Adventures in Cooking, Part I

Ever wonder what we eat in Kenya? A considerable amount of our time here has been spent learning to prepare new food, and old favorites in a new way. Before I began teaching, it felt like I spend about half of each day in the kitchen … not because there’s nothing better to do, but because if you want to eat, you’ll have to cook! There is no take out, no convenience stores … the closest thing to fast food in Ribe is a duka (small shop) that sells samaki (fried whole fish) in the evenings. It’s a good thing that we have really learned to like cooking over the last couple years, and that we have found a great friend and teacher here (Sophie to the rescue!). We have limited ingredients, but I’m trying to be as creative as possible …



First meal we made in Kenya, which became a staple: beef stew, green gram, and rice


Another staple: cabbage stew (cabbage, carrots, onion, garlic, tomato, Royco seasoning) with ugali (cornmeal … kind of like polenta or the rice part of bao)

An artichoke?

No, a tomoko! What is it in English? Maybe a custard apple?

Guacamole is totally a Kenyan food … they just don’t know it! Homemade guac with locally bought avocado, tomato, onion, garlic, dhania (cilantro), pili pili (hot sauce), a handpicked lime and our attempt at homemade corn tortillas (our Kenyan friends actually liked this dish).

Quiche a la jiko… since eggs and veggies are easily available, I made a quiche over the charcoal jiko stove by placing charcoal beneath and above the covered pot!

Fried rice ... we found a sauce that tastes like soy sauce left from the previous American resident of this house. So now we can have Asian food!

I’m trying to be as creative as possible, but without cookbooks or regular internet access, we are often stuck with the basics. Chris would remind me that eating for pleasure is a luxury of the affluent, but I still think we can come up with some variety using local resources.

So, if you have any suggestions for recipes, please let me know! Our staple foods are white flour, maize meal (corn flour), rice, eggs, milk, oil, tomatoes, onions, garlic, beans, cabbage, tomato paste, bullion seasoning … we occasionally have meat brought from Mombasa or seasonal fruits (mangoes, bananas, coconut) and veggies (eggplant, okra, carrots) from the local duka. We can also keep white bread, peanut butter, jam, margarine, coffee, and tea in the house. We can cook on the stove and “bake” over charcoal, but only in a round pot. Seriously, if can think of any good recipes that only use those ingredients, I’m all ears! (or, uh, eyes!)

Stay tuned for Part II … featuring a local recipe!