Come ‘ed! Newsletter number two. Big up you lot for reading the first one and sending some kind words of encouragement. If I can keep this rate of Substackage up through to the end of 2025 then I’ll be very pleased (and surprised). This is a bit of a different kinda graft to just posting some pics on Instagram but it feels a bit more sincere. Hopefully we can all persevere with it?
I’m back on Hell Island after ten days in Accra, Ghana. And let me tell you, it is tufffff returning to UK winter. I was hoping we’d be seeing some signs of Spring by the time I touched down in Heathrow. I’m not after double-digit temperatures or daffodils or new-born lambs like but is there any chance of the sun shining through this impenetrable grey cloud any time soon? Edit: it showed up this morning and I actually stopped in the street to stand in some sun light for a couple of minutes - soaked it up. My trajectory to Southern Softy is unstoppable at this point.
I should count myself lucky that I even got some winter sun. What a privilege to be back in the heat of Accra (shout out to Auntie Les) to kick back, hang out with Lo’s fam (shout out to Auntie Les again and her whole crew) and get to know the city, its people and its idiosyncrasies a little more. I could write a million and one newsletters about things I’ve seen and done in Accra over the past four visits but - since the chatroom always seem to ask - I figured it would be nice to run through some of the foods I sampled this time around. I hope you’re hungry!
Accra Chop Tours
Wikipedia quote incoming:
The term 'chop' is derived from 'eat' in Ghanaian pidjin or cut into pieces in a local context. Chop bars mostly sell indigenous Ghanaian foods like fufu, banku, konkonte, and omotuo (rice balls) with different kinds of soup.
I love to chop.
Ghanaian food is born out of its climate, its history and its people. It consists of spicy soups and stews made with a load of tomatoes, onions, pepper (lots of pepper), ginger and an array of indigenous spices; alongside all forms of rice (we will not be getting into Jollof Wars today) and starchy West African goodness like yam and plantain. In my opinion, Ghanaian food is dense. More dense than I ever anticipated to be eating in 34 degree heat. Locals have told me it’s food for workers, so essentially fill your boots and you’ve got plenty of energy for the day ahead. But most of the time I needed a nap afterwards!
Kontomire with Yam
A staple dish in Ghana. It’s made with cocoyam leaves (kontomire in the Akan language) which is a bit like spinach. You can easily make this a vegan dish but I like it when laced with fish. I think it’s usually like a tinned mackerel-type fish? Quite meaty. But ultimately this is full of greens and is a fave of mine.
Okro Soup with Banku
Another West African staple. It’s made up of okra, onions, habanero peppers, red bell peppers, locust bean and all kinds of seasoning. Because of the okra it actually has this viscous, slimy texture which might throw you off at first but the taste is amazing. You can add some greens or meat or fish to it. We had some little tiny crabs in ours and this thing called wele (essentially, cow hide) which I was less sure about.
Banku is known as a ‘swallow’ food. It’s made of a fermented maize and forms like a soft dough ball. I guess it sort of acts as a vessel to dip in and scoop out the goodness of the soup. Don’t be showing up with a knife and fork, use your hands you posh bastard!
Red Red with Kelewele
Red Red! Delicious! It’s basically plant based (but can often have fish mixed in) and made up of black eye peas cooked in a thick tomato sauce with the infamous red palm oil. This would be an easy one to make back at home.
Kelewele! Even more delicious! It’s plantain in final-boss-mode form. The best. Naturally, you can get plantain on all street corners in Accra but there’s nothing like the sweet smell of plantain frying in ginger and spices to form kelewele. You should defo make this. It’s sweet and spicy and chewy. It’s my favourite. You can buy the seasoning here. Treat yourself.
Groundnut Soup
There was a time when I speculated that NTS was short for Nuts To Soup as nod to Femi’s West African heritage and this wonderful dish, groundnut soup (turns out it’s actually a Simpsons reference). As you can probably figure, it’s made up of nuts and tomatoes to form a creamy, hearty stew which pairs perfectly with some chicken. I think I had my best ever groundnut soup on our most recent visit. Maybe my palette is more attuned with Ghanaian flavours nowadays but it really hit the spot.
A big shout out to my hero, Adjeley, for bringing these dishes into my life and of course I have to give a shout out to the ultimate condiment, shito, which is basically the tommy k of Ghana (it’s nothing like tommy k) and which Lois insists lives in our fridge back home at all times.
I should also point out that while in Accra I managed to scran some top tier pizza, sushi, udon noodles, pasta, a wagyu beef burger and one of the best Indian curries I’ve ever had.
Plenty of other traditional food and drink I could highlight but will save for another time. For now, enjoy this huge billboard of Mohammed Kudus advertising gari. Naturally, the first time I was asked if I wanted to eat some gari I replied “errrr, what?”.
Can’t Stop Listening to Heights of Abraham
I’ve done it again, sorry. Wrote way too much. Way more than I was intending to.
For the second instalment of ‘Can’t Stop Listening To’ I figured it would be nice to shine a light on one of (the many) Steve Cobby projects ahead of our little soiree at the Carpet Shop on the 15th March.
This will be the fourth instalment of One Glove IRL and I’m buzzing to be getting Steve down from Hull to join me for an all night long session in Peckham. Steve, in all his guises (Fila Brazillia, the Solid Doctor, Heights of Abraham, the Cutler) is by far the most played artist on the One Glove Breakfast Show and he came on the show a couple of years ago for a bit of a deep dive which you can listen to here.
One of the lesser-praised (in my opinion) projects that Cobby worked on in the 90’s was Heights of Abraham with Sim Lister and Jake Harries. I don’t like dealing with genres - people love asking “what kind of music do you play?”, I don’t fucking know - but I guess you’d call their sound ‘downtempo’.
My favourite of their three albums is the 1995 release, ‘Electric Hush’. Jack Rollo was one of the first I heard to play anything by Heights of Abraham on NTS Radio when he dropped the broodingly beautiful ten minuter, ‘E.V.A.’, on the Do!! You!!! Breakfast Show. That tune grabbed me. And at the time I don’t think I even realised that it was my old pal from Hull who was involved in the project. This has become a common occurrence whereby I’ll be having a pint with Steve and I’ll mention a song or album I like and he’ll go “oh yeah, I did a remix for them” or “haha that was me!".
Other standouts from the album include ‘The Cleric’ and the most incredible cover of Fred Neil’s ‘Dolphins’ but the whole thing is worth kicking back to with your headphones in. Astonishingly, it’s never been pressed up on vinyl so I’m pecking Cobby’s head to get that sorted. It’s also not on Bandcamp at the moment so you’re going to have to resort to listening on Spotify here and joining me in convincing Steve to get it back out there with a proper reissue.
Bye Sofia (you will be missed)
I’ll save the best (producer) till last. After three years, last Saturday marked the last ever time that Sofia aka Sofie K would hold down the show alongside me as my producer. In a world where people are increasingly flakey, she’s been the most reliable wingwoman I could have wished to do weekly radio with and I am going to miss having her on the other side of the glass. I’ve got the best Saturday job in the world but I don’t expect anyone else to be as up for getting out of bed every Saturday morning to hold down the show. She will be missed!
You can still catch Sofia on the airwaves via her Work Out show on NTS - it slaps. You can also expect to find her wearing the glove at some point and covering for me whenever I sod off on one of my holidays. Oh and there’s already a gig in the works for what will be our fourth (!!!) back to back in the near future, so keep an eye out for that as it usually descends into the best kind of b2b chaos.
OK, that’s quite enough. Thanks for reading. Thanks for subscribing. Out to you.
In a bit.
🫂🧡🖤
that red red looks bomb bomb