Abstract

The study investigated the types and frequency of consumption of indigenous dishes in south western, Nigeria. Purposefully, the study was conducted in tourist circuit region 1 that comprises of six states in the old western Nigeria. The five states selected are specifically ogun, osun, Ekiti, Ondo, and Lagos state. There are three hundred and thirty (330) respondents. The method used was food frequency questionnaire. The results showed that the indigenous dishes were consumed weekly, monthly or yearly, and non ate daily. In Ogun state, more than fifty percent of the respondent consumed ikokore a water yam based recipe. The legume based dishes from cowpea; awuje 76%; jogi  71.6% and ekuru 66.75% were eaten weekly. However apapa 100% and obe oki 100% also from legume group were disappearing since the consumption is only once a year. In the vegetable group, efo ebolo soup with iyan ogede consumption by 80% of the Ogun state respondent on a weekly basis. Prominent in Osun state were vegetable soups such as efo odu 73%, efo ogunmu 73% and efo osun 73% with pounded yam/cocoyam all consumed on a monthly basis. Very few indigenous were consumed weekly in Osun state. In Ondo, obe elegede from pumpkin vegetable with pounded yam were consumed weekly by 66.7% of the Ondo respondent. More than fifty percent also utilized gbure vegetable soup; obe luru soup and ila alasepa on a weekly basis. Respondent in Ekiti has no specific indigenous food on a weekly basis except few cowpea based food like ewa ibeji and ekuru. Among vegetable based soup, is efo odu and ogede agbagba  (leafy vegetables, unripe plantain and yam) consumed by 55% every week. On a monthly basis were obe efirin a herbal soup with pounded yam/cocoyam and ogiri with ila alasepo by indigenes of Ekiti. In Lagos state, indigenous dishes were imowo eleja with imo eba73%; ofada rice with pepper source 51% and vegetable soup iyana ipaja 56% on weekly consumption. In all, legumes based foods were in higher consumption as well as vegetable and herbs with nuts among indigenous dishes of south-west. The indigenous dishes like cocoyam based are disappearing, therefore need to advocate with agriculturist and industrialist to add value to cocoyam for upgrade usage.