Atama Soup
Atama soup is a very rich palm fruit soup, made of vegetables and mudu palm fruits and mostly consumed by the people from Southern Nigeria. It is the Akwa Ibom version of Banga soup.
1 kg meat
Smoked fish
Mudu palm fruit
Small piece of lime/alum
1 tablespoon ground crayfish
Small bunch of atama leaves
Medium-sized snails
Water
Small piece of uyayak
2 cubes of maggi or more to taste
1 cup of periwinkles
Salt to taste
Cut a little piece of the tail end of periwinkle, then wash thoroughly and boil with a teaspoon of salt of about for about 8–10 minutes until it foams. Remove and wash thoroughly to get rid of the dirt.
8–10 minutes
Wash and boil palm fruits for about 30 minutes. Drain off water and pound for few minutes. Add palm fruits to warm water, mix thoroughly, and drain off the oily extract.
30 minutes
Remove unwanted bits of snails, add 2 tbsp salt, and knead to remove the slime. Use lime to wash snail thoroughly to remove the remaining slime. Season and boil snail until it’s cooked.
Cut and finely grind the atama leaves.
Pour the oily palm fruit extract in a pot, boil for about 5 minutes, add boiled snail, meat, cleaned fish, periwinkle, pepper, and maggi. Stir and allow to boil for about 10 minutes.
5 minutes
Add atama leaves, and let it boil for 10 minutes without stirring.
10 minutes
Add uyayak and salt to taste, then stir well. Allow to simmer for another 10–15 minutes.
10–15 minutes
Remove from heat, then serve with pounded yam, fufu, or boiled rice.