For body and soul

Any travel to a different place should include new tastes and new foods. While most of what I've been eating here is somewhat familiar, perhaps the outstanding feature is how fresh everything is.
Mostly what you'll read and see in this blog is grown/raised in w. Kenya, and is in the market soon after its harvested. Its a very lush area, receiving rainfall through the year, but also abundant sunshine, and though we 're on the equator, temperatures are moderated by altitude - Kakamega is at 5,000 ft.
Check out the fruit/veg basket in my kitchen - sweet potato, green pepper, oranges, bananas, avocado(from the garden), tomatoes and onions.





A staple food in Kenya is ugali - a stiff cornmeal
porridge (or stodge, as some unimpressed visitors label it)
Its eaten with the right hand, and usually with sukuma wiki (greens, usually chard) and chicken or beef stew. Here's my version with ugali (L) cabbage subbing for greens with tomato and onion(R), and chicken( top centre).

Joel found it quite amusing that I had never slaughtered a chicken, and so he was my teacher.
We went together to market, and he chose one for me, and the bird came home trussed up in Joels keeping on the rear of the Yamaha.

The head was quickly removed, and then the body immersed in boiling water to allow the feathers to come off easily. (see feathers by pail)
Once shorn, Joel removed the organs and intestines (much to the dog Akwenye's delight for obvious reasons) - see banana leaves as the cutting surface at left.
Chopped up into pieces, Joel went home with some, and the rest went into my oven.



Alive at 5, on the plate at 7 - I've never had fresher meat, although it was tougher than home, but thats how life is in Kenya.


And to finish off this episode, here are the liquids that begin and end the day -
Kenyan brewed tea comes piping hot, very milky, and extremely sweet. Morning tea is a feature here at CHES with the staff gathering for a lovely cuppa and a chat. I think my Irish upbringing allows me to enjoy the tea, but I'm not sure what the folks at Silk Road would say about it.
Tusker is the best known Kenyan lager and goes down a treat at sunset.















So, while the food may not be for connisseurs, its fresh and fairly abundant, and though the population pressure on the land in w. Kenya is huge, it is one of the few areas of sub Saharan Africa that is food secure for the most part.
However, I am eating more and better than most.
From a lucky man in Kenya - kwaheri.