Suya

Suya is a skewered, spiced meat grilled over smoke, traditional among the Hausa people of northern Nigeria and widely eaten in Nigeria and Cameroon. It is one of the best-known street snacks in West Africa and is often regarded as a national dish of Nigeria.

History

Suya originates in the traditional Hausa cooking of northern Nigeria, where it is also known as tsire. It has long been prepared as an evening meal and street food, and it is traditionally sold by Hausa men known as mai tsire or mai suya, where mai means 'seller of'.

Over time the dish spread from its homeland to Nigerian cities, where the name suya became the most common in much of the country, while the Hausa community still uses the original term. Today it is found across West Africa and among the diaspora of the region.

Culture

Suya is eaten mostly in the evening, from street stalls, as a restaurant starter and as an accompaniment to drinks in bars and nightspots. The meat is usually beef, lamb, goat, ram or chicken, though organ meats such as kidney, liver and tripe, and even shrimp, are sometimes used.

The heart of the dish is yaji, a dry spice mix of hot chili and cayenne pepper, ginger, dried onion and ground roasted peanut cake known as kuli-kuli. There is no standard recipe, and each seller or region has its own. It is sliced into bite-size pieces and served with extra yaji, onion and tomato, raw or grilled, and sometimes with Hausa masa, rice, kosai, garri or ogi. The dried version of the meat is called kilishi.