What on God's green earth is Starch?

It's been hectic week since the HBK launch. I have worked long hours at the office and at home. As I came home every night, I've been running around in circles trying to figure how to build a website, find a supplier for African food, keep food warm when moving from my kitchen to event venues, and even new additions to the HBK menu. It's been quite intense to say the least.  I have resolved the issue of keeping food warm relatively quickly. The two things haunting my dreams now are the website and finding a supplier. I found one African store and there were a good number of things there. However, I'm still not sold on their yams and their snails. The snails looked like they had been there for an eternity. Some of the yams were black and blue on some parts of the surface. The effect of poor aeration I suppose. Nevertheless, I dug in there and found a good, happy looking yam. I made a beeline for my basket and snagged that yam like it was a nugget of gold! I also got a few non perishables from there. Exeter corned beef (the sight of the red paper wrapped can is so nostalgic for me), Heinz Salad Cream, Pounded yam flour and Fufu flour. Next weekend I will embark on another search, this time with someone who knows a ton of African stores in the area, to find some beautiful snails.

I had another unanswered question that came to mind while trying to build new dishes to add to my existing menu. "What exactly is starch made of?" Nigerians will know that 'starch' is a staple fondly enjoyed with a myriad of soups. However as many people do love it, very few know what exactly it is. The best answer anyone gave me so far was that it's made from cassava. Well, that's a good start I suppose, except that many other things are made from cassava also - garri, fufu, tapioca, just to name a few. Then I got really curious, and started to research. I found out after about half a day's research that Nigerians left out a descriptive part of the food's name by calling it 'starch'. Starch is nothing more than a food item I've seen so many times but never gave a second thought, tapioca starch. I saw this in a Filipino grocery store about two weeks ago and thought, what on earth do they do with a powdered form of tapioca? I had assumed it was used by Filipinos for desserts much like the lumpy form of tapioca. I quite like my tapioca with some texture, and I couldn't imagine anyone enjoying a pudding made from the powder. Little did I know, that tapioca starch was a lot closer to home than I'd imagined.

Funny that I'd make this discovery at the time that I did because my next 'Iron Chef' battle will be featuring soups that usually accompany starch; Banga soup and Edikaikong soup. It is a battle because I really have never seen either of these soups made, and I've tasted them only once! That should give me a good challenge and force me right out of my comfort zone. I love the idea of taking a tour around the world through food so it looks likes this Honeybee is heading to the east of Nigeria soon. I welcome all tips, pointers and funny tales associated with these soups from those of you who grew up eating them. You never know I just may name the gourmet rendition of these dishes after your story or even after you. Be rest assured that I shall have funny tales to follow after I make these soups.
In the meantime I've found a website that allows me to make a slideshow of pictures. I put together a collection of pictures from the HBK launch (pictures were taken by Dayo Adefulu), because embedding pictures in a blog format is incredibly annoying. I shall make more slideshows in the future. Just you wait!

HBK Launch: http://slideroll.com/?s=nxm1w1vh