Afang and Edikang Ikong: The Calabar Soups Explained

Calabar cooking has a reputation among Nigerians that other regions quietly accept. Efik and Ibibio kitchens produce two soups in particular that people travel for.

They look similar, get confused constantly, and are genuinely different dishes.

The difference in one line

Afang is built on ukazi leaf, with waterleaf as the softener.

Edikang ikong is built on ugu and waterleaf together, in enormous quantity, with no ukazi at all.

Afang is denser and slightly bitter. Edikang ikong is greener, sweeter and vegetable-heavy to the point of being mostly vegetable.

Ukazi, and why slicing matters

Ukazi or okazi in Igbo, afang to Efik and Ibibio, eru in Cameroon. A tough forest leaf, and that toughness is why it survives a long cook when softer greens collapse.

Slice it as finely as you physically can. This is the step people rush and regret. Thick ukazi is chewy. Properly sliced ukazi almost disappears into the soup.

The watery soup problem

Both soups go wrong the same way, and it is always water. Waterleaf releases a great deal of liquid, ugu releases some.

1. Cook your meat and fish down first until the stock has reduced substantially.
2. Add waterleaf and let it release its water, then let that cook off.
3. Then add the ukazi or ugu.
4. Do not cover at the end. You want steam escaping.

Making afang

1. Boil beef, kpomo and stockfish until tender. Reduce the stock.
2. Add palm oil, ground crayfish, pepper and seasoning.
3. Add periwinkle and simmer.
4. Add waterleaf. Let the liquid cook off.
5. Add finely sliced ukazi. Simmer uncovered until thick.

Periwinkle

Afang without periwinkle is possible and slightly sad. The shell-free kind goes straight in, which spares everybody picking shells out of their teeth.

What to eat them with

Eba, pounded yam, or semo. Afang is heavy and wants something plain beside it.

We ship ukazi, periwinkle, stockfish, crayfish and palm oil across the United States.