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AFRICAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S

DEADLIEST WILD

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EXTRAORDINARY

TRAVEL & FOOD

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The Outlust magazine takes you through a vivid comprehension of experiences from various travel enthusiasts around the world. On this issue of Outlust, a compiled set of travel experiences and extreme food packages are shared with love.

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JAN - FEB - MAR

Editor’s

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PRIME BOUNDARIES UNNING YEAR I TELL YOU! It is Feb already. How am I looking at December through my glasses. It is usually crazy at valentines dinner, and probably after 14th time flies and Christmas carols spring once again. Well, don’t get caught up in the haze. Let us remember this year as the year we discovered the kitchen. The year we made an abrasive pulse with our taste life. How many of you feel like this statement has been on loop these last few weeks? Sigh! Yes, people! For many, this signifies the last chance. The last chance to do those things you promised yourself you’d do in 2019 start with a valentines wedding proposal but now you’re beating yourself up over it. However, on the other end of the spectrum, many embrace March and the whole quarter with open arms as it simply beckons the first act of the farming season with rain and plantations being prepared all over the farm yards countrywide. Well, having not achieved a single one of my socalled resolutions last yeah, I’m on board with the pre planning already!

I’ll be the first to admit that my initial idea of becoming some kind of superwoman has quickly been replaced with an appreciation for the fact that I am trying my best and sometimes my best involves me coming to work with baby food in my hair! I have no desire to beat myself up over the years happenings nor do I have a desire to waste my year. A healthy balance of reflection and guilt-free indulgence is what I’m after. And yes, it is very likely that I will overindulge at some point but heck when an extra serving of roast potatoes or glug of gravy has ever killed anyone! I literally can’t wait to unapologetically ease my way past valentines and all the trimmings involved with a molded appetite for natural food! It’s this very acceptance that’s been making me love this time of year. So many of us start our years off uptight, trying to desperately convince people that we’re on the fast track to change. We are better off starving ourselves in the pursuit of the ultimate beach bod. That is somehow the person we were the year before was no good, and now a reincarnation of sorts is the only way to live through the tasty year. We are here for a new breed of foodies and bluebirds.

AMISI K. KEVIN Editor in Chief amisicaves

PUBLISHER: The Outlust Magazine is published by Alfajiri Studio 2nd floor, Backers square, Opp Naivas Mall, Nyali P.O. Box 204 80100 Mombasa EDITOR IN CHIEF: Amisi Kevin STAFF WRITER: Lucy Munene.ONLINE: www.alfajiri.co.ke/publishing CONTRIBUTORS: Mwande Muthoni, Ernest Milla, Mwangi Wambui FEATURED WRITERS: Ilma Hajbaliah Abdi, Joe Mwaria, Mwangi Wambui, Diana Chep.,The Sandae Best PHOTOGRAPHY: Amos Mwai, Ken Mwambi, Pain Gobama DISTRIBUTION: Leroy Buliro SALES, MARKETING & OPERATIONS: Joe Mwari, Alvin Kimani INQUIRIES: +254(7) 0860 9057 / 254(7) 5116 8576 EMAIL: advertising@alfajiri.co.ke PRINTING: Alfajiri Studio

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Excessive consumption of alcohol is harmful to your health. JAN - FEB - MAR

Not to sale to persons under the age of 18.

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THE MOST INCLUSIVE LUXURY EXPERIENCE Enjoy every day exactly as you wish while exploring the world’s most beautiful places. Luxury travel isn't about a specific budget but rather the value we put in you. Allow us to take care of every detail as you travel with our luxuriously appointed, intimately interactive and experience guaranteed destinations.You really can have it all when you travel with Madini Luxury Holidays®. Visit madiniholidays.com for more or request a free brochure from info@madiniholidays.com.

JAN - FEB - MAR

WAKAKAFISH.CO.KE Wakaka fish Co has established its foundation throughout the county of Mombasa as a fish and seafood shop that delivers. Beside business activities Wakaka fish Co has an organized and well equipped Research & Development (R&D) department created to ascertain the quality of our service and products. The important aspect of our business model is defining our product, awareness of our consumers, creating customer satisfaction, encouraging and developing customer loyalty through our loyalty program, customer comment and feedback, implementing effective promotion and marketing activities, consistent training implementation and professional practices and procedure.

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C O N T E N T S

E X P L O R E

E D U C A T E

E N L I G H T

COFFEE IS A DESIGNER’S ALART ALARM Natale Wanjera, a self-taught young ill

THIS RESOLVED RESTAURANT/ RESORT AT THE COAST GIVES DOUBLE STANDARDS.

designer, tells about her ambitious dedication to good design through coffee addiction. She explains how coffee makes

Leah Kiuna tries to explain why she found love at first sight with how much daring

her better and how it keeps her digging

Taking risks to survive on blood and meat alone is one dysenteric healthy behavior that doesnt land Maasais into mild problems. Chao explores more.

into more detail in creativity.

MILK, MEAT, KINDNESS AND BLOOD

THE ILLUSTRATIONS THAT SAVE THE PACKAGING WORLD

WHY FINE FINE HEALTHY EATING IS GOING VEGAN. THE MOST COOMPLETE GUIDE..

Follow closely as the art leads. Food Illustrations in art décor and the

J. Mberu takes on the chance to encourage you to be natural. She hates it when people walking in Nairobi blame bad eating habits. She gives you her mind.

papper package design are taking.

WHY TRAVEL DINING IS THE BEST WAY TO EXPLORE CULTURES AND FOOD. Mwende writes about her exclusive time while traveling and interestingly discovers a lot about cities and food.

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THIS RESOLVED RESTAURANT IN MOMBASA HAS DOUBLE STANDARDS. Esther tries to explain why she found love at first sight with how much daring she can go with her new joint.

E M P O W E R

A B O U T

E M B A R K

1 20 ONLY IF WE UNDERSTAND, CAN WE CARE. ONLY IF WE CARE, WILL WE HELP, AND WHEN WE HELP, WE CHANGE THE WORLD. WHY BOTHER TRAVELLING TO THE VILLAGE WHEN YOU HAVE ALL THE OTHER HEAVENS AROUND ?

DIXCOVER THE TRUTH BEHIND SOLO TRAVELLING Solo Traveling is the norm. Judith Wanuna tells you the benefits of solo traveling and why it should be on your preference this year.

FINE HEALTHY EATING AND ITS SOURCES.

Madam Bella L. takes on the chance to encourage you to keep fit. She hates it when people walking in Nairobi blame bad eating habits to poor street food. She is here with good news.

Amisi Kevin tells of his journey to the village and why this is the best therapeutic place that humans in the city need to visit quite often. He tells of the amazing detailing of the cultures and life changing habits in the village.

HAVING NO FRIENDS SEEMS WEIRD; IT CAN BE GOOD OR BAD. UNDERSTAND THE BENEFITS OF NOT HAVING ANY. Enjoy a carefree experience with yourself by understanding the good you are missing by involving other people in your circles. Jennifer tells it all.

The use of our website and digital magazine are subject to the following: All rights reserved. No part of the Outlust Magazine may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or; transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from the administration at Alfajiri Studio. While every effort has been made to check the information contained in this issue of the Outlust Magazine, the publishers cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions. The views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the publishing group. Unless otherwise stated, the copyright of the individual contribution is that of the contributors themselves. Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders of images. We apologize in advance for any unintentional omissions and would be pleased to insert the appropriate acknowledgment in any subsequent publication. Â© 2019 Outlust Magazine

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F E A T U R E S

ON THE COVER

SPECIAL STORY

INSIDE STORY

THE BOWL. Lisa Chebet, our new foodie writer with ideas turns up everything as we know it by taking up the cover special story in style. Find out about how you can go beyond serving with the bowl for the better.

49 AFRICAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DEADLIENST Africa is home to some of the deadliest creatures of all, and in this issue, Wakerio takes us through the main story with an indepth expression of the African deadliest animals. Africa is a land sculpted by time where animals have evolved complex weapons to arm them in the battle to live another day. An elephant's tusks can defend, or attack. A pass adder snake uses camouflage to find food, or hide from an enemy. A Cape Fur Hawk's speed and agility are valuable tools to catch a rodents, and ineffectual against a Great White Shark. A single hippopotamus holds a pride of twelve lions at bay with his sheer bulk, but backs down when faced with the piercing teeth of another hippo. With lethal weapons wielded by fearsome predators and prey, animals walk a precarious path, here among Africa's Deadliest.

Many people want to add more recipes to their repertoire, and the cooking instructor is here to help them do it. The kitchen mentor works with bistros, restaurants, hotels, community organizations, private settings and technical schools to taste N - opening F E B - MaAmasterclass R menus. He isJ Asoon online with udemy.

DO YOU EVER ? Muthoni likes traveling places for rich food and drinks. She believes that the best way to experience a culture is through its food and she doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t visit for taste or for trying out best cuisines but for the ultimate search of interactivity, food is just the head starter. She narrates.

