As a food lover, I have always found the idea of “small chops” intriguing ( small chops : a small platter of finger foods served in gatherings mainly as appetiser or heavy snack).
My curiosity into how it came to be stable on Nigerian dining drove me into running a little research on the staple and my findings are quite interesting. Some items on the small chops platter originate from Nigeria, while about two of them dates to China and India. A further indication of how food unites us as a people.
Small chops basically contain : puff-puff, samosa, spring rolls and meat. Of recent, mosa ( deep fried rice banana/plantain) was added to the mix. Puff-puff proudly is of Nigerian decent and the meat, but samosa is of Indian decent and this was introduced into the Nigerian dining in the 50s before the civil war. Spring rolls and tiger prawns came with the Chinese merchants and diplomas after the war and has since become a widely cherished delicacy. Almost every event serves small chops as some sort of Canape. Small chops saves the day especially for semi-formal and informal gatherings where one doesn’t want to do heavy cooking. Favourably served with hot sauce and humus. Samosa is a triangle shaped fold of thin flour, stuffed with minced meat and veggies ,deep fried. Spring rolls goes almost same way, rectangular in shape. You can also twitch the stuffings with prawns, puff-puff is achieved with light, fluffy dough, dropped in hot boiling oil, moulded circle, fried plain with no stuffing except ingredients like sugar and pepper added in the flour mixing.
So when a platter of small chops is served to you in an event, know that you are eating a mixture of three major national cuisines, simple yet carries the history of each nation before and after the war. When in Nigeria if you haven’t, Kindly ask to be served some freshly made “small chops”, you will surely enjoy it and ask for more.