A cross-section of Abuja residents have expressed mixed feelings over food cooked with firewood when compared with food cooked with gas.
The residents in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said the use of firewood was old-fashioned and there was no need for comparison.
- PODCAST: COVID-19: Nigerians In Denial As Number of Cases Skyrockets
- Inside world of Abuja corporate beggars
While some believed that food cooked with firewood tasted better.
Emmanuel Ogbonna, a trader, said that he preferred to cook food with gas because it was more hygienic and had no smell of smoke.
“I personally prefer food cooked with gas, because when you cook with firewood, you can feel the taste of smoke when you eat the food and I do not like it,” he said.
Another resident, Ibrahim Musa, a civil servant, said he used gas for cooking and was comfortable with it.
“ If you are eating food cooked with gas, it tastes nice because there’s no taste or smell of smoke,” he said.
Mrs Veronica Akpan, a banker, said although she enjoyed food cooked with firewood because it had a special taste, she preferred using gas, because it’s stress-free.
”You can’t compare the taste of food cooked with firewood to gas, because, cooking with firewood gives a special taste to your food.
”But one cannot continue like that because of the stress involved, using gas is stress-free and the smoke from firewood affects the eyes,” she noted.
Mohammed Sani, a businessman, said that food cooked with firewood tasted better, adding that there was no need for comparison.
“You cannot compare them, because firewood-made food tastes better, the smoke makes the food more delicious, so you cannot even compare them.
”If I have my way, I will want my wife to be cooking my food with firewood but you know women of today, she will tell me it is archaic,” he said.
Mrs Ugochi Okigbe, a trader, however, said that the world had moved beyond firewood, so cooking with it was irrelevant.
”When we have innovation every day, no point going back in time.
“Before, we cooked with firewood and we enjoyed it, but when gas came into the picture, we all ran away from food cooked with firewood and started complaining about the smoke,” she said. (NAN)