CONTRIBUTORS

NADINE JUSTINE

ERNEST MILLA

MWANGI WAMBUI

She is a maycologist. She studied different types

Ernest is the Corporate lead in Research & De-

You can built a career around something you

of fungi, including mushrooms. She may work

velopment at Jey Fine Wines & Spirits. Miller, who

love, like food, seems inconceivable. But this

for agencies, pharmaceuticals companies or in

has been called “Miller” is a winery finery master,

simply isn’t true. She is a foodie and she employs

academia. She is also a natural curls advocate,

historian, educator, consultant and speaker—a

relevance in doing what she loves. For more

model, fashion designer and an occasional trav-

familiar presence in bars and bistros throughout

guidance on how to pursue a culinary-related

eler. She loves testing food from different places

Nairobi, Nakuru and down south to the Mara

career inside and outside of the kitchen, email

and also vlogging about herself on Justine TV.

reserve territories puts his name on the wall..

her on mwangiwambui@migrationology.com

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JINXED WITH HEALTHY EAT THERE IS A LOT OF MISINFORMATION ABOUT HEALTHY EATING THESE DAYS. By Joe Mwaria

t is widely agreed that consuming a diet of fried chicken, chips, cake and biscuits is not balanced or likely to be very beneficial for health! Our usual response is to try to cut down on the bad things like sugar, fat and salt to improve our wellbeing. But to me, healthy eating is not just about avoiding the foods that we know are bad for us but about actively seeking out the good things and trying to eat as varied a diet as possible. This chapter is all about making good choices and finding new ways to add healthy ingredients to your meals. One of the best ways to increase the amount and variety of nutrients and fibre in your diet is to consume more fruit and vegetables. The UK government recommends aiming to eat at least five portions every day, but recent findings suggest this number should be even higher. Happily, I love most fruit and veg, but I still need inspiration when it comes to trying new ones or finding ways to increase my daily intake. The salads, side dishes, soups and even the snacks in this section will make hitting your five-a-day really easy. Another way to eat your way towards better health is to ensure that you include lots of so-called superfoods in your diet. This term is controversial, because there is no official definition of a superfood, but it is generally considered to be an ingredient that punches above its weight in nutritional terms. The list includes nutrient-rich giants such as broccoli, avocado, kale, spinach, blueberries, quinoa, eggs, walnuts and oily fish. While none of these foods have any actual magic powers, a diet that features a variety of superfoods will be very nutritious and a really positive step in the right direction. As well as eating more beneficial foods, a great way to instantly improve your health is to cook more yourself. Many people rely on the quick fix of ready meals without realizing that they are often very high in fat, salt and sugar, not to mention artificial colours, flavourings, emulsifiers and stabilizers, etc. In restaurant kitchens, almost everything is made from scratch, so the food, however fancy, is actually very simple. If you cook from scratch at home, you will always know exactly what goes into your meals (and into your mouth) and you can keep the all-important fat, salt and sugar levels down. The great bonus of improving the quality of the food you eat is that over time you will crave the bad stuff less and less. Your tastes will start to change and you find healthy meals and snacks more satisfying than the greasy, sugary quick fixes you used to eat without thinking. It’s a virtuous circle – the better the food you eat, the better you feel,

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and the better you feel, the better food choices you make, the ultimate winner being your long-term health. You just have to get started. When you begin to learn more about nutrition, you discover that it isn’t always straightforward. Take carbohydrates, for example; all carbs provide the body with energy, but it turns out that there are good and bad sources. So-called ‘good’ carbs are also known as complex carbohydrates because they are relatively difficult for the body to digest, due to their chemical structure and their fibre content. They tend to be whole or unrefined and because they take longer to break down, the energy they provide is released slowly and steadily for the body to access over time. Good sources of complex carbs include wholemeal bread, brown pasta, jumbo oats, brown rice, peas, beans and starchy vegetables. These carbs also provide a wide range of vitamins and minerals and will make you feel fuller for longer, thanks to the dietary fibre. ‘Bad’ carbs, on the other hand, are known as simple carbs and are either naturally very easy to digest (e.g. sugar) or have been processed or cooked in a way that removes all the good stuff that usually slows down digestion. These refined carbs are found in white bread, with white flour.

DRESSED FOR THE STEAL Feather-embellished accents take rings for runway enthusiasts. Dries Van Noten Rings, Ksh. 1,065/single; Shop - JoJo Store

on demand

Photography: Maya Gamendo

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HOW COFFEE AFFEC TS DESIGNERS CRE ATIVIT Y. By Natale Wanjera

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By putting your own laptop at the centre of this conversation, you agree that we are starting the new year by reviewing our goals from 2018 and setting new obtainable goals for this year. Desperate times! With all of this goal setting, it got me to thinking about my own personal goals and new year’s resolutions. Year after year I retrieve the same oldies; go to the gym, get buff, eat better, earn more, travel the whole country starting from Nakuru huh… and cut down on the booze and the coffee. So here I am , 14 days in to the second month of the new year, exhausted, starving, (I’m convinced I’m running a low blood sugar level), and I have a killer headache from Nairobi traf-

fic and obliterating faces on the streets. If I’m honest, the thing that I am finding most difficult is the coffee abstention, first thing in the morning. And worst of all, I’m devoid of creative inspiration. Not a single solitary light bulb moment in my damn head all week. So I get to thinking that maybe all of these ‘bad’ things that I spend the rest of the year enjoying are in fact what get my creative juices flowing. My resolutions have to be re-edited again. A few hours of googling later and I realise that there is an abundance of information on the effects of coffee or caffeine on creativity levels, cognitive functioning and energy levels. But not all of it is clear cut.

Firstly, let’s look at the neurobiological effects of coffee (caffeine) in the brain. I have found a neat little video that illustrates this very effectively: Caffeine in the brain blocks adenosine receptors. Adenosine is a chemical in the brain which builds up throughout the day, gradually slowing the nerve activity and causing us to feel sleepy and ready to relax. By blocking the adenosine receptors, caffeine prevents these sleepy, relaxed feelings from occurring (or at least, delays them). Furthermore, caffeine causes an increase in Dopamine levels in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that, in simple terms, heightens brain activity. It’s thought that the link between caffeine and dopamine levels is what causes us to become addicted to caffeine. But more on that later. So the creative/designer in me went on the hunt for a creative way to illustrate or conceptualise these dry scientific facts about the effects of caffeine and found 2 clever analogies. In ‘Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine Hardcover- October 3, 1996, the author, Braun, likens the effects of caffeine on the adenosine receptors to ‘putting a block of wood under one of the brain’s primary brake pedals’. Braun is also quoted as saying the effects of caffeine on the brain are like ‘taking the chaperones out of a high school dance’. So we have seen how caffeine interacts with chemicals in our brains but what effect does my morning coffee (or 3) have on my actual cognitive functioning and more specifically, my precious creativity!! Well , this information indicates that caffeine can enable our brains to work more quickly and in a more focused manner. It is also reported to be responsible for decreasing cognitive fatigue and improving short term memory. But being able to think more quickly and that intense focus that results from that morning coffee isn’t in itself all we need to produce our best creative work. It may help us to file our tax returns more quickly, but not necessarily produce some cutting edge design for your latest web design project. There are some well documented accounts of creative figures who were fans of coffee and in fact those who attributed their successes to coffee. Johann Bach was one such figure as was Voltaire. And of course one of the more famous and excessive creative consumers of coffee and advocate of the positive effects of coffee on the creative mind was Honoree de Balzac who was known to crush up coffee beans and eat the powder, consuming the equivalent of 50 cups per day. Although perhaps this little habit had an adverse effect on his overall health, with him passing away, aged just 51. And so my search for information led me to come across an article by Maria Konnikova in the New Yorker dated June 2013. In it she states that; ‘Creative insights and imaginative solutions often occur when we stop working on a particular problem and let our mind move on to something unrelated’. In other words, those day dreamy moments in the shower or a mind wandering moment or two over a solitary coffee for that matter are the times when our brains are best positioned to think creatively and generate those magic ideas. As a designer, I can relate to this. And yet, this doesn’t fully answer the question for me. So coffee is good for quick thinking and yet bad for creative thinking? But there is so much more to that daily coffee than the hard cold scientific

Photography: © Joy Kendi

effects. For me, that morning coffee is all about the ritual. I arrive at the office with enough time to get my laptop switched on and firing up, my coat on the hook and then pop down stairs to my favorite café. That morning coffee buys me an extra 15 minutes before I really need to face the realities of the working day. The barista knows my order before I even open my mouth. I love the aroma of that space. I can feel the dopamine levels rising before I have even taken that first sip. And I sit there alone, in the aromatic joy, these days drenched in sunshine, and let that thick black nectar enter my veins. …….. (ok, I’m getting a little carried away)…And in that moment, I am sure that the seeds are set for some of my most inspired , designer ideas that are yet to come. So what is it about the actual coffee that makes it feel so wonderful? We all know that feeling of absolutely needing that morning coffee. That headache that starts creeping in at around 9:30am if that morning coffee has been missed. The lengths that we will go to in order to ensure that we get that morning caffeine fix. Caffeine is a drug after all. The reason it becomes addictive is because of the science outlined earlier. The body starts needing more of the chemicals produced by caffeine to give you that same pick me up. I personally, experience a slump in the early afternoon. I always thought this was the result of a big lunch and a busy morning, but I realise now that the adrenaline induced by my morning coffees is wearing off leaving me feeling drained. I also find I’m less ‘chirpy’ in the afternoon. It’s likely that this is due to the dopamine levels mentioned earlier, decreasing. So, of course, I regularly make that 2pm trip to the coffee machine. So at worst, my morning coffee might perhaps make my mind work a little bit too quickly to immediately come up with some clear ideas. Right? And even then, the scientific facts outlined above indicate that really, the only effects that coffee can have on the brain

