Notes: Melda Okwara cooks up feast for Detroit Lions in ‘Hard Knocks’ clip

Another sneak preview clip from HBO’s “Hard Knocks” series teased a segment of this coming Tuesday’s finale filled with love. Judging by the menu board in one of the shots, Melda Okwara brought her magical home cooking to the team’s facility last Monday for dinner. If you remember a video posted by the Lions’ media team from last October, then you’ll recall that the food traditions in the Okwara household are magnificent.

Watch practice squad member Obinna Eze explain proper technique for eating Nigerian food in this delightful promotional clip. What does he mean when he says the trademark of Nigerian food is fufu? He’s actually describing the molded stuff used to scoop up the food instead of using utensils. He’s absolutely right that “it has to be bare hands.” Made from pulverized cassava or yams, fufu is what’s in those plastic-wrapped balls of dough you see the diners in the video with on top of the service containers and trays.

Now you too, our Pride of Detroit reader, know enough to avoid being called a beginner by Ifeatu Melifonwu and Godwin Igwebuike when eating West African food. Lots of fine Nigerian cuisine on display here: egusi soup, goat stew, plantains, and of course jollof rice. Look for this, Eminem, and more in the season finale of Hard Knocks after enjoying your long Labor Day weekend.

Now, on to the rest of the weekend Notes:

• Rocket Mortgage’s Detroit Lions Season Launch Week starts today (Sunday, September 4). You can find announcements for sponsored events all this week by going to the Launch Week event web page on the team’s official site.

• Grizzly Man Outdoors went walleye fishing with Hook One Charter’s Captain Pete. It’s a fun watch showing Frank Ragnow’s competitive fire in a completely different setting.

• Lions wide receiver Josh Reynolds made an appearance at Comerica Park to throw out the first pitch of the Tigers-Royals game on Saturday:

• On top of the seven takeaways that our fearless leader got from the Brad Holmes press conference last week, there is also this: MLive’s Ben Raven wrote about how Holmes and the team is “loving early results from OC Ben Johnson’s connection with Jared Goff.”

• Our own Erik Schlitt deduced the Lions had two scouts in attendance to see Ohio State play Notre Dame:

• Ford Field is one of the cheapest NFL stadiums for beer in 2022, according to the web site American Craft Beer.

• Saturday was former Lions Pro Bowl safety Bennie Blades’ birthday: