Friendship is like food for the soul.

Prawns. Give them to me; any day, any time. Asparagus. My sister went months calling me asparagus, because every grocery shopping I asked her to pick up asparagus. Needless to say I love asparagus. I know that’s a lot of asparagus in a small paragraph. (oh that rhymes!) Okay, hear me out.

After years of lacking confidence in my cooking skills and abilities due to not having great abilities & strength in my hands which caused a few too many kitchen accidents, since having been diagnosed with a neurological condition in 2016; I can’t remember the last time I cooked a full dinner meal. Confidently and by myself.

It all changed this summer in the uncertain & unpredictable year of 2020.

Great friendship is like an addictive drug that you strongly have the urge to take, constantly. Except it’s so good for you. During a worldwide global pandemic, I have been blessed with a group of great new friends. In this story, I shall be starring 2 of them. One of them we call her Hustler and the other, Chef; girl cooks for the house and for the house she cooks!

Chef has inspired me to be more adventurous with my food and not just stick to my African roots. Therefore, choosing one dish is near enough impossible however, it's going to have to be this Sweet Chilli Garlic Prawn dish with asparagus, of course. This is such a simple dish but the value it holds is so dear to my heart. My friends & I all love prawns. Yes; I know, match made in heaven! So it was only fair that we had it as our starter for mine & hustler’s joint lockdown birthday sleepover weekend, right?! woah, that’s a mouthful.

Apart from my obsession with prawns; This meal reminds me of our first sleepover. This meal reminds me of one of my favourite birthday celebrations. This meal reminds me had I never joined Operation Heaven, a group and community of young people who love God as much as I do, I would have missed out and not have made friends with some of the best people on planet Earth. Call me biased, but words can’t begin to express my gratitude and absolute immense joy.

With birthdays, I make a “big deal” celebration out of them. That means we have to go out & go all out. Celebrating another year added to your life, another year of breath. Not many experience that. But who knew a lockdown birthday would be just as fun, if not better. I’m beginning to understand that proverb, ‘it’s not where you are; but who you’re with’.

Like the ball of gold, I shine bright I feel like I will burst. From ear to ear my cheeks hurt from the smiles whenever I think of them. They are like the missing seasoning in my food, except no longer missing. And now my soul is feasting on this beautiful food of friendship.

If I could grow a 6 Pack from laughter it would have been the easiest thing I do. Our interactions are always a pleasure & a joy. Amidst a global pandemic were everything else seems to fall apart, many unfortunate events taking place in plain sight, it is with unspeakable joy that I am so grateful for this season for it brought me something I yearned for.

That birthday weekend, the weekend that makes this prawn dish so special & unforgettable. I laughed. We laughed should I say. We cried, out of pure joy because the love was so overwhelming, in a good way. Also, bad tears as we reminisced on life, but it was great because we filled each other with encouragements, prayers and hugs. If I could turn back time just to relive that weekend, I would.

Overall, this dish reminds me that not all change is bad. I was so familiar to bad change therefore preferred my routine though it wasn’t all sunshine & rainbows. This change of not being a stranger to the kitchen stove, change of allowing & fearlessly letting people in. I can vibe with it.

I would like to disclose our group name but after a board meeting with the (shall not be named) I was strongly adviced not too; key word - strongly, because the world is not ready for us yet. So, without further ado here goes the Sweet Chilli Garlic Prawns recipe, don’t worry about measurements, Africans don’t measure. We have qualified ourselves to be highly gifted in eyeballing ingredients :-

• King prawns

• Cooking oil

• Fresh ginger

• Fresh garlic

• Salt & Black pepper

• Asparagus

• Sliced Carrots

• Sliced red pepper

• Chilli flakes

• Fish seasoning

• Soy sauce

• Thai sweet chilli