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are pretty positive. Right? And so what if I’m a little addicted to caffeine. It’s not THAT bad, right? Well, not necessarily. How about those times, when you have had one too many coffees in a row and you notice that your heart starts beating faster, your muscles appear to get a little twitchy and tighter, your breathing gets faster, your hands get a bit colder and you get this ‘excited yet nervousy/ anxious’ feeling in your stomach? Well, it turns out that this too is linked to the effect of caffeine on the brain. When caffeine causes the brain to increase neural activity, the pituitary gland interprets this as some sort of an emergency for the body and so it causes the adrenal gland to release adrenaline. Adrenaline cause the body to go in to ‘fight or flight’ mode, as if the body was under attack or in danger….Possibly not the state you want to be in first thing in the morning at work. And then, there is the difficulty getting to sleep at night. Like many designers I know, I’m a bit of a night owl and find that my creativity

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is at its peak at around midnight for some reason. But of course, this energised feeling is helped along by a little after dinner coffee. And yes, I always have difficulty shutting off at night. I always had my suspicions that coffee was the culprit and so made sure that my last coffee was no later than 9 pm. But now I realise that coffee has a 6 hour half-life. This means that if I have my last coffee at 9, then 6 hours later at 3am when I am tossing and turning and unable to switch off, there is still half of the caffeine still left in my system. So there you go, so I’m definitely going to give up the coffee this year! Despite all that I’ve read and written above, I’m am a designer so I stay up late!! Personally, I am addicted to the black stuff (coffee, not Guinness). In 2019, I’m going to drink coffee to my heart’s content and I’m going to produce some fine design work. So now I’ve got to give up something else in its place. Any suggestions? Huh. I’ll be waiting.

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Village Market Homeland broth Pakistani Pavarotti spaghetti Ditch the common shirt or tie that you always gift your dad on Fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. Day and instead make lovely memories indulging in delicious French machine at the Village Market Homeland broth.. This February 14th from 12pm, spend quality time with good old dad at Homeland broth.class by their talented Italian Master Chef Andrea. Charges are Ksh. 2500 for a couple, and Ksh. 1500 for an additional close family member. eatout.co.ke/VillageMarketBroth

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COASTAL AWAK ENING By Monica Kalunda L.

EMOANING the lack of decent French fries at the coast

of Kenya led Marula Fatma Marhamil (also known as Amtaf) to do the only reasonable thing: get a van and do it herself. Amtaf was originally all about hand cut cassava chip fries and homemade sauces. But the obvious combination of a burger with the fries shone through, eclipsing the original idea and becoming the main event on the menu. And what burgers they are too. Meat sourced from the Mwembeni butcher at Marikiti Market, with flavours and combinations to blow your carpet of hair off the skull. Amongst other things beer soaked onions, fresh pineapple and, intriguingly, beetroot flavoured onion rings. There is a real attention to detail in the cooking and service too: Amtaf soaks everything from scratch, right in front of you, with no precooked elements whatsoever, and also lets you know how long it will be when you order. You can roll out a stop watch if you wish. She is always time concerned. With a little Swahili lingo and blended spices but still on local track, she jells everything to an ambitious taste never seen before. A typical fast food joint this certainly is not. Here it is quality over anything else and a clear passion for producing the finest product possible. Lucky Chip is also the first venture for the Living Futures Network, a startup that looks to permaculture to make

JOEL LAMARU FROM THE MOMBASA AJ’S JOINT GIVES BURGERS AND FRIES A WHOLE NEW MEANING. businesses more sustainable. With food and market stalls as their main focus, the principles of care, people and fair share inform the way businesses are set up and run in Mombasa. Taking a permanent pitch in the Mama Ngina Fields, just a 2 minutes’ walk from the back sides of Kizongo, she has just started trading 5 days a week (closed Monday & Friday for prayers), with extended opening hours until 10pm on Saturday and Sunday, for that late night burger fix. Even though people wonder where we get our fresh burgers in Mombasa, it isn’t hard to meet the correct type on a vegetarian diet. Where there’s smoke, there isn’t always fire. Not in the bad sense anyway – on occasion, there can be flaming and sizzling delights, such as crispy goat meat. One of the most renowned places for fries is here at Opacity. Our departs from the usual lineup, with unexpected dishes alike. There are other fries spots in the city, but people go all the way to down Nkurumah road to our spot for the unmatched experience because they believe that the meat there is tastier. The best thing about their meat is that the livestock is freshly butchered and feeds on natural pastures. The best meat of a goat, but you can try beef and chicken as well. It’s often eaten with Brew.

CHRONICLES OF MONICA L.

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The use of the term travel photography is, to say the least, misleading, for it is the artist that creates a work of art not the scenery aback. It is the artist in photography that gives form to content by a distillation of ideas, thought, experience, insight and understanding in a way that speaks experience and exclusivity more than the usual storyline in photography.

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PHOTOGRAPHY IS A MEDIUM TO CAPTURE REALITY. IF YOU MISS THE POINT, YOU CAPTURE A MESS.

THE ART OF TR AVEL PHOTOGR APHY CHAP II

Photography: Nazra Aliah Janma

OTHING SEEMS TO MATTER WHEN YOU’RE IN A PLACE OF PHOTO COMMUNICATION. When I

grab that camera and head for the shoot, it’s extreme for me. It’s an escape from time and thought— it’s beyond spiritual and the final outcome has to be either best or perfect. You feel totally free when you know exactly what you need, the temperature, lighting, ISO and lenses. I started my photographic journey many years ago in a darkroom at the University of Nairobi where I had first learned the art of taking and developing images for a few influencer wanabes. I went on to receive a BA in Psychology from at USIU later on, uuh, yeah, JAB as a candidate hunting body for high school students does more harm than good quite often , and continued my education with a MA in Media Studies from The New School. The combination of Psychology and Media Studies helped me to learn the art of working with people and the art of storytelling. I tell peoples stories, and take great care to make sure I get them right! How I Shoot I shoot in a photojournalist style - I want you to be you, not an idea of whom you are

(unless that's what you want LOL) I believe it is paramount to spend time with my client to discuss and create together! At the end of the day your happiness is the most important thing all day and that is the main point with which you will be happy and confident with sharing your photographs. My equipment is a Canon Mark III 5D. I am currently a studio photographer specializing in Commercial and Event photography. I am extremely detailed oriented and professional. I understand the importance of commercial photography for any e-commerce business. A little about my personally I love my family. We enjoy travel, reading, movies and podcasts. We also enjoy our pets, newly adopted kittens and we all like it here in Nakuru - I get into town and I just love how much the society looks so mindful and highly moderate. It keeps me sharp and I love culture I love music - all kinds, my current favorite spot is the Rift Valley escarpment where I get most of my photographs from. I love photography - for me photography is like Christmas on Sunday. I don't care if I can see a snail or a footprint or a broken bottle, I am taking it then ill decide whether it is worth keeping or not. Yes, it's not real till I get home and get it on my cinema screen to view! I have a bad habit of coming home after a long shoot and just getting right back to work! I can't wait to see the project I have just done - with hopes that I have created something that my client will cherish for years to come. Sadly though, for me, photography doesn’t end with the camera. There is Lightroom, Photoshop, Corel and a lot of presets involved in retouching to finally get that impactful result. By the way, videography is my dream as well. Didn't make any beautiful project till but I try sometimes to make short videos. At this moment I don't have gadget and gears. But I hope I can contribute more beautiful videos when I'll have a powerful camera. I don't stop shooting and posting videos in my YouTube Channel. There is a percentage of photographers who hate photography. They do not appreciate travel photography. They do not consume travel photography. They don’t look at photo books or

21 photo magazines. They hate the traveller with the iPhone taking Instagram shots. They hate the guy who just bought the D4 because they don’t have one. They hate people using digital because film is what real artists use. They hate photographers who embrace social media because images should stand on their own. I mean, Leonardo Da Vinci didn’t post Mona Lisa on Instagram or did he! How much more uplifting could a ten year anniversary photo of Mashujaa day be? I love photography. There’s a teenager in Vihiga County named Natumi Hayashi. She had some average Canon DSLR, but she came up with this concept to take self-portraits that look like she’s levitating. She takes a few hundred images jumping up and down and trying to strike the right pose. She has a Facebook Fan Page and lots of people take homage shots, but they’re just jumping in the air. They don’t levitate. They don’t jump 100 times for the perfect image. They don’t do it over the course of a few years to make it their own. She’s just a girl with a camera, and then all of a sudden she got a gallery show and a 5D, and I was really psyched for her. Her photos inspired me to levitate, and what could be a greater gift? My friend Caroline doesn’t own a camera. She keeps using the crappy camera on her Techno phone and still makes worthy shots. She pays attention to the surroundings and comes up with gorgeous photography. This will not stop for her because she is an enthusiastic traveller. But it doesn’t matter. It’s not always about the quality of the image, or the composition, or the lighting. Sometimes it’s just about the people in the image and the feeling that it elicits. She went to Machakos this summer and had brunch with her mom. Someone took a photo with that crappy little cellphone, and now they can remember that brunch forever. By Nazra Janma Janma is a traveller and photographer from Nakuru (Born and bred). She has a studio station opposite Gilanis Supermarket called Janma Studio opened recently. She travels taking beautiful photographs in the country. Interact with Janma on email and learn more on photography.

