Several of my friends asked me about Kenyan food. Well, it is not much but here it is! I was too lazy to actually take pictures of all the food I’ve consumed (and avoided) so I took the easy route and googled it instead.
Chakula cha Asubuhi (Breakfast)
I used to eat white bread with Blue Band for breakfast (along with my malaria pill) and chase the food down with Chai Tea. When my host-mom has time, she makes mandazis for breakfast. The mandazis are deep fried, so I’m not too keen on eating them for breakfast, but I do prefer them over bread and butter. I dislike white bread though, so lately I’ve forgone breakfast at home and opted for two bananas outside of school (for twenty cents) instead. I prefer the bananas. I might change it up tomorrow and get an avocado.
Chakula cha Mchana (Lunch)
My classmates and I eat lunch at the canteen in front of our school. The cheap prices of the food are so hard to resist despite the lack of variety. It’s not difficult to spend less than a dollar on a plate of food that fills you up and is pretty healthy.
I usually have chapati and beans for lunch for 60 cents. So good!
Chakula cha Jioni (Dinner)
We used to have a house help named Mincy (she left us this past weekend for a higher paying job) who cooked dinner for our family but now that Mincy left, my family struggles with making dinner on time since my parents get home around 8pm. It’s a funny sight with my 17 year old host-brother, my 12 year old host-sister, and I scrambling around the kitchen trying to start a fire and cooking something edible. My host-mom usually ends up coming home to save the day. Yesterday my host-mom made pilau and I loved it! My host-mom added Indian spices so it tasted like curry :) More often than not we eat ugali for dinner along with kale and with beans or beef stew. I can’t explain what ugali is…so here’s Wikipedia’s take on it:
“Ugali is…of maize flour (cornmeal) cooked with water to a porridge or dough-like consistency…the traditional method of eating ugali (and most common in the rural areas) is to roll a lump into a ball with the right hand, and then dip it into a sauce or stew of vegetables and/or meat…”
Once again, I am surprised to see that being Hmong has its advantages in Kenya! I grew up eating with my hands, and even today my awesome grandma eats with her hands. I don’t see it as unsanitary at all, but I can see why people would. My host-family was surprised to see how comfortable I was eating without utensils. They asked me multiple times if eating with my hands would not be too weird for me. Granted it took me a week to eat ugali correctly…
SIDE NOTE
If you do not know already, Kenyans are not too keen on time (at least, that’s what I was told and experienced). The so-called “Kenyan time” is also something I’m used to- there’s a running joke in the Hmong community about “Hmong time”…most Hmong people are late for everything…
Kenyans are late for everything except for tea time. Tea time is taken very seriously by all Kenyans!!! Sometimes I get the feeling that my host-mom is offended when I don’t take tea, but I also think I misinterpret her facial expressions as it could be shock of disregarding tea time. I have tea mid-day at 10:30am and in between lunch and dinner around 5pm (dinner is served very late in Kenya- typically around 8-9pm sometimes 10pm!!).
Image credits go to: Cheap Kenyan Vacation Trips, Migrationology, Travelpod, and Kenyan Cooking.
