Agua Fresca 24: Nigerian Horchata and the Diffusion of Islamic Cuisine
I haven’t posted about the cold drinks known in Mexico as agua fresca (fresh or cool water) in ages.
Spanish horchata. Wikimedia
Today though a post on Kitchen Butterfly’s blog (highly recommended, by the way) caught my eye.
She reports on a range of drinks in northern Nigeria. Nigerian horchata or kunnu aya made from chufa or tiger nuts, just like the Spanish version. Except, that is, that the chufa nuts in her photos look a lot fresher than the dry wrinkled ones I bought in Barcelona.
Just as kunnu refers to milky cream drinks made from cereals millet, sorghum, rice, groundnuts, so does horchata mean the milky extract from any vegetable source, such as hazelnuts, almonds, barley or rice. In Nigeria, other common varieties of kunnu are kunnu gyada made from rice/groundnuts peanuts and kunnu zaki, made from millet.
via Kunnu Aya, ‘Horchata’ de Chufas ‘Nigerian Style’ | Kitchen Butterfly.
It makes perfect sense. All these drinks have, I think, Islamic origins and northern Nigeria has been Islamic for centuries. It’s part of the diffusion of Islamic cuisine. And the Nigerian version comes in many flavors. Lovely.
And if you want to know more about this widely diffused family, I discuss horchata’s connections to barley water here, making horchata from tiger (chufa) nuts, Mexican horchatas here, here, and here, Salvadoran horchatas here, and Venezuelan horchata here.
Wow. I have lotsssssss to read – with joy!
In Nigeria, you can get Tiger nuts fresh, dried and roasted!
The fresh and dried are used to make ‘kunnu’; and all three varieties are eaten as a snack. Thanks for the shout-out.
Will email you soon. Stay well
Want, want, fresh and roasted tiger nuts. Looking forward to email.
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