nazrajanma01@gmail.com - +254784518843

UNDYING MOVERS

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OLD TOWN - MOMBASA

FREE AREA - NAKURU TOWN

KIPKAREN - ELDORET TOWN

His name is Mohammed Jamal. He’s only 34 but he’s the true definition of a dedicated street fruit entrepreneur. Mohammed runs a fruit and vegetable eatery in Mombasa’s Old Town called ‘The Relic Parlor’. His business has only been running for two years and the money has began to roll in. What got him here? What inspired Mohammed to settle on a fruit and salad business? “I’ve always been obsessed with good nutrition.” says Mohammed. “ I noticed that most guys in Mombasa who work in offices eat fast foods a lot. These are people who stay on their work desks for most of the day without moving or doing any kind of exercise. This creates a really bad health insurance. I figured, making well-packaged fruit and vegetable meals available to them will really help in boosting overall health.” So last year, while still 20 years old, he embarked on setting up this startup idea and approached several organizations with delivery proposals. After plenty of fruitless attempts (no pun intended), she finally got funding. Several months into operations, Mohammed is on a great path to repaying his loan and making profits of her own. To boost sales as well as to create convenience for customers, he home deliveries as well. Mohammed chose Old Town because of the high number of foodies there who will not only buy but also be able to spread the message of ‘healthy living through healthy eating’.

“It is a good thing my mother raised us in a business environment. She used to sell fruits in Nairobi’s Industrial Area, along Enterprise Road to be exact, and she would wait for customers over lunch time just outside Mama Ronnie’s hotel.” Says Mama Monica. Mama Monica has since invested in the saying that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, and going by her sales, there were many believers in these words. She remembers the day before when Monica brought a school form back home for her to fill, and under the occupation slot, she wrote ‘businesswoman’. She is my role model for having raised three boys with her crate of banana fruits, and I’ve picked up important business lessons from her. Perseverance, good planning, thoughtful management and agressiveness. Most Saturdays, the businesses is what it is for Mama Monica and her bananas. Her daughter Monica would assist her and just learn the tricks of the trade. And during weekdays, immediately she got home from work, Monica was the accountant. She could separate the buying price from the selling price and note down the profit margins. She keeps detailed balance sheets, and I think that’s one of the reasons she is invincible compared to her colleagues. She understands road Hawking like nobody else. When on the route to or from Nakuru at free area, ask for her. Tell her that you were referred by the kitchen mentor from yummy. You will be amazed with the amount of discounts.

“I didn’t go to any business class, but I carried my mother’s syllabus with me, and she remains one of my biggest mentor,” says Mira Mesa. Before she applied any of the lessons she learnt from her, she would make sure she had the necessary structures in place, and just before getting everything done, she’d involve her for advice. She started by selling toitteries and used what she had, which was talent. She then went to the biggest market in eldoret to settle and grow, Kipkaren. She invested the profits and bought space, fruits and vegetables from a friend whose business was dying. She revived it and expanded into selling fruits and veggies that were rare. The nyumbani type of veggies. I am telling you this, if you need that good dessert with a balancing kachumbari. Visit Mira on sixth stall at Keiplimet sides of kipkaren. She then saw the need to venture into wholesale and a few months later, after attending ‘YouTube University’, she got to the point where she could confidently use the the knowledge to expand. Now she has a helper and she continues to thrive by managing three stalls including one that has started selling cerials. Her clients are consistent, whose delivery details happen by the time table. I need not say much. Travelling to eldoret will expose you to more than you could ever imagine. However, one pillar that motivates her and remains constant is her mother. She told her that she will never rest until she build a market empire, so she could have shareholders and exports.

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23 CIPRESSI TASTE With Love Indiana Began Dessert. Surrounded by cypress trees, Cipressi is located at Rhino House, next to the Mirage in Westlands. Their casual ambiance and extensive menu will take you on a culinary trip to Tuscany. 2-star Executive Chef Silvio Morelli, has crafted delightful dishes such as Mezze Maniche alla Luciano Pavarotti, which Cipressi is located off Waiyaki way at ABC place. It is not unusual to find expats here and there are enough local and exotic brands to meet the different preferences and tastes. The atmosphere is generally mellow and the music is great. The club is well decorated with modern furnishings and there is ample parking and security as well. The Pub at the Junction Mall on N-road is a great spot as well with delicious steaks, plenty of cocktails and beers. It is convenient since you have access other amenities and shops. Price: Ksh. 600 eatout.co.ke/cipressi

OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

WEIGHT LOSS BALANCE THOUGH I HAVE LOST WEIGHT IN MY TIME, I HAVE NEVER REALLY BEEN ON A FORMAL DIET. By Martin Zenze

aybe it’s because I’m a foodie, but I hate the idea of having to eat less or cutting out food groups or going hungry. Instead, I eat more carefully. I choose dishes and ways of cooking that are naturally low in fat and calories but big on flavour and satisfaction. I give favourite dishes a lean makeover and make sure I stock up on low-fat snacks. The trick for me is to not feel deprived and to enjoy the food I eat as much as I usually do. That, and to make sure I am getting plenty of exercise to burn up the food that I am consuming. Essentially, the weight loss equation is really very simple. To lose weight, the energy generated by what you eat needs to be less than the amount of energy you

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are burning up through activity. If you are consuming more food than you are using, your body will lay down the excess as body fat. If you consume less than you need to, your body will use up this stored energy and you will lose weight. Unfortunately, most adults consume more calories than they need and while some people can get away with it, many of us are carrying around extra weight as a result. The simple solution is to eat less and start doing more exercise, but as that can sound a bit daunting, lots of people fail or don’t even try. Personally, I like to think of it not as eating less but as eating better and getting more active, so that you can still eat many of the foods that you love. Increasing activity levels will help you to lose weight faster, not simply because this burns up stored body fat but also because it increases your metabolism and, by replacing fat with muscle, you burn more calories while resting. But you don’t have to start running ultra-marathons; unless you want to, of course! Getting active can start with getting off the bus earlier than you need to, dancing around the kitchen, doing some gardening or signing up for a charity run. The fitter you get, the easier exercise becomes and the more weight you will lose. I’m not saying it’s easy. It involves willpower and determination and it won’t happen overnight. The trick is to have manageable goals. When I needed to tackle my own weight gain, I didn’t immediately sign up for an Ironman triathlon; I started running 5km at the gym, then

10km, and it went from there. When Tana was getting back into shape after our four children were born, she always had a pair of jeans that she wanted to get back into. The thought of being able to fit into those trousers kept her going when it was tough. This section is full of lean but satisfying dishes that we rely on at home to keep us on track. For me, the important thing is that they don’t feel like diet food and I never feel like I’m depriving myself. There are sustaining salads, wraps and soups, flavours from Japan, Vietnam and North Africa, and even treats that are virtually guilt-free. It isn’t easy but this is a great place to start. Personally, I have never counted calories. As a chef tasting lots of small mouthfuls all day, it would be impossible to add them all up! And I’m not necessarily suggesting that you count calories either, but it is a very useful way of judging food in terms of the all-important weight loss equation – i.e. the amount of energy consumed should be less than the amount used. Calories provide us with a clear numerical way of looking at food that can help to make this equation really straightforward. Calories are basically a unit used to measure the amount of energy in food, and human beings need a certain number of calories per day to function. As a guide, an average man needs around 2,500 calories a day and an average woman needs around 2,000. As discussed, if you regularly consume more calories than this (and are only moderately active), over time you are likely to put on weight.

LEAN LIGHT LUNCHES SHOULD KEEP YOU ON TRACK. LEAN SUPPERS WITH PEPPER TREATS ALL THE WAY.

A DAZZLING NIGHT OF CELEBRATION AT THE MOËT PARTY. Moët & Chandon has been driven by a bold vision and is testament to the Maison’s legendary pioneering spirit with the creation of a global champagne moment truly deserving of a place in the history books at Alliance Frances. Glasses were clinked and sparkles flowed. A global day-to-night event that saw 80 countries worldwide joining in celebration, from 12:00:00 in New Zealand to the end of the night in Mexico and beyond. Glamour and prestige refilled the air as kenyan most loved celebrities made their way down the red carpet. It was a euphoric evening that saw the likes of Nameless, Sauti sol, Nyasinsky, OG Redsan and Akothe celebrating in true Moët style. An impressive gold aerial dancer wowed the crowd as a champagne fountain served guests from Moët magnums and a hot set by DJ Asmatic and DJ Joe Mfalme kept guests grooving all night long.

Guests sipped on the full range of Moët & Chandon over the course of the evening, including Moët & Chandon Impérial, Moët Nectar Impérial and Moët Nectar Impérial Rosé. In true generous Moët & Chandon style, champagne was poured delicately from magnums into golden Moët goblets. Mwangi Mwarare won the award for ‘most glamorous’ in a stunning electric blue jumpsuit with a matching Gert-Johan naum Coetzee fur coat, while Shaffie Weru won ‘most stylish’ in a zeba patterned tailored suit. Guests shared their Moët Party Day experience with fellow champagne fans around the globe all thanks to cutting-edge video mapping including scenography featuring cities around the world and live streaming of the moments via a Moët & Chandon social wall. www.moet.com/moetpartyday.

