Chapman’s and Peanut Stew

Chapman’s

When I was searching for a recipe for Chapman’s, a drink many former Peace Corps volunteers in Nigeria will remember, I found an article by Olanrewaju Eweniyi, published on 16/05/2018, (or in the American date system, 5/16/18).

He reported that two brothers in UK are producing a drink called Ikoyi Chapman for their home market. Mike and Garry Robinson grew up in Nigeria in the 1970s, he said.

“The Ikoyi Chapmans journey started for Mike and Garry Robinson in 1973 at The Ikoyi Club in Lagos, Nigeria. Their parents were based in West Africa for over 30 years and during school holidays Mike and Garry would go to The Ikoyi Club to play squash, tennis, golf and swim.

After these exertions in the heat and humidity of West Africa, one of the Club barmen would mix the most amazing, refreshing, thirst-quenching drink that was popular with everyone. It had a unique taste like no other drink and to this day they have never tasted anything like it….until now, that is. The Ikoyi Club name for this drink was Chapmans.”

I drank many Chapman’s at the Ikoyi Club over the years, usually after playing tennis. It was indeed unique and refreshing!

More Nigerian Recipes

I met my dealine of September 1st to submit 50% of the manuscript for my book, Food Cultures of Nigeria: Recipes, Customs, and Issues. It’s for a series on Global Cuisine to be published by ABC-CLIO. I’m sure I’ve told you about it. That was what led me to the info about Chapman’s.

There are many recipes I know by heart, but mostly from Eastern Nigeria and Clem’s Igbo people. So I’ve been doing lots of online searching for foods from western and northern Nigeria. There are dozens of Nigerian food blogs, I’ve found, and tons of YouTube videos.

AllRecipes.com has many wonderful Nigerian and African recipes. I wanted to use their directions for West African peanut stew, or what I would call groundnut stew. As required by the publisher for using someone else’s recipe, I requested permisson. They sent it promptly!

When the book comes out, probably in 2020, you’ll find that recipe and another for vegan peanut stew, also from AllRecipes.com. You can look them up in the meantime. Let me know if you try one!

The photo is from another website.

My New Car

No one guessed the make of my new car. So here’s a photo for you.

The State of Connecticut has not approved having a Tesla dealer in Connecticut Why, when this would be a prime market for the electric car? Because current car dealers in the state have lobbied to prevent Tesla from selling their cars here.

So when Sam suggested we test drive a Tesla, we had to go to New York state to do so. We had a test drive and I loved it! The dealer said I took to it surprisingly well. His flattery and my delight at the car sealed the deal, not to mention never having to buy gas again.

The car has no engine, just a huge battery. There is no traditional dashboard. Instead there is a large iPad where I control everything, from airconditioning to music to navigation. I can charge it overnight with a regular outlet in the garage.

If we decide to drive it to Philadelphia, we can charge at the high-powered charging stations along the way. But it holds enough power for about 240 miles, they said, and that would take us to Philly and back!

Tesla Screwed Up!

For all its great features, Tesla didn’t do well on one count.

Two days ago I received my new CT license plate. Tesla didn’t include the screws to attach a license plate. But the owner of the friendly hardware store in Westport figured out what I needed and installed the plate for me. This led to a great discussion about the merits of the Tesla with him and another patron in the store.

When I said it could do 0-60 mph in under 4 seconds, they asked if I had tried! I had to confess I had, but only when there was no one else on the road.

Reparations for Descendents of Slavery

There was a fascinating article in today’s New York Times by W. Caleb McDaniel about Henrietta Wood. She sued for reparations in 1870!

“In 1853, Wood was a free black woman living and laboring as a domestic worker in Cincinnati when she was lured across the Ohio River and into the slave state of Kentucky by a white man named Zebulon Ward. Ward sold her to slave traders, who took her to Mississippi.”

After emancipation and her return to Cincinnati, she sued the man who had kidnapped her. A jury awarded her $2500, which enabled her son to buy a house, become a lawyer, and have a long career.

Because of the constitutional amendments that led to the period of Reconstruction, she was able to sue successfully. But she won only because she had been “wrongly enslaved.” The judgement said nothing about the millions of black Americans who had been “legally enslaved.”

The question of reparations is certainly fraught with uncertainty about who deserves it, how it would happen, and whether it can be done politically. But that doesn’t mean the conversation should end.

Instead to me it means we need deeper conversation and a consideration of how we can heal the wounds of what is often called “our national sin.”

What do you think is just, and what do you think is possible?