Adelayo Adedayo on what she would eat for her last supper
For more from City PM – The Magazine like this story from Adelayo Adedayo, click here
My mum cooked in my household – she’s very, very good. I come from a Nigerian family and my cousins would go to my mum’s house just for jollof rice. Even when they see me today they’re like, “Do you have any of your mum’s jollof?” Even if I had some I’d say no: I have to ration it! It’s legendary in my family.
Our house was a place that people came together to eat. My mum’s friends and aunts and cousins and everyone would come round and we’d all eat these amazing Nigerian dishes.
We ate a lot of akara, a bean cake that you have for breakfast. And a lot of moin-moin, which is also made from beans but boiled in water – you can have it with garri, which is made from cassava flakes. And, of course, we had a lot of jollof rice, and my absolute favourite, pounded yam with stew and okra. I adore pounded yam: the consistency is just amazing. It’s part of a group of foods called ‘swallow’ in Nigeria that you eat with your hands – you sort of roll it into a ball and dip it into the stew and okra.
Our house was a place that people came together to eat. My mum’s friends and aunts and cousins and everyone would come round and we’d all eat these amazing Nigerian dishes.
I think some of my mum’s cooking prowess rubbed off on me. I’m not as amazing as she is but I do a good pounded yam, my jollof is pretty good and I make a really good ribeye or sirloin steak. To fit in with acting I’ve learned that I need to batch cook dinners for the week ahead, otherwise I’m just on the delivery apps, so on Saturday or Sunday I’ll make my food for the week ahead, portion it up and leave it in the fridge for when I get home. I’m quite disciplined in that way.
I also really, really love going out to eat. I ate at Ikoyi a while back and that was unbelievable but I’m actually pretty bad at trying new places – I love Hawksmoor: you just know it’s going to be great every time. And there’s this place called Seabird in Southwark that does this grilled sea bass that’s absolutely amazing.
So on to my dream meal, which is a bit all over the place if I’m honest. I’m kicking it off with a couple of Jersey oysters with tabasco because I wouldn’t want to go without having eaten them one last time. Then I’m getting some beef suya, which is a Nigerian small chop done on the grill. It’s served in old newspaper with onions and really hot chilli powder and tomatoes. And I’m going to have some akara with it too.
Next I’m having steak tartare from a very specific place, this Japanese restaurant in Sao Paulo. Before I ate this for the first time I had a bit of a thing about uncooked meat but this was just incredible – I couldn’t believe how much flavour there was in it. There was a raw egg yolk on top – stunning.
For dessert I’m having apple pie with strawberry ice cream on top. And I’m going to have some apple crumble made by me because my apple crumble is the best there is.
For my main I’m gonna have the grilled sea bass from Seabird and a steak from Hawksmoor and my mum’s jollof rice, all on the same plate. On the side there’s going to be pounded yam with okra and stew, and in the stew there’s going to be oxtail and goat. All my favourite things on the table together.
For dessert I’m having apple pie with strawberry ice cream on top. And I’m going to have some apple crumble made by me because my apple crumble is the best there is. And I’ll have a lime and blueberry cheesecake, also from Hawksmoor – I had this in Liverpool but they have taken it off the menu now so we’ll have to get them to make it for me especially.
I’ll wash it all down with a glass of Gosset champagne, a glass of ice, ice cold water – because nothing beats that when you’re eating – and a bottle of Peroni. After eating all that I just want to sit back with another beer. Lovely.
• Adelayo’ Adedayo’s new show Supacell starts on Netflix this month