UPCOMING EVENT

The Nairobi white festival Cocktail extravaganza of the season will kick off on 11th and 18th of the Month of May in Nakuru. Buy tickets at ticketsasa.com 6,700pp, 6,500-7,500pp (adults), 3,250 (6-12y), 6,900pp

Nothing beats a 5-course menu on as you usher in the uncompromised white sessional party anniversary! Finalize May with a cocktail of everything at Tatu Restaurant while a live pianist serenades you through the young year in style. This is a festival to remember.

OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

FALAFEL VEGGIE NECTORS WITH TAHINI DRESSING A SUPER FILLING, PLANT-BASED RAINBOW VEGGIE BOWL LOADED WITH POMEGRANATE ARILS, CREAMY AVOCADOS, SAUTÉED ASPARAGUS, PEPITA SEEDS, HOMEMADE FALAFELS, AND THE CREAMIEST YOGURT TAHINI DRESSING. SO SIMPLE AND PERFECT FOR PACKED LUNCHES ALL WEEK LONG!

akin’ a fresh start on Monday with meatless falafel and rainbow veggie bowls! Okay, i’m sorry. Did I sound a little too happy about Monday? Because that’s totally not how I feel about them. But I DO feel completely the opposite way about this falafel veggie salad that’s decked out with blood oranges, pomegranate arils and a handful of pepita seeds — it’s feel

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SOUCED HOME MADE

good, look good, ??? food. ?? Which is completely the opposite of how I ACTUALLY ate this weekend *bows head in shame*. You know the kind of bad (read: good) eating where your body actually feels every bite and kinda makes you feel super lazy, heavy, slightly cross-eyed afterwards, and heartburn shows you who reigns supreme. When a bowl of salad is actually a welcomed sight. Luckily for me, Monday’s are meant for fresh starts. Get it? HA. Falafel Veggie Bowls with Tahini Dressing - Superfood loaded salads with creamy tahini and homemade falafels! #tahinidressing #veggiebowls #falafel | Littlespicejar.com Falafel Veggie Bowls with Tahini Dressing Superfood loaded salads with creamy tahini and homemade falafels! #tahinidressing #veggiebowls #falafel | Littlespicejar.com. A few weeks ago, I made the most amazing homemade falafels. Loaded with herbs, garlic, and of course chickpeas. And though I would love to eat them stuffed between a naanwich any day of the week, there are days when you know you’ve been/will be super bad and for those days, I wanted to share these veggie bowls loaded with super foods. Let me just say that these rainbow colored veggie bowls are perfect for packed lunch all week long. You can swap out the veggies/fruits or keep them the same, it’s completely up to you. I’ve enjoyed a quite a few rainbow bowls over the last few weeks and I cannot get over how delicious these really are. Let’s talk about the ways these are good for you, shall we? Falafels – protein packed little nuggets ?? loaded with chickpeas, herbs, onions, and garlic so that they are anything but bland. I’m really trying to curb the amount of animal protein we consume this year, so these are perfect because, I get a plant based meal loaded with fiber and the hubby gets his protein. This marriage thing is all about balance and compromise. Rainbow Veggies – Okay, so the veggies/fruit are what really make these veggie bowls. Well, I used avocados, baby spinach, and asparagus. But if i’ve added something you just don’t like, swap it out for your favorites. I bring home Costco sized bags of asparagus because the hubby and I are both fans, but if you’re not, swap it with snow

peas or pretty much anything else that you like! The pomegranate arils and the oranges can also be swapped for summer berries – blueberries and strawberries ?would be delicious. Tahini Dressing – creamy and delicious dressing that tastes like hummus. I’ve used a hint of cumin and lots of lemon juice ? and trust me, the falafels are amazing when you drizzle/ dip them in the tahini sauce. This is a simple veggie super food salad loaded with good for you ingredients, and nothing else. Sure, we added some delicious falafels that make this a next level salad situation, but don’t let the falafels intimidate you. It’s as simple as tossing ingredients in a food processor and blending. Make your meatless monday a little more amazing with these super power-packed veggie bowls.

*Please note: the nutritional facts calculated are an estimate based on the ingredients i’ve used. If you’d like a more accurate count, please calculate them using the ingredients/brands you’ve used to prepare the recipe. The nutritional info is for the dressing only, you will need to add the calories from the falafels separately, from here. The serving size for the tahini dressing is 2 tablespoons, serves 4-5.*

WOMEN WHO TRAVEL

The

REAL TRAVEL VIBE IS HOUSED HERE IN MOMBASA. WHEN I TALK ABOUT WONDERMENTS, MOMBASA IS ALWAYS IN THE TOP FIVE. FROM VISITING PLACES LIKE THE AMAZING CHALA ISLAND, THE HISTORICAL OLD TOWN CENTURY STREETS, HALLA PARK, OR SIMPLY ENJOYING A CITY TOUR IN THE BUSTLING CITY CENTRE, THERE ARE MASSIVE CLUSTERS OF ATTRACTIONS THAT WILL MAKE ANY TOUR MORE DELIGHTFUL AND ENJOYABLE. WHENEVER I VISIT THIS WONDERFUL COUNTY, THERE ARE SOME LOCATIONS THAT I ABSOLUTELY NEVER MISS REVISITING. TWEET TO HER

COVESTORY

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PALM CODED FOOD loyalchebet254

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29 I like the poke bowl or burrito bowl as much as the next person, a way to eat a kind of warm salad with fewer carbs. For one thing, with one hand needed for the bowl and the other for the spoon, how would I be able to hold my omnipresent party drink? For another and perhaps even more vital (and embarrassing): I would absolutely be the first person to dump pea and mint risotto right down the front of my dress. UMPING ACROSS CHANNELS AND I SUDDENLY MEET THIS LONG AWAITED SHOW THAT SUDDENLY PULLS ME ACROSS THE

THE BOWL By Lisa Chebet

THE UNTAMED KITCHEN ACCLAIMED CHEBET TAKES US THROUGH THE MAIN STORY WITH AN EXPERIENTIAL EXPRESSION OF THE BOWL. SHE TELLS US WHY WE NEED TO RECLAIM PURE DINING BY WINNING IT BACK.

EDGE OF MY SOFA. I remember the show vividly. As the world breathlessly awaited the nuptials of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, now the Duchess Of Sussex, some of the details—like the menu—generated a bit of head-scratching. The BBC reported that “the 600 guests joining Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for their wedding reception will be enjoying a selection of savoury and sweet canapés, champagne (of course) and ‘bowl food.’” Excuse me, followup question: What the hell is “bowl food”? As the BBC describes, “Bowl food is larger than a canapé and around a quarter of the size of a main course. It is served in miniature or hand-sized bowls and comes ready to eat with a small fork.” Bowl food was apparently selected for the royal wedding so that the reception could be a standing rather than seated affair. “The idea behind a bowl food menu is so guests can stay standing up and mingle while they eat. It has been described by caterers as an option which allows guests to ‘keep on talking.’” Or, for some people, to “keep on spilling”; The Telegraph dubbed the trend “good news for dry cleaners.” The bowl food selected was “fricassee of free range chicken with morel mushrooms and young leeks; pea and mint risotto with pea shoots, truffle oil and parmesan crisps; 10-hour slow roasted Windsor pork belly with apple compote and crackling,” and I bet the new duchess didn’t dare risk eating any of it in that white dress.

HERE’S WHY YOU SHOULDN’T TAKE THE BOWL FOR GRANTED. The bowl is nothing new to Kenyans —

some might call it pedestrian service. You might be wondering how I even wrote a whole post on the bowl. But when talking with Daniel Mbadi , who created the exclusive homemade porcelain salad bowl at our place of work last week, he mentioned: “Each bowl has its own feeling and personality.” It made us realize just how many meals we eat from the vessel—it might be the majority: It hugs our food and keeps it safe as we take our meal to the table, desk or sofa. Beyond the expected hiding of soups and cereals from other neighbouring guests, the bowl can be a home for grains, smoothies , vegetables , and not sad desk lunches that involves chicken wings and flat pizzas. It’s versatile—unassumingly so. We are almost forgetting about plates here. Here are five more reasons why the bowl deserves some slack: 1. There’s a shape for every purpose. Right now, we love eating out of shallow plates that just barely cradle our food, but of course the shapes and sizes of bowls are endless. When Daniel was creating the homemade porcelain salad bowl for our meals, he went through many prototypes trying to find just the right size: “The perfect bowl size, for me, serves two to four people—it’s not too small or too big. I finally found the ideal size for the everyday salad bowl. And while each bowl has its own feeling and personality because it’s hand cast, it’s always the perfect size for everyday salads.”

THESE SMOOTHIES ARE AN OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

EXCELLENT TEAM PLAYER WITH VEIN FASTENING ABILITIES.

