Nyama Choma…

Humphrey took us to the Kenyatta Market after the haircut. The Kenyatta market is not a tourist market, it is a shopping center almost exclusively for local Kenyans. The road leading to the market was filled with small booths selling fresh bananas, oranges, tangerines, watermelon, and other indigenous fruits. You could purchase fresh greens, second hand clothes, new sneakers, sandals, dress shoes, cds, dvds, and more. As you pull up to the gravel parking area there are groups of teenage men directing where you park. While you are shopping the young men wash, wax, and dry your car for you.

We slipped into the main market where there are rows and rows of Nyama Choma vendors. We entered Humphrey’s favorite vendors store, which is an open front shack. Before you enter there is a large metal tank filled with water (that looks like a huge smoker) and with a spout at the end. There is a bucket under the spout to catch the water after you wash your hands with the attached bar of soap. There is a small glass area in the front that protects {at least from the front} the freshly butchered, uncooked meat. Giant slabs of beef, a whole hind leg of a cow waiting to be butchered and smoked. You go in and grab a seat at one of the picnic tables and wait as one of the butchers brings over a cutting board, a bowl of an avocado mix and a bag of cooked meat. The cutting board has two piles of salt on either corner. The butcher splits open the bag and deftly slices the meat into bitable portions and leaves you to it. We also ordered Ugali, which is essentially congealed grits. So you can break off a large chuck and the grits stay whole. These shops would never pass any American health and sanitation requirements but the meat was amazing. The booth was inundated with flies and part of the process of eating was constantly shooing them away from your meat. As is traditional you eat with your fingers and the napkins were not brought out until the meal was finished for you wipe your hands after you wash them again. The three of us had two bags of meat, Ugali, and three drinks for about $10.50. This was by far my favorite meal since we’ve been in Kenya.