Deconstructed: Agege Bread from Solomon’s Bakery

Breakfast of West Africa

Veronica Anczarski left Nigeria in 1980. “People ask me about Nigeria; I say, ‘You can find out more about Nigeria from the internet than from me these days,’” she laughs. Using her own taste memories, she recreated the favorite morning bread of her homeland. “Everyone tells me it tastes exactly like Nigerian Agege from Lagos.”

Agege Bread

Pronounced “ah-geh-geh,” it’s a preservative-freebread with a rich and sweettaste that’s not sugary sweet—think brioche, but egg-free. “Bread is breakfast or a snack in Nigeria,” Anczarski says, explaining how Africans dunk chunks in tea or coffee.

Midwest Reach

Anczarski grew her bakery business with the help of her children. Today, they have a staff of 10 and additionally supply Chicagoland, Wisconsin, and Indiana with this most popular bread of Africa and the Caribbean.

Chin Chin

Solomon’s other mega-seller is these little fried-dough treats. Nigerians would buy the gingersnap-like cookies from street hawkers during a time when few people had home ovens.

Taste of Home

Customers drive in from as far as North Dakota, loading up 10 loaves of bread and two dozen bags of chin chin per car. “It’s that taste of home,” Anczarski says. “It’s like, everywhere colonized by the British, and then they left. This is the bread that tastes like the essence of home and goes so well with tea and African and Caribbean stews.”

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