Photography: Ben Mbaria

Bowls make comfort food even cozier. Naomi Mwangi said that food in a bowl is the ultimate Kenyan diet: “There is something right about food in a bowl. The hot liquor on your spoon; the warmth of the bowl in your hands; the final scraping of spoon against the walls—they enable us to feel closer to what we eat.” So cozy up with your bowl—take it to the couch, and the chances of food ending up on your lap are slightly less than if you ate off a boring landscape plate. Bowls make you own your food. Because bowls have sides that get close to the food, they’re pretty unavoidable in photographs or on a dinner table— unlike the edges on a plate, which can recede into the background. Luckily, they oftentimes serve as little props for your food so it’s nicely situated. For example, make a fruit salad and all the flavors can muddle together in the closeness of the bowl. When eating the food, you constantly handle the bowl and that makes you stay in control of your dining. You can easily move around with a bowl held by hand and add or subtract contents with ease. I’m I the only one or you also noticed that bowls hardly ever clash with your food? The always bounce about holding your food unwaveringly. Kenyan family-style is fun—and possible—with a bowl. Possibly its most obvious feat, bowls can hold a lot of stuff. Bring a big bowl of vegetables, salad , pasta , grains, stew, or some such to the table, and let everyone dive in. It’s convivial and homey—and less hassle for the cook. Are you enamored with the bowl to get better meaning to meals? Grain bowls, harvest bowls, Buddha bowls, smoothie bowls, burrito bowls, poke bowls, KFC mashed potato bowls —from obsessively healthy super foods,

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to “cheat-day” fried chicken, we’re eating more food than ever out of bowls. And we’re filling them with a new style of layered grains and vegetables—one with less meat and more flavors. Part of the appeal of the bowl is that you can eat almost anything out of it. Noodles, dumplings, soups of all kinds, these are eaten out of a bowl by necessity, but a whole other category of “bowl food” has come to prominence in the past decade or so—dishes that could be enjoyed on a plate, but would seem much less coherent served on one. Elements like lighting, music, and tableware all contribute to this baseline in a much bigger way than we realize. “Our brains try to predict the world around them,” he said in a phone interview. “They try to predict the flavor of food.” Given those factors – ease of service and creativity – bowl food has become a standard menu option for high-end event caterers. Each bowl is generally four or five mouthfuls, and four bowls will be quite a lot per person. It’s substantial. You need somewhere to put your glass because it’s a stand-up affair, and lots of staff hovering around collecting the empty bowls. In the last six years, it’s become more widely known. But bowl food requires fewer staff than a sit-down dinner, so it can still be cost-effective for the client (Company of Cooks dishes start at Ksh. 299), and both the bowl format and serving them in several waves reduces pressure on the kitchen. “You don’t have several people fiddling [with each bowl] as you might on a plate for a restaurant,” says Harris, who as well as the obvious risotto, serves dishes such as fillet of beef with artichoke and a mustard tarragon dressing in bowls. Serving bowls at an event allows for great variety, too. “We do different world cuisines. That’s what our well-travelled clients look for,” says Glen Ombima, head of event planning at Kempinsky. “Often they want gluten-free, vegan or dairy-free options too, and bowl food allows you to cater to those dietary requirements naturally.” Its bowl food menu includes chargrilled lamb with spiced aubergine, minted yoghurt and flatbread, and salmon with a gin and cucumber jelly, sour cream and pickled

samphire. The growth of bowl food also reflects what, even in society’s super-rich stratosphere, is a growing desire for informality. We may not embrace the bowl with the glee of the Japanese (where slurping down the dregs is perfectly acceptable), but, unlike at the dinner table, a bowl-food party allows people to circulate and, of course, avoid any particularly awful guests. No wonder the royal couple are fans. Healthy dinners that fit in one bowl are quick and convenient. These easy recipes are complete meals and layer everything you could want for a healthy dinner: vegetables, whole grains or a starch, and a tasty portion of protein. And because your whole dinner is in the bowl, there’s no need to make a separate side dish. So make your next dinner a dinner in a bowl. GREEN SMOOTHIE DELIGHT WITH MASHROOM MESH @dinewithjemutai Why salad Smoothies? Salas smoothies are the perfect way to start the day. You get to enjoy the benefits of fruits and vegetables without the guilt. INGREDIENTS

1 cup water Large handful baby spinach 1 Inch Fresh Ginger 1/4 cup frozen pineapple 1 frozen banana 1/3 cup fresh mango Juice from 1 lemon METHOD

Blend all ingredients together in a blender until smooth. Serve.

31 THE HOT AIR BALLOON EXCURSION AT THE MARA IS A PLEASING AND IMMEASURABLE

NOTHING COMPARES TO THE SCENES UP ABOVE .

EXPERIENCE By Naomi Nimo Kiragu

F YOU THINK AFRICA IS STUNNING ON THE GROUND, WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE ITS' SAVANNAHS, RIVERS AND FORESTS FROM ABOVE. Nothing compares to gazing down

upon a vast herd of wildebeests moving across the plains or a lion, elephants, cheetah or hyena lurking in the grass. You shift your gaze slightly to take in another vista where you spot a family of zebras lumbering toward a shimmering lake. So, if there is a slight chance you dreamt of visiting Kenya, chances are that you dream of the Maasai Mara. This huge expanse of gently rolling savanna grassland – specked with a scatter of flat-topped acacia trees and trampled by massive herds of zebras and wildebeest – is the ultimate cliché. You get to this moment and you feel sad because it seems like you only want to embezzle the whole experience to yourself. But for once the reality lives up to the image and the Maasai Mara, which comprises not just the famous reserve but also a homestead of a dozen community conservancies, several group ranches and numerous Maasai villages, is for many people not just the highlight of their Kenyan adventure but the very reason they came in the first place. Welcome on board. The entire spectacle of this vast landscape with its innumerable creatures is on full display against a backdrop of hills, rivers, forest and grassland. A light morning breeze turns your attention to yet another scene of nature unfolding below, and then another. Your eyes are spoilt for choices. Meanwhile, your balloon pilot fires up the burners taking you still higher over this dawning panorama offering an earthly canvas that can only be described (and sure to be remembered) as glorious, to set glimpse on another camp of adventure. This is what it feels like to be gliding, floating and sailing in a hot air balloon safari over the incomparable Maasai Mara. Let a holyday tour like Madini Luxury Holidays arrange for

you and your party to enjoy this awesome moment. Your balloon adventure begins early so you can see the day unfold over the Mara within spectacles of dawning silhouettes. You’ll be picked up in a custom safari jeep around 5 am and arrive at your launch site an hour later. The scene here is exciting as you take in the ground crew firing jets of hot air into the balloon to give it lift. Soon your pilot shares important safety information. Meanwhile, the balloon starts to billow out and the crew attaches the large basket that will be your viewing platform. You are soon helped into the basket with a quick flash from the burner above, you feel the basket lift from the ground and you’re suddenly and gently airborne. As you rise, new vistas quickly form all about. The great display of the Maasai Mara unfolds – you take in giraffe, zebra, gazelle and hippo below as worlds of birds, rivers and forest fill your horizon.

RECIPE

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FRIED GOOSE WITH LASAGNE ROLL-UPS Recipe uses products from brands supporting the Yummy magazine You can supplement the Goose meal with other similar soup-less fries like French fries or Tahini fries.

he cuisine that’s blessed us with weeknight staples such as spag bol, and that cheesy Friday favorite. Find these recipes and more in this chapter. buonissimo! eating balanced dinners has never been easier – or tastier – with meals that will satisfy even the fussiest eater. packed with lean protein and high-fiber ingredients.

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YIELD: 10-15 SERVINGS prep time: 20 MINS

cook time: 50 MINS

total time: 70 MINS

INGREDIENTS 1/3 cup olive oil 500g Goose Steak 1 brown onion, finely diced 2 x 400g can Ardmona Diced Tomatoes 3 garlic cloves, crushed 2 tbs Italian seasoning 8 fresh lasagne sheets, cut in half, lengthways Salt and pepper RICOTTA FILLING 500g Goose Steak 1 egg, whisked 1/3 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped, plus extra to serve 3 1/2 cups three cheese blend METHOD 1. Preheat oven to 180°C 2. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large non-stick frying

pan over medium high heat. Cook mince, breaking up with a wooden spoon. Add the onion and cook, stirring until meat is brown and onions are soft 3. Add 1 can of tomatoes, the garlic and Italian seasoning. Stir the sauce over low heat, then simmer, covered, for 10 minutes 4. Meanwhile, make the Ricotta Filling 5. Before assembling the roll-ups, evenly spread remaining can of tomatoes over the base of a 6-cup ovenproof baking dish 6. Prepare the pasta by placing the lasagne sheets in a single layer on a lined baking tray 7. Spread ¼ cup of Ricotta Filling over each of the lasagne sheets. Then spread a heaped tablespoon of the meat sauce on top 8. Roll up each filled lasagne sheet and arrange in the baking dish standing upright, nestling them together 9. Cover with any remaining meat sauce and sprinkle remaining cheese over. Carefully tent an extra long piece of aluminium foil to cover the bake, ensuring it does not touch the cheese. Bake for 30 minutes or until pasta is cooked. Remove foil and bake for a further 5 minutes to allow lasagne to turn golden and slightly crisp

SUB SCRIB E TO OUR M AILING AND STAND A CHANCE OF WINNING YOURSELF AN ALFAJIRI T-SHIRT.

WINNERS WILL BE CONFIRMED ON THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE OUTLUST MAGAZINE.

