Culinary Adventures

I can’t believe that there are less than three weeks left until I return home! I feel like there is so much for me to do here still as there are many things still left on my “Kenya Bucket List”. Regardless, I have had the opportunity to check some things off in the last week.

View from the hostel. Not too shabby.

On Thursday I returned back to Nairobi from Mombasa. I was so happy to visit Mombasa despite it being like living in a sauna.  The culture, people and food there are amazing, I think it is my favorite place in Kenya so far. The reason to visit was research for my independent study project (the last month of the program we are left to do field research), but the goal was fun. The first couple days were dedicated to research and interviews. On Monday we interviewed the two teachers involved in the study, which will be great evidence for the final paper that I need to write.  Tuesday was a visit to a private school that had an amazing dual language program. We ended up staying for the better part of the day (9am-2: 30 pm), interviewed several teachers, ate lunch, and learned about the program. We actually made some friends and the teachers told us we should do a teaching fellowship there after graduation. Somehow, I don’t think I would mind that gig and am definitely keeping it for consideration. We also interviewed the Municipal Education Officer and the Provincial District Education Officer.

Another view from the hostel

To make sure it wasn’t all work and no adventure, I made a list of things we needed to do in Mombasa (this was aided by two SIT alum who we met in the hostel the first day). Most of them were food related. The first thing we crossed off the list was a Faluda. This is a milkshake with chopped up spaghetti, Jell-o and malt in it. It sounds really weird, and that‘s probably because it was really weird. The taste wasn’t really the problem; it was more of a texture thing. I can say though I’m glad I tried it but I don’t think it will be replacing a normal milkshake anytime soon.

The next morning we got up early to go find coconut beans from a mama (you have to get there early so you can get the top of the pot…. That is where most of the coconut milk is the thickest and the tastiest.)  A mama is a lady who cooks big pots of home made food on the side of the road, which is usually dirt-cheap, and coconut beans is one of my favorite dishes so this adventure was a must. We had no idea where to find this mama, except for some vague directions. We were eventually able to find it, unfortunately not in time for the top helping of beans, but they were good nonetheless. We sat down on the benches with all of the other people eating coconut beans and ate them using the Mandazi (puffy, bread-like pastry) and our hands because that’s how they do it on the coast-no silverware allowed.  (I think I’m going to bring the ban on silverware back with me to the states and start eating with my hands- sorry mom and dad.) The entire meal cost somewhere around 65 ksh…. which is less than a dollar, talk about quality.

Camel View

That night we also hit up the Shawarma place. Basically this is amazing roasted meat in spicy sauce and wrapped in a pita- so good. Tailor made pants got knocked off the list. They are pretty sweet- green with giraffes on them. I'm coming home in style. 

The last official thing to be crossed off the list was getting avocado smoothies. This sounded really weird to me too, but stay with me. It was a glass half full of avocado and milk blended together and then filled the rest of the way with fruit. They were amazing! With that, we had crossed everything off the list, but there was still one more thing to be done in Mombasa…. ride a camel.

We took a matatu a half hour away to the beach, which would have been incredible by itself. The water was so blue and the view was incredible, which was made even more magnificent on top of a camel. Riding a camel is like riding a horse…. except way cooler and more ridiculous, sort of like my life here in Kenya. After this excursion it was back to Nairobi.

Me and my friend the camel 

Although everything on my Mombasa list had been checked off there are still a lot of things to do on my Kenya bucket list. One of them was eat at Carnivore-the restaurant is named appropriately as it mostly just serves meat. A group of friends and I decided it was time. We walked into the restaurant and it was like entering another world. We had officially exited Nairobi and entered tourist-ville. We sat down and the waitress explained the menu to us: we would not be choosing anything tonight, but it was a set menu. This was kind of great because if I was going to Carnivore, I was going to do it right.  The first course was strawberry soup with bread and butter (something I have not seen in Africa since I got here…. it’s all “fat spread” which like it sounds, is pretty sub- par.). They then brought out salad and a whole bunch of sauces that are supposed to go with the meat. There was mint for lamb, maasala for beef, wild berry for ostrich, fruit salsa, garlic for chicken, and probably some other ones that I can’t remember.  Then came the meat. They brought it around on skewers Brazilian bbq style. There was honey-glazed ribs, lamb, beef, sausage, turkey, ostrich, crocodile, ox balls, ostrich meatballs, lamb meatballs, chicken-literally everything and it was all so good. The best part was trying all the sauces with the meat and getting so full I swear I should have been rolled out of there. When we finally put our flag down to signal we did not want any more meat (what we called surrendering) the waiter came and took our dessert orders. I literally thought I could not handle any more food…. good thing I held out for dessert. I got cheesecake with passion fruit and strawberry sauce on it. It was probably the best cheesecake I had in my life. Too bad I could only eat a few bites before I surrendered to that too. Needless to say we all went home fat and happy.

Enjoying the waves

The next day I took a trip to Ngong town in Maasailand with my friend Alex. We went to visit some people he had stayed with there. They showed us around, got us chai and then we went to another village 20 mins away to just pick out a few kangas, beads ect. I got more than I bargained for because when I got there a boy, about my age, asked Alex how much he would sell me for…this sounds bad but it is actually more of a marriage proposal. My friend said I was not for sale, but I actually kind of wanted to know how many cows I was worth, you know, just for future reference. It was actually pretty funny. After narrowly escaping becoming sold and married, we went back to Ngong town where we ate some delicious Nyama Choma- this literally translates into roasted meat. It is traditionally prepared meat in Kenya and was so good, maybe even a rival to Carnivore.

Take me back here! 

I can’t believe I have less than three weeks left here; it has gone by so fast! Good thing there is still time for adventures! p.s. sorry I don't have pictures of all the crazy food, I'm already touristy enough, taking pictures of food definitely wouldn't help that image.