Sital
Serving: Egusi soup
Artwork by Rami KD
Hear their story
Read the Transcript
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Sital: My name is Sitalbanat Muktari, and I do go by Sital for short. I am a thirty three year-old Nigerian American woman. Born in Utah, but raised in Nigeria, and I'm living in the Bay Area right now.
Ooo, life as a chef! It's a rollercoaster, just learning how to appreciate the highs and the lows of that. I never, actually, even worked at a restaurant besides what I’m doing right now.
Because my business is That Hausa Vegan, I do really hone in on the northern Nigerian flavors and foods that actually originated in the north.
So Egusi is a melon seed soup. The layers of flavor come from the fermented locust beans, the palm oil, and the Yaji.
Mom: You know that Nigeria is a big place. We all have different ways of cooking Egusi. But, this is the best way. This is our way! It has to be the best, it tastes better!
My name is Jamila Muktari. I am Sital’s mom. I’m from Nigeria. Kano.
Sital: I'm my mom's first child. Growing up, I watched my mom make a lot of our own baby foods for my siblings. The earliest memory of making food probably was six. Helping my mom in the kitchen wasn't solely my responsibility, but I did enjoy that process of putting together potatoes, carrots, and peas, and blending it into a puree for my siblings.
Mom: She has five younger ones she had to take care of, including me! She did well. She did well.
Sital: It went from doing it together, to her trusting me.
When I graduated high school, I was sixteen. I was trying to comb through what it was I wanted to study before I left Nigeria. At first I was like, I want to be a lawyer. My mom’s like, you have lawyers in the family. I want to be this. Okay, we have a lot of that in the family. So I was like, well, I want to be a chef. And my mom, legit, looked at me and she said, I am not going to send you abroad to learn how to cook. You can go learn that in the village. So, at that time, I never thought I was gonna come around full circle and like, making food for a living, and connecting with people in that way.
Mom: Sital! You are to rush and get– or do want me to go get it?
Sital: I didn't come here straight, I went to Egypt. So living in Egypt was the first time that I realized, wow, there's a change in palate. The flavors are different. Something can look like it looks like in Nigeria, but when I take a bite, it's not the same. And in the U.S., I realized a lot of things have sugar in it, and a lot of it is sweet. Part of why it was easy for me to give up eating meat is I didn't understand. Barbecue sauce was confusing to me. I was just like, chicken is supposed to be spicy. It's not supposed to be sweet.
Some of the substitutions that I do as a vegan, normally there would be crayfish in there, but we’re going to be using seaweed to get the flavor of the fish.
Mom: No meat. It's healthy, but I wouldn’t give up my meat.
Sital: I told you that was going to come.
I moved here when I was seventeen. It was hard for me to just be like, okay, I’m going to go to community college, I’m going to come back, I am going to cook, I’m gonna–all of this, it was hard. So I was eating things that were available. The joy of cooking came back to me as I became a vegan. Because, at some point in my life, I hated the fact that cooking for me, as a woman, was tied to going to a husband’s house. So I was like, I’m not cooking, because the husband is not going to eat. Like, what do you mean? But now, I actually, I enjoy cooking. I enjoy watching people eat my food.
Well you see, it's already, like, curdling.
Now, as a grown up, I am more of the teacher. Because, a lot of times when we cook together, it's making vegan stuff and I am more of the person she would ask, okay so then what do we put in this place? So it's really, it's an interesting cycle.
Mom: The vegetables go in here.
Sital: I had to defend myself as a Vegan Hausa woman. Like yes, it's okay, and it's because of my health. I didn't just wake up and say I don't want to eat fish anymore. I don't want to eat meat anymore. It was part of trying to change the narrative.
I have to prepare the grill.
A lot of things that we ate back home, now they're the trending foods here. Like, people are talking about Fonio. People are talking about tiger nuts. People are talking about Baobab. These are things that, when you walk down the street in northern Nigeria, you could just pluck it. Like you could just pluck soursop, and now one soursop here is like forty dollars, and I'm like, wait, what? Like, do you guys know what we have? So my whole M.O. is to help Hausa people really appreciate what it is that we have. Because we have gold in our backyard.
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Sital: Sunana Sitalbanat Muktari, amma ana kirana Sital a takaice. Ni mace ce ‘yar Najeriya Ba’amurkiya mai shekara talatin da uku. An haife ni a Utah, amma an raina a Najeriya, kuma yanzu ina zaune a yankin Bay Area.
Kai, rayuwar chef! Kamar abin hawa ne mai tashi da sauka, kana koyon yadda za ka yaba wa lokutan farin ciki da kuma wahala. A gaskiya ban taba yin aiki a gidan abinci ba sai wannan da nake yi yanzu.
Saboda kasuwancina shi ne That Hausa Vegan, ina mai da hankali sosai kan dandano da abincin arewacin Najeriya waɗanda asalinsu daga arewa ne.
To, Egusi miya ce da ake yi da ƙwayar kankana. Yawaitar dandanon yana fitowa daga daddawa, man ja, da kuma yaji.
Mom: Ka san Najeriya ƙasa ce babba. Dukanmu muna da hanyoyinmu daban-daban na girka Egusi. Amma wannan ita ce hanya mafi kyau. Wannan ita ce hanyarmu! Dole ne ta fi kyau, ta fi daɗi!
Sunana Jamila Muktari. Ni ce mahaifiyar Sital. Ni daga Najeriya nake. Kano.
Sital: Ni ce ɗan fari ga mahaifiyata. Ina girma, ina kallon mahaifiyata tana yin yawancin abincin jarirai da kanta domin ‘yan’uwana. Wataƙila tunanina na farko game da girki yana da shekaru shida. Taimaka wa mahaifiyata a kicin ba aikina kaɗai ba ne, amma ina jin daɗin haɗa dankali, karas, da wake, sannan a markada su su zama puree domin ‘yan’uwana.
Mom: Tana da ƙanne guda biyar da za ta kula da su, har da ni! Ta yi kyau. Ta yi kyau sosai.
Sital: Daga yin sa tare, ya koma tana yarda da ni.
Lokacin da na gama makarantar sakandare, ina da shekara goma sha shida. Ina ƙoƙarin gano abin da nake son karantawa kafin in bar Najeriya. Da farko na ce, ina son zama lauya. Mahaifiyata ta ce, muna da lauyoyi a cikin iyali. Sai na ce ina son zama wannan. Ta ce, muna da masu haka da yawa a cikin iyali. Sai na ce, to, ina son zama chef. Kuma mahaifiyata, gaskiya, ta kalle ni ta ce, ba zan tura ki ƙasashen waje domin koyon girki ba. Za ki iya koyon haka a ƙauye. A lokacin ban taba tunanin zan dawo cikakken zagaye ba, ina yin abinci domin rayuwa, da kuma haɗa kai da mutane ta wannan hanyar.
Mom: Sital! Ki yi sauri ki kawo—ko kina son na je in kawo?
Sital: Ban zo nan kai tsaye ba, na fara zuwa Masar. Don haka zama a Masar shi ne karo na farko da na gane, wow, dandano ya canza. Ɗanɗano ya bambanta. Abu zai iya kama da yadda yake a Najeriya, amma idan na ɗanɗana shi, ba iri ɗaya ba ne. Kuma a Amurka, na gane abubuwa da yawa suna da sukari a ciki, kuma yawancinsu suna da zaƙi. Wani ɓangare na dalilin da ya sa ya yi mini sauƙi in daina cin nama shi ne ban fahimta ba. Barbecue sauce ya rikita ni. Ina cewa kawai, ya kamata kaza ta yi yaji. Bai kamata ta yi zaƙi ba.
Wasu daga cikin maye gurbin da nake yi a matsayin vegan, yawanci za a saka busasshen kifi a ciki, amma za mu yi amfani da seaweed domin samun ɗanɗanon kifin.
Mom: Babu nama. Yana da lafiya, amma ni ba zan daina nama na ba.
Sital: Na gaya miki wannan zai zo.
Na koma nan lokacin da nake da shekara goma sha bakwai. Ya yi mini wuya in ce kawai, okay, zan je community college, zan dawo, zan yi girki, zan—duk wannan, ya yi wuya. Don haka ina cin abubuwan da suke samuwa. Farin cikin girki ya dawo mini ne lokacin da na zama vegan. Domin, a wani lokaci a rayuwata, na tsani yadda girki a gare ni, a matsayin mace, yake da alaƙa da zuwa gidan miji. Don haka na ce, ba zan yi girki ba, domin mijin ba zai ci ba. Kamar, me kike nufi? Amma yanzu, gaskiya, ina jin daɗin girki. Ina jin daɗin kallon mutane suna cin abincina.
To kin gani, ya fara curdling tuni.
Yanzu, a matsayin babba, ni ce mafi yawan malama. Domin sau da yawa idan muna girki tare, muna yin abincin vegan ne kuma ni ce mutum ɗin da za ta tambaya, okay to me za mu saka a maimakon wannan? Don haka gaskiya, zagaye ne mai ban sha’awa.
Mom: Kayan lambu za su shiga nan.
Sital: Dole ne in kare kaina a matsayin mace Hausa mai vegan. Kamar eh, babu laifi, kuma saboda lafiyata ne. Ban tashi kawai wata rana na ce bana son cin kifi kuma ba. Bana son cin nama kuma ba. Wani ɓangare ne na ƙoƙarin canza labarin.
Dole ne in shirya gasa.
Yawancin abubuwan da muke ci a gida, yanzu su ne abincin da ake bi a nan. Kamar, mutane suna magana game da Fonio. Mutane suna magana game da tiger nuts. Mutane suna magana game da Baobab. Waɗannan abubuwa ne da idan kana tafiya a titi a arewacin Najeriya, za ka iya tsinka su kawai. Kamar za ka iya tsinka soursop kawai, amma yanzu soursop guda ɗaya a nan kamar dala arba’in ne, kuma ni ina cewa, jira, menene wannan? Kamar, kun san abin da muke da shi kuwa? Don haka gaba ɗaya manufata ita ce taimaka wa Hausawa su yaba da abin da muke da shi. Domin muna da zinariya a bayan gidanmu.
Special Thanks: That Hausa Vegan @thathausavegan