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OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

I WENT IN EMP T Y: THEN G OT OUT FULL . KAY. I managed to spend my weekend at leopard beach resort where I desperately tried some really tasty chicken. I take pride in meeting the team at this resort. Leopard Beach Resort and Spa is home to internationally recognized awards. A place am planning to always come back. It’s just too amazing, fun and full of recreational surprises. Wonderful white sandy beach, perfect meals, giving a wide variety. The hotel is in a very large ample space. I don’t know anyone who loves fried chicken as much as I do. It’s my greatest weakness. It’s one of the three foods that has prevented me from going full-on vegetarian (hot dogs and beef jerky are the disgusting to me but kienyeji chicken, I can take a bullet for this meal). With a friend who cooks for a living, you’d think that for my birthday I’d want a fancy, homecooked meal. Nope. All she wants is her annual poach of chicken and travelling. Luckily, with great fried chicken in all cor-

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LEAH KIUNA TAKES A SEASONAL TRIP TO DIANI AND LOADS HERSELF WITH HER FAVORITE DISH ON HER BIRTHDAY: THE KIENYEJI CHICKEN. SHE UNMASKS THE EXPERIENCE AND HOW GOOD THIS CHANCE WAS TO HER. ners of the resort, it’s not hard to combine those two great loves. See, I can travel around Mombasa in scratching heat eating nothing but fried Chicken. I’ve tried my best not to double down on styles that are too similar. You’re not going to see Southern-fried chicken and chicken-fried chicken and a fried chicken biscuit here. Let’s just assume that if you put that chicken in a biscuit, I’m still gonna deem it worthy. Some fried chicken I’ve had has the potential to be great, but I simply have yet to try a version that blows me away (Indonesian ayam goreng, for instance). Some fried chicken that other people love, I simply don’t get the appeal of. Chicken schnitzel or katsu or milanesa, for instance. Bread crumbs just aren’t my thing, really. And I’m sure there are a few great fried chicken dishes out there that simply slipped my mind like wings through greasy fingertips. Oops. But this is leopard, only the best in one flavoured dimension. Point is, this is by no means intended to be a complete

listing of all the great fried chicken in the world, for the simple fact that I have not yet had all the great fried chicken in the world. At least, I dearly hope not. Feel free to chime into this resort and resolve your doubts.

The staff at Leopard Beach Resort and Spa is great, the service is preliminary. I am told that people get exceedingly crowded during holiday seasons but since I love traveling within crazy sets of times, I got the exclusive.

Bringing years of creamy experience and our love for great taste, we created a Milkshake with fresher and more natural ingredients using fresh Premium yoghurt and sundae that is ground in our daily lives. Ensuring that your milkshake is always fresh and specially seasoned, our sensational fakery is always cooled and junk free with a seasonal elect to perfection. New KitKatÂŽ, selectively creamy. Now available in weitros and hummar with instantaneous deliveries.

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Chicken fettuccine with creamy avocado pasta sauce aced with fresh Italian pesto salad dressing. Starting at ksh. 1,800 with a separate salad of ksh. 300

Explore festive buffet kuku meals at Kshs. 4,000 for weekends and Kshs. 2,500 weekdays with free bowling for the whole family and a live band.

Enjoy Ajire’s 12 Days fter Valentines with offers like buy one get one free milkshake, fries free fridays and more. Get these and more offers starting from Kshs. 350.

Sunday brunch at Karel Lounge for Kshs. 2,500 if you’re a teetotaler and Kshs. 3,900 if you’re indulging in a Tunachi fun or three. FREE beverage from 8:00 PM

Dinning with a view at The Attic Rooftop with delicacies such as fish takings, and J A N - platters. F E B - M Enjoy AR festive classic carols and more. Kshs. 3,500 per person.

If you’re trying to keep your long weekends hustle-free and relaxed then The Grove has you covered with the best waru salads. Call 0204071000 to make your reservation.

GR ABBING THAT YOLO LIFEST Y LE BY THE COLL AR I WOULD REALLY RECOMMEND SERVING THIS LIFE LONGER BY UNDERSTADING INDIFFERENCE. By Mwangi Wambui

ODAY I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE 10% OF PEOPLE ON THE FOOD SPECTRUM. These

are the people for whom food just isn’t a big deal . They don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what to eat. They don’t derive much pleasure from food. They view

eating as an annoying chore that their bodies foist upon them every few hours. These are the people who tell you, “I forgot to eat lunch today”. It completely overrides my thinking, going from a persistent tap on the shoulder to a wailing klaxon in under an hour. The thought of forgetting to eat is about as foreign to me (and the foodie majority) as forgetting to breathe. The fact that people have different levels of food enjoyment isn’t a surprise. We see the same range in all kinds of human activities. Some people aren’t really into sex while others are nymphomaniacs. Some people are naturally gifted with numbers, others with words, while still others are natural athletes. We’ve all got a mixed bag of mental and physical preferences mixed in with our culture, environment, and personal history. So there’s nothing wrong with being indifferent to food, but there’s a lot of misunderstanding between the two sides of the spectrum which I want to clear up. The main issue is that those who are indifferent to food always sport the slim, lithe, ectomorphic body type. In our current cultural milieu being thin is a highly sought-out characteristic, so the 10% of people who are naturally lean get a lot

of attention. They become actors, models and spokespeople at a much higher rate than the rest of us. And so they naturally field a lot of questions about what they’re doing that the rest of us aren’t. When you ask someone like this what their secret is, they’re genuinely puzzled. “There’s no secret, I eat whatever I want. Like yesterday, I ate a tub of ice-cream.” This sends the rest of us into conniption fits. The injustice of it all, that this super race of thin people can somehow eat so cavalierly and pay no price for it! There are physical differences that can lead one person to add less body fat per calorie than another. The length of the intestines, the kind of gut-flora, the body’s set point of muscle and fat; these all play a role, but these differences are on the margins. The biggest difference between skinny people and fat people is that skinny people are simply shoving less food down their pie-holes. They just don’t think about eating all that much and when they do they eat smaller portions than most. I’ve forgotten a lot of things in my life, but I have never forgotten to eat lunch. When I get that midday bell. When you forget to eat, you don’t recognize how much your focus and decision-making suffers.

A veggie burger does not contain meat. Such burgers may be made from ingredients like beans, especially soybeans and tofu, nuts, grains, seeds or fungi such as mushrooms or mycoprotein.

HOW TO G O FULLY VEGAN FOR MODER ATE BEG INNERS THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE By Jecintah Mberu.

mbarking upon a vegan diet is far more than just about your health. When you go vegan, not only are

you helping yourself but the whole entire world. Being vegan isn’t only about choosing not to eat red meat, fish or poultry. Going vegan means you’re choosing to cut out all animal products including eggs, milk, butter, leather, and choosing cruelty-free products. I know it might sound like an impossible task to achieve at first. But it really is not the case. If you go about it taking one thing at a time, I can guarantee you things will get easier for you along the way. Different Types of Vegan Diets A whole host of different vegan diets are fol-

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lowed around the globe and the most common ones are: • Whole food plant based diet: A diet based upon a wide range of whole plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. • Raw-food vegan diet: A vegan diet based on raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds or plant foods cooked at temperatures below 118°F (48°C). • 80/10/10: The 80/10/10 diet is a rawfood vegan diet that limits fat-rich plants such as nuts and avocados and relies mainly on raw fruits and soft greens instead. Also referred to as the low-fat, raw-food vegan diet or fruitarian diet. • The starch solution program: A lowfat, high-carb vegan diet similar to the 80/10/10 but that focuses on cooked starches like potatoes, rice and corn instead of fruit. • Raw till 4 diet: A low-fat vegan diet inspired by the 80/10/10 and starch solution. Raw foods are consumed until 4 p.m., with the option of a cooked plant-based meal for dinner. • The thrive diet: The thrive diet is a raw-food vegan diet. Followers eat plant-based, whole foods that are raw or minimally cooked at low temperatures. • Gluten free vegan diet: Eating plantbased without gluten is called gluten free vegan diet. Eating gluten -free is primarily for individuals with a gluten intolerance, known as Celiac disease. Eliminating gluten from the diet works as a form of treatment by excluding the protein gluten , which is found in wheat, barley, rye and triticale, a cross between wheat and rye. • Junk-food vegan diet: A vegan diet lacking in whole plant foods that relies heavily on mock meats and cheeses, fries, vegan desserts and other heavily processed vegan foods. (By the way let this be a warning shot. Though this is called a vegan diet, this may not be the healthiest choice) Though a number of different types of vegan diets exist, the through line of virtually all of them are the same. So we are going to talk about a vegan diet in genTOP V EGAN S POTS

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Photography: Mberu J.

eral and how you can make the switch to it here. For a lot of carnivores including people who just switched to a vegan diet, going vegan sounds like a colossal lifestyle change. One that seems almost impossible to achieve. That being said, with these simple steps, going vegan seems and feels more realistic and a whole lot easier. A better tomorrow starts with you and you only and it starts with you going vegan. Going vegan gradually seems to be the popular choice. So you are not alone on this journey. Don’t go cold turkey: Think of it like putting your toe in the water before slowly lowering yourself in, eventually becoming completely submerged. It’s not that exciting, and you won’t make a big splash, but you also don’t risk going into shock from the sudden change. Never lose sight of your end goal, go at your own pace. Some people manage to go vegan overnight and if that’s the right approach for you, fantastic while for most, it doesn’t. Nonetheless don’t be concerned if you feel you need more time. Like any other lifestyle change, going vegan not only takes getting used to, but it takes time to determine what will work best for you. It’s not a one size fits all experience and there is a bunch of approaches you can take. It is the small changes that make a huge difference in the end. Making small changes to your everyday meals is perhaps the easiest way to increase the amount of plant-based foods in your diet. You could start off by removing meat or dairy one day a week and go from there. Or you could try changing one meal at a time, having vegan breakfasts during your first week, adding a vegan lunch during week #2 and so on. You could even try changing one product at a time by swapping cow’s milk for almond or soy milk or butter for coconut oil or margarine. Now let me tell you all a secret. There is a plant-based alternative for virtually any type of food you can possibly think of, so I bet you anything, you are not going to miss out on any of your favorite foods. • • • •

