Fasten your doggy bags! Let's go!! OK remember that today you are to start this safari hungry. And don't forget to double click on the highlighted words for the recipes. I know that by the end of this safari you will be champing at the bit for them! (Ok so maybe that is said slightly tongue in cheek, but maybe this is your day to be adventurous!)
Since we haven't yet had breakfast, let's go to the closest duka (Swahili for shop. I have always called any small street-side 'takeaway' in Kenya a duka, but real Kenyans might call me out if I don't call it a 'duka la chakula' or 'food store')
Here's one: .
Let's go in . I want you to experience a typical breakfast: a mandazi and a mug of chai.
A mandazi is a sweet deep fried pastry, similar to doughnut but not glazed. You buy it hot and crunchy on the outside, and pull-apart soft on the inside. Yummy!
Here is the man frying them up. Now you have been on Safari in Kenya before, so of course you are haven't got any hygene qualms, have you? It's deepfried for goodness sake!! =)
And see this big pot on the hot coals? You are right, it's chai! The lady is skimming tea leaves out of it. When drinking chai, please leave any preconceptions about the way you normally drink tea at the door. Chai comes only one way: hot sweet and milky, all boiled up together.
Here it comes. Asante sana!
Ahh yes we are drinking it the only real way; in a tin (or battered enamel) cup. Cheers All!
.........Ok now we have filled a couple of hours with some sight seeing. Time for a light snack so we can manage to fit in tonight's feast.
Just come over here to where these women are on the side of the road.
Which do you prefer:
These hot and salted cassava chips (freshly sliced and deepfried) ....
.....or the roasted maize?
Both are made while you wait so they are fresh enough to burn our fingers, but not a hole in our pockets!
MMmmmm Mmmmm! ............
.....Oh my goodness, look at the time! We are going to be late for dinner! Come on!
No we can't stop for some more chai, Robyn.
I tell ya, there is always one in every group! =)
Hey here we are! Check out this feast!
Chapatis (which I am sure you all know about: fried flat bread).
It's a shame that they have been cut up into quarters. I wanted you to be able to tear bits of yourself to scoop up the stew. Oh well.
Here is the ugali, a maize meal porridge that is stirred over a stove till it becomes a firm cake. An acquired taste, it is a staple here in Kenya, and we put stew over it.
In the buffet line to your left is first some rice, then sukuma wiki which is also known as 'leftovers stew'. It is always yum. The yellow dish is the mixed vegie mash: scrumbly-umptious irio.
Many Kenyans can't afford it, but for us they have pulled out all the stops: Nyama choma (meat)!! Lamb in fact. Deeelicious!
Oh man am I full! Can't eat another bite, so I'll put my leftovers into my doggy bag. Hopefully it will make it safely into reality so I can have it for breakfast. (fingers crossed)
Ciao for now!
