Food, Kenya

It’s been my observation over the last two years that you don’t go to a restaurant if you want to eat a tasty chapati. Much like the most delicious burritos in Southern California are found in “hole in the wall” Mexican food joints, the tastiest chapatis are found in vibanda (makeshift restaurants made from aluminum panels) all over Kenya. It’s a well-established fact: if you want a nice, hot, fresh chapati like you’ve never tasted before, it has to be cooked over a wood fire on a pan of questionable cleanliness by a lady on the side of the road.

Kibanda on the side of the road in Nairobi, Kenya
Kibanda on the side of the road in Nairobi, Kenya

I live in Westlands, an uppity suburb of Nairobi where there is a lot of work being done to make new housing and business complexes for upperclass Kenyans and expatriates. These shacks pop up to meet the demand of the day laborers who do work on the construction projects around the neighborhood. There was no food in the house this morning (and today was a public holiday, Kenyatta Day), so I walked over to the junction up the road and had a chapati and a cup of chai. People driving by must think I’m crazy, but everyone there knows me already — I buy milk every day from one dude, four chapati on Saturday mornings from one laday, and sometimes I even go there for lunch (greens, beans, etc, all for twenty shillings or so). The guys even shout Niaje?! (what’s up) when I walk by.

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Food, Kenya

I know I haven’t written about cooking recently, but tonight I re-discovered something delicious and comforting from my past: rice milk. I used to eat it all the time when I was a kid. Take a bowl of white rice, pour some warm milk over it, add a pinch of sugar and cinnamon, and voila! I guess it’s a popular dish worldwide. It’s eaten everywhere from Norway to Malaysia, so there are plenty of variations. I guess the name is a bit misleading and only refers to one variety of this sweet dish. My version isn’t a pudding or purée, just rice sitting in a bowl of warm milk!

I remember eating this on family camping trips when I was a kid. More recently, I remember requesting warm milk for my rice when eating at the dining hall during my first year at Chico State University (2002–2003). It’s great when you have some left over rice and you want a sweet snack in the morning, especially if it’s cold outside (or if you’re just feeling lazy).

On a side note: I had some German friends over recently and they mentioned that it’s a popular dish in Germany. I know the people in Tala think I’m a Jew/Israelite, but maybe I’m German after all?

Food, Kenya, Pictures

Few of you have any clue how I live. Other than the “for just a fifty cents a day, you can sponsor…” commercials which used to air on TV, most people in the United States don’t know anything about what goes on in Africa. There aren’t any of those kids with flies in their eyes, swollen tummies, etc in Tala… I think you have to go to the slums of Nairobi to find those (Kibera, Mathare, Kariobangi). In order to both quench your appetite for information and to educate those of you who are clueless (or have terrible imaginations), here’s a little bit about where I’ve been staying for the past two years…

I live in a town called Tala. It’s not so much a town as a big market where people from surrounding villages come to conduct business. There aren’t many people who actually live in Tala (maybe 5,000?), but there are always people in transit through it, especially on market days. Most of the people in Tala come from one of the surrounding towns or villages (Nguluni, Kangundo, Kathiani, Sengani, Matungulu, Katine, Kinyui, Mitaboni, Kikambuani, etc!). We have two “market” days (Tuesday and Friday) and the place is packed on those days. You can find anything in Tala on a market day: cows, cabbage, honey, brooms, bows/arrows, rope, spare tires, speakers, drugs, prostitutes… anything.
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