EATING OUT: Hearty food, big hearts in small town

We were driving from Nairobi to Namanga, and just before we arrived at our destination, we came across a dusty, sparsely populated small town.

There, we decided to have breakfast at the first spot we saw; a clean mabati structure painted blue on the outside with a sign reading Moyale Hotel.

The so-called hotel turned out to actually be a restaurant, and there was a hive of activity when we got in; with a few town residents already digging into tea and mandazi for breakfast.

The menu was painted on a small board on the wall — chai, mandazi, rice, meat stew, cabbage and ugali.

When I peeked into the kitchen, because such is the level of freedom we were allowed at this spot, I saw a blackened sufuria of githeri heating up on a jiko; and one of the women chopping up a bundle of sukuma wiki, items that were not listed on the menu.

Turns out they had actually forgotten to list these on the menu, and they had just realised it! Regular customers just walk in and ask what's on the menu.

A friendly conversation with the women in the kitchen revealed that they were actually Tanzanians, who had crossed the border into Kenya after getting married to Kenyans, and Moyale Hotel was thus a family business.

The mzee of the house came over and after exchanging pleasantries and telling us about the village, he took us to a nearby kiosk to buy mogoka over the counter, an item my friends — first time visitors to Kenya — had grown curious about after seeing him chew.

That, however, is a story for another day.

Back to the restaurant, our food had already been heated up and was quickly dished out and brought to the table.

Piping hot githeri with a side of cabbage served with thin large mandazis made earlier that morning; a very hearty combination.

The maize in the githeri was really soft, which had been one of my concerns. It was simply fried with onions, and the rich flavour came from each ingredient. It reminded me of home.

The mandazis were not all perfectly shaped or uniformly thick; some were so crispy it was like biting into a papadum, but I actually liked that about them! They proved to be a great companion for the githeri.

For the cabbage, it was rather bland and saltless but when dipped into the stew, it added a much welcomed crunchiness.

There were goats with bells tied around their necks strolling outside the restaurant, and we joked about the live music band that was performing to diners.

As we were leaving, the village drunk came outside the restaurant, clothes relaying tales of a night likely spent out in some dusty ditch, and in his forced American accent on spotting our group,he tried to get us to buy his ragged T-Shirt in a rather flamboyant and comical manner.

As we drove off from this charming little town, I knew I would always remember the hearty food and the friendly people.