Iyan–A Love Story

There is no singular meal that arouses my senses like Iyan aka ‘pounded yam’ with Egusi stew. This piece is really about the Iyan part.

There is no meal of the Nigerian variety that I love more, actually love is not quite the right word. There is no singular meal that I find more satisfying or fulfilling. There is certainly nostalgia and childhood memories that underlie this obsession but the magic of this meal goes much deeper. There is a ritual in its preparation. You boil yam, no salt, just water. And then using a pestle and a mortar, two majestic instruments, you begin to pound and pound till you transform the yam into another life form.

The meal itself is love and labor, immense effort to transform the yam into a more delicious form. Iyan can be pounded by an individual but it is often a community effort, everyone grabbing the pestle to pound the iyan into such delicious goodness. Of course every town claims that their Iyan is the best, on a recent trip to Nigeria, I had the opportunity to visit Oyo and there is no better place to partake of Iyan than Oyo.