingredient of My Secret Ingredient Soup Molara’s Jollof Beans The Marketplace Safe as Stews A Pot from Efak Satan Bibliography Acknowledgements