Why Finding Food From Home Matters When You Live Abroad
A Nigerian woman’s guide to food, ingredients and belonging in Barcelona
Not long ago, I went to Menjars del Món in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, the African grocery shop I regularly visit when I need Nigerian ingredients.
Parking nearby was difficult that day, so my husband kept driving around with our son, Jaume, while I shopped.
His job was to keep our son, Jaume, calm and entertained. Mine was to find what I needed before the two of them ran out of patience.
When I finished, I called him to come back. He arrived and told me he had a surprise.
While driving around, he had found a Nigerian takeaway. He had already called, arranged an order, and worked out where we needed to collect it. We picked up swallow with vegetable soup and jollof rice, and I was so excited that I started eating in the car.
It was not a restaurant occasion. There was no reservation, carefully dressed table or plan to turn the day into a story. It was simply the happiness of finding familiar food when I was not expecting it, offered to me by someone who understood what that small surprise would mean.
That moment stayed with me because it reminded me that when you live abroad, food from home is rarely just food.
The things we miss do not always arrive dramatically
People often describe homesickness as one large sadness. My experience has been quieter and less predictable. It can arrive through a smell, a song, a familiar expression or a sudden craving for a meal I once ate without giving it much thought.
Before moving abroad, jollof rice, soup and swallow were part of ordinary life. Distance changed that. A familiar meal can now carry the people who cooked it, the conversations around it and the version of me who did not yet have to explain where she came from.
Research reflects what many migrant families already understand. A 2025 review of 76 studies found that food practices repeatedly intersect with identity, family life, adaptation and belonging.
Familiar food can provide continuity when so much else has changed. But the heart of this is not academic. Cooking and sharing food from home is one of the ordinary ways we rebuild a sense of home somewhere new.
Why 'African food' is not specific enough
Barcelona has African restaurants and food businesses, and I am glad it does. But Africa is a continent, not a single cuisine. Saying that someone can find 'African food' does not fully answer the question a Nigerian person is asking when she wants egusi soup, ogbono soup, Ofada rice, banga soup, properly seasoned jollof rice, or the ingredients needed for a particular family meal.
Even within Nigeria, regions, ethnic groups and households carry different tastes and methods. A familiar dish can still reveal where the cook comes from or how their family makes it.
This is not about declaring one version superior. It is about naming food carefully, so people recognise what is being offered and newcomers meet Nigerian cuisine through proper dish names and real cultural context.
Finding Nigerian food and groceries in Barcelona
The challenge is not that Nigerian food is absent from Barcelona. It is that many options are small, dispersed, or built around delivery, pickup, catering, and direct messages rather than highly visible restaurant storefronts. Search results do not always make those differences clear.
That is why Menjars del Món matters in my own routine. I go there for African groceries, especially Nigerian ingredients I may not find in an ordinary supermarket. Sometimes what you need is not a finished plate but the correct leaf, flour, spice, seed, fish or oil to make the food yourself.
Finding the right ingredient can be the difference between a meal that tastes familiar and one that only resembles the idea of it.
Prepared food answers a different need. You may miss a dish but not have the time, energy, or ingredients to cook it.
You may be visiting Barcelona, planning an event, or trying Nigerian food for the first time. Small Nigerian-owned kitchens help bridge that gap, even when they do not operate as walk-in restaurants.
Bellah's Kitchen: one Nigerian online kitchen to explore
One place readers may want to explore is Bellah's Kitchen, an online Nigerian kitchen in Barcelona. I am including it as a verified business option, separate from the takeaway in my opening story, so readers have clear information and can decide whether it suits what they are looking for.
Bellah's official website confirms pickup and delivery. Bellah also explained that the business offers catering and pop-up dining experiences in Barcelona. Current orders and updates are handled through Instagram and TikTok, both @bellahskitchen.
Bellah told me the kitchen grew out of a lifelong dream of owning a restaurant, one she had carried since childhood. Moving to Barcelona gave her the opportunity to finally turn that dream into something real, and along the way she noticed a gap in how Nigerian cuisine was represented in the city's wider African food scene:
"“Bellah’s Kitchen was born from the absence of authentic Nigerian cuisine in Barcelona. Even though there are many African restaurants here, it was honestly sad to see how little of the Giant of Africa was represented on the food scene. I felt there was a gap that needed to be filled, and it became important to me to share the richness of our food and culture with people here.”
That intention fits the larger story of food and belonging. A Nigerian resident may be looking for a taste connected to home. A visitor may want to know what is realistically available. Someone unfamiliar with Nigerian cuisine may simply want a trustworthy starting point.
Bellah says some of the kitchen's most-loved dishes include jollof rice, Ofada rice and sauce, egusi soup and ogbono soup. The online menu also lists other rice dishes, soups, swallow combinations, yam dishes, plantain, pepper soups and proteins.
"What makes our meals special is the authenticity and the love we put into making even the smallest plate. It's about giving our clients that nostalgic feeling, that little taste of home, wherever they are."
How to explore Bellah's Kitchen
Service format: an online kitchen offering pickup and delivery, with catering and pop-up dining also available according to Bellah.
Before ordering, confirm the current menu, price, notice required, pickup or delivery arrangement, allergens, and preferred spice level directly with the kitchen, as these details may change.
Food can be both memory and introduction
For Nigerians abroad, familiar food can offer continuity. For partners and children growing up between cultures, it can become a practical way to understand the history carried inside a family.
I've written before about what it means to carry a specific Nigerian identity abroad rather than a general one, in Urhobo, But Make It Global.
For readers who are not Nigerian, this can also be an invitation. You do not need to know every dish before you begin. Ask questions respectfully.
Learn the proper name of what you are ordering. Confirm what comes with it and how spicy it is. Allow the people preparing the food to explain it in their own words instead of reducing everything to one continental label.
That is how food becomes more than nostalgia. It becomes exchange.
Help this guide grow carefully
I want this article to grow into a useful guide to Nigerian grocery shops, kitchens, caterers, pop-ups and restaurants in Barcelona. Future additions will be checked, and businesses elsewhere in Spain will be identified clearly.
If you know a Nigerian food business that should be considered, leave its name in the comments or contact me through momentwithedith. A recommendation is the beginning of the research, not automatic inclusion.
And if you live abroad, tell me this: what is the food that takes you home before you have even finished the first bite? For me, on that particular day, it was swallow, vegetable soup and jollof rice eaten with complete excitement in the car. Nothing elaborate. Just a small Barcelona moment that made Nigeria feel close.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I order Nigerian food in Barcelona?
Bellah's Kitchen is one online option included in this guide. It offers pickup and delivery, and Bellah also confirms catering and pop-up dining experiences. Check the current menu and contact @bellahskitchen on Instagram or TikTok before ordering.
Is Bellah's Kitchen a physical restaurant?
No. Bellah's official website describes it as an online kitchen rather than a physical walk-in restaurant. Arrange pickup or delivery directly before travelling anywhere.
Where can I buy Nigerian groceries near Barcelona?
I regularly shop at Menjars del Món in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat for African groceries, especially Nigerian ingredients. Check the shop's current location, opening hours, and stock before travelling, because practical details can change.
Disclosure: Bellah's Kitchen provided information about its services for this editorial collaboration. All other views and experiences are my own.
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