EATING OUT: A piece of heaven for pork lovers

I have a strange relationship with pork. I didn't taste it until I was in university, and that was because after driving around Eldoret looking for a restaurant, the only open spot had pork and ugali. My reasons for waiting so long to try pork were religious, and no … I was not raised Muslim.

This past weekend I was visiting a friend in Runda and she told me about this "oh so glorious pork haven" in Ruaka. By her account, people from various surrounding suburbs, her included, drive there every week just to get their pork fix. This is what would, in Kenyan lingo, be referred to as a "ka-local" given the decor, ambience and way of operation. For pork lovers, the menu sounds delightful as it features only dishes made from this meat variety. There is everything, from pork mutura, wet fry, dry fry, Chinese style and choma to pork burgers, wraps, meatballs, sausages, mshikaki, among others.

And so the millennial me pulled up their page on Instagram, where I found their phone number because it had been decided that both my friend and I were far too lazy to drive out to Ruaka to eat.

A friend who recently lost a significant amount of weight mentioned that her new life mantra is simple, "you can eat whatever you want … just cook it yourself". Sounds like just the delightful phrase I would want pinned on my fridge door, but dial-a-food-delivery innovations didn't make their way to Kenya for me to just eat in all the time!

Delivery was surprisingly very fast, taking barely half an hour. Some of the sauce from the wet fry pork had leaked through the paper plate and accompanying bag, but I don't see how that could have been helped. As someone championing the restaurant industry to ditch the plastics for long-term sustainable alternatives, I would rather put up with the leaked stew than stand a plastic, which would damage the environment.

You can always tell that the food is good when people eat in silence, particularly if they were altogether not that hungry to begin with. Our conversation went out the window and all you could hear was the smacking of lips and gnashing of bones against teeth. The meat was really tender and fatty, and the sauce was very rich. There was a side of fresh cabbage and chapatis with a bit of grated carrot, which had been delivered cold. I always like it when chefs add vegetables like mashed potatoes, coriander or carrots to chapati rather than go by the traditional recipe, especially in what would be considered a "local joint" where there is never much innovation in the menu.

The other factor that makes Pork Pit appealing has got to be the affordable meals. 1/4kg wet fry pork went for Sh180 while 1/2kg cost Sh300. We'd each got 1/2kg thinking there was no way the portion would be true to weight, but about halfway into the meal, I was ready to surrender.