Inside my first Swoop order from Satori Grills

If you had asked me a week ago whether I would willingly order fried yam and egg sauce, I would have laughed.

Not because I hate yams. Although we are far from friends. And definitely not because I have anything against eggs. I just don’t particularly enjoy eggs made by other people. It is one of those food quirks I have never been able to explain.

What I can explain is that I had a terrible run with food this week.

One disappointing meal after another had left me exhausted. At some point, ordering food started feeling like a trust exercise. You hand over your money, wait patiently, and hope whatever arrives does not make you question your life choices.

To make matters worse, I had spent most of the week in Yaba. Between moving around for work and trying to keep up with deadlines, I barely had the energy to cook or even think about what to eat.

So one evening, while doing what most of us do when we should probably be sleeping, endlessly scrolling on our phones, I stumbled on a food delivery app I had never heard of before. It was called Swoop. Since it mainly serves Yaba, Surulere, Gbagada, Ebute Metta and a few parts of Lagos Island, I figured that was probably why it had escaped my attention for so long.

I was not really in the mood to explore anything new. I was just looking for dinner.

Still, I opened it anyway, and a few minutes later I found myself scrolling through the list of restaurants until I landed on Satori Grills.

Normally, this is where I would spend twenty minutes convincing myself to try something exciting before eventually ordering the same thing I always do. But after the week I had, adventure was off the table.

I needed something safe.

So I ordered the fried yam and egg sauce.

Even as I clicked the order button, I was not entirely convinced.

But food has a funny way of humbling people.

The order came through without incident. The food arrived warm.

The yam was properly fried, no sogginess, no rubbery texture, nothing that made me regret the decision. The egg sauce was the kind that makes you briefly reconsider your long-held opinions about eggs cooked by strangers. I reconsidered mine. The whole plate was simple and honest, and it did exactly what good food is supposed to do , it made a difficult week feel slightly more manageable.

For the first time all week, I actually enjoyed what I was eating.

The biggest surprise was not that the food was good. The biggest surprise was that I was enjoying a dish I would normally ignore on a menu.

Will I be ordering from Swoop again? I have not decided. But I have not deleted the app either.