Yellow Chili Restaurant, Lagos
Yellow Chilli is one of the most popular African cultural restaurant in Nigeria. It is located at the southern side of Nigeria so crops such as corn, yam and cassava are their basic diets because the European traders and explorers like the Portuguese and British introduced beans, cassava and corn to Western Africa. While the Northern side has grains like millet, corn and sorghum as their basic diets. Yellow Chilli opens from 12.00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.. Travelers can enjoy both the traditional and contemporary food provided there. According to the restaurant, Yellow Chilli is named after an uniquely flavored pepper which they use to make their dishes. Food in Nigeria are traditionally eaten by hand but the restaurant also provides forks and spoons. Besides, eating with the left hand is considered disrespect and dirty in Nigerian culture.
The traditional food that Yellow Chilli provides include rice, pounded cassava (cheap and affordable) and yam. They are often being eaten with soup made of vegetables, corns and peppers. The reason is that cassava and the yam are carbohydrates, so the soup can make them easier to swallow; therefore these kinds of meals are called Swallows. Contemporary food covers hot chicken, goat curry and seafoods such as prawns, fishes, and crabs. Nigeria lies in a tropical zone where there is a lot of fruits growing, but oranges, melons and mangoes are the most popular ones. For this reason,Yellow Chilli also serves a juice made of watermelons and oranges mixed together that tastes fresh and sweet to welcome the customers. Most African food are very spicy because it fills them (especially the poor people) up. Not only that, restaurants are often too costly for average Nigerians so only wealthy people will be able to eat in restaurants. The most expensive dish among all the dishes at Yellow Chilli is ₦4700 naira (seafood basket) which is about $23.60 dollars and the cheapest costs ₦700 naira (plain rice) which is about $3.60 dollars. Each dish on the menu in average costs between ₦2000 to ₦3000 (10 dollars to 15 dollars). It may not seem a lot to most people in United States, but for an Nigerian whose average monthly disposable income is ₦125,103.00 ($627.6) after taxing, they can not really afford to go to restaurants. To sum up, the Yellow Chilli restaurant is really a great stop because it provides not only spicy traditional Nigerian food in which visitors get to experience but also contemporary foods if visitors can’t stand the pungency.