THE WAAWA FOOD

One of the most important vegetables in Waawa cuisine and in the Igbo culture in general is the yam tuber. This is considered the Igbo staple crop and has been dedicated deities such as Njoku Ji, the yam god. Igbo cuisine includes other vegetables such as Pumpkin seed, used to make a soup called Egusi, Bitter leaf which is made into a soup and Okra, of which its name stems from the Igbo language.
The Waawa people eat fufu or pounded yam, which is known locally as utara with a variety of unique soups e.g. ohé-ede, made with cocoyam,ohé-nsala and ohé-onugbu made with bitterleaf.
Aside from than the common Igbo foods, traditional Waawa food includes a series of dishes referred to as agworo-agwo. Lots of these dishes are made with tapioca or cassava, such as abacha, which is known locally as okoto in Udi, and jigbo in other areas of Waawaland. It is eaten with ugba which is known in this part of the country as akpaka. Cassava is also made into ighu, which are larger flakes of the vegetable, prepared like abacha.
All kinds of bean dishes are native and unique to the Waawa, such as agbugbu (fiofio), achicha, akidi and okpa (which is a popular street food similar to moin moin but made with bambara bean). Okpa di oku meaning The okpa is hot, is a phrase quintessential to Enugu. All of these traditional dishes are available in fast-food joints within the Enugu metropolis.