Chowpaty Pure vegetarian Restaurant (This is located along 4th Avenue, Parklands, Nairobi.) - Line: +254-020-3748884 Ashiana Vegetarian Restaurant (Apic Centre, along Muthithi Road, in Westlands, Nairobi City.) - Line: +254-20-3749797 LMS Guest House Restaurant (City Centre along Milimani Road in Nairobi City.) - Line: +254-20-2710259, 2723019 Slush Limited. (located along Parklands Road on Corner Plaza inWestlands, Nairobi City.) Line: +254-20-03751039

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SWEET POTATO AND LENTIL PATTIES

SWEET POTATO SPINACH AND FETA MUFFINS

SWEET POTATO AND LENTIL PATTIES

YIELD: 12 SERVINGS

YIELD: 14 SERVINGS

prep time: 24 MINS

cook time: 30 MINS

total time: 54 MINS

INGREDIENTS 500g Sweet Potato, peeled, cubed 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 cup brown lentils 1 small onion, finely chopped 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 60g baby spinach, roughly chopped 1/3 cup plain flour Natural yoghurt and lemon wedges, to serve METHOD 1. Preheat oven to 220°C/200°C fan-forced. Line an oven tray with baking paper. Place sweet potato on tray and drizzle with half of the oil. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until tender. Mash in a bowl and set aside 2. Cook lentils in a pan of boiling water for 15-20 minutes, until softened. Drain well. Transfer to a large bowl to cool 3. Meanwhile, heat a little of the remaining oil in a large frying pan on medium. Cook onion and garlic for 4-5 minutes until softened. Add spices and cook for 1 minute until fragrant. Add spinach, stirring until just wilted. Transfer to bowl with lentils and sweet potato. Mix well and season to taste. Chill until cold. Form into patties and toss in flour to coat. Place on a baking paper-lined tray 4. Heat remaining oil in frying pan on medium-high. Cook the patties for 2-3 minutes each side until golden. Drain on paper towel. Serve patties with yoghurt and lemon wedges TIPS & HINTS: Brown lentils are also labelled as green lentils. They are larger than the French lentils. For a gluten free option, replace plain flour for gluten-free flour. JAN - FEB - MAR

prep time: 22 MINS

cook time: 30 MINS

total time: 52 MINS

INGREDIENTS 1 cup (150g) plain flour 1 cup (160g) wholemeal plain flour 1 teaspoon bi-carb soda 40g baby spinach leaves, steamed, chopped 2 green onions, sliced thinly 100g feta, crumbled 2 eggs, beaten 2/3 cup (190g) plain Greek-style yoghurt 125g can creamed corn 1 cup Sweet Potato puree 50g butter, melted 1/4 cup (20g) grated parmesan METHOD 1. Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C. Lightly grease a 12-hole muffin pan 2. Sift flours and soda together in a large bowl. Stir in spinach, onion and half of the feta. Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl, whisking well to combine 3. Fold through dry mixture until just combined. Freeze half the muffins in zip-lock bags for easy snacking Spoon into prepared cases and sprinkle with remaining feta. Bake for 2530 minutes until cooked when tested with a skewer. 4. Postheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Line an oven tray with baking paper Arrange slices on tray. Spray with oil and season to taste. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden and tender TIPS & HINTS:You will need a 550g Sweet Potato to make enough puree for this recipe. You can also cook toasts in a sandwich press (between 2 sheets of baking paper) for about 5 minutes until a chirpingbrown and tender look appears.

prep time: 24 MINS

cook time: 30 MINS

total time: 54 MINS

INGREDIENTS SWEET POTATO TOAST TOPPED WITH MASHED AVOCADO, CHICKEN AND AIOLI 6 slices (5mm thick) Sweet Potato, skin on 1 avocado, mashed 3/4 cup baby spinach leaves 1 cup shredded BBQ chicken 1/4 cup aioli SWEET POTATO TOAST TOPPED WITH TOMATO MEDLEY AND BALSAMIC GLAZE 6 slices (5mm thick) Sweet Potato, skin on 200g tomato medley, chopped 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced Baby basil leaves and balsamic glaze, to serve METHOD SWEET POTATO TOAST TOPPED WITH MASHED AVOCADO, CHICKEN AND AIOLI 1. Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Line an oven tray with baking paper Arrange slices on tray. Spray with oil and season to taste. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden and tender 2. Spread toasts with avocado. Top with spinach and chicken, Drizzle with aioli. Serve immediately SWEET POTATO TOAST TOPPED WITH TOMATO MEDLEY AND BALSAMIC GLAZE 1. Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Line an oven tray with baking paper. Arrange slices on tray. Spray with oil and season to taste. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden and tender 2. Top toasts with tomatoes and onion. Sprinkle with basil leaves and drizzle with balsamic glaze. Serve immediately. Dont Overcook

CHICKEN TINS

Photography: Ben Mbaria

LEMON PEPPER CHICKEN THIGHS WITH UKWAJU SAUCE What a brilliant year 2019 has been so far!! For me, it has been the year of becoming, settling into myself and growing into my full potential. It is a year of self reservation, coming face to face with uncomfortable truths about myself, learning and unlearning those that are malleable, and becoming an all time good. It has been long since I deliberately presented this food for my friends, I was in a bid to finding time to catch up in the midst of work. They loved it and I surely hope you should try it and share mesmerization with me as well. So, to send off this brilliant month of February is an equally brilliant recipe- my lemon pepper chicken thighs in my honey ukwaju bbq sauce. Crazy easy to make and it is so good that your eyes will be rolling to the back of your head with each juicy, meaty bite!! Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s get to it!

15 MINS + 30 MINS FOR MARINATING Recipe uses products from brands supporting Yummy magazine YIELD: 10-15 SERVINGS prep time: 20 MINS

cook time: 50 MINS

total time: 70 MINS

INGREDIENTS DRESSING 2 tablespoons rice vinegar 2 tablespoons coconut sugar 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice 1 tablespoon fish sauce TENDERLOINS 500g Lilydale Free Range Chicken Tenderloins 1 stalk lemongrass, roughly chopped 2 shallots 2 small red chillies, stalks trimmed 2 cloves garlic 1 tablespoon grated ginger 2 teaspoons fish sauce 1 tablespoon coconut sugar Lime, fresh coriander leaves and sliced

red chilli, to serve 1/2 cup salted peanuts, to serve SALAD 2 Lebanese cucumbers, shaved lengthways with a vegetable peeler 1/2 small red onion, cut into fine wedges 1/4 cup coriander leaves METHOD DRESSING 1. To make the dressing, combine the rice vinegar, coconut sugar, lime juice and fish sauce in a jug TENDERLOINS 1. Combine the lemongrass, shallots, 2 red chillies, garlic, ginger, coriander, coconut cream, fish sauce and coconut sugar in a small food processor and process to form a paste 2. Thread the chicken tenderloins onto skewers and pour over just enough marinade to coat the chicken (remaining marinade can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week). 3. Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for 30 minutes 4. Chargrill the tenderloins over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes on each side or until cooked through 5. Garnish with lime, coriander, sliced red chilli and peanuts. Pour over the dressing just before serving

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THE IMPENDING TASTE OF SE AFOOD BROWN CRAB FISHING IN SOUTH MOMBASA, JUST HOW SUSTAINABLE IS IT? By Joe Mwaria

HE SUN COMES OUT AS WE HEAD OUT OF THE KILINDINI HARBOUR ON BOARD THE CRABBING BOAT, THE PISCES. At the helm is

Ben Mwambei, who makes his living from hauling pots in this corner of the south Mombasa coast. Our destination is a patch of water just to the right of the harbour mouth. Each crab fisherman has his own pots, in areas handed down from father to son. “Families tend to have their own areas,” says Ben, whose own family have fished crab out of the coastal village of Watamu for hundreds of years. “We know all the nooks and crannies where you can find a crab.” Are there ever potting wars? Nick laughs. “No, well, sometimes. But it all gets sorted out in the end.” He has come up close to a marker on one of his pots. There is much splashing at the stern of the boat, and out swings the basket-like cage containing three live brown crabs. The biggest, a fine male, wiggles his large claws at us, which are filled with white meat – “the fillet steak of crab meat.” He’ll fetch a high price, when dispatched back in port. Ben removes the crab from the pot, with the skill of someone who knows how to avoid being bitten. His main boat, the Bingi of Beesands, regularly hauls from 690 pots.

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He eats crab every day. “You can’t beat a crab sandwich for breakfast,” he says. “Not with mayonnaise though. With just a bit of black pepper and salad cream.” Also on board is Mary Day, of the wakaka Seafood Company in Kisauni. Her company processes 400 tonnes of crab a year – buying from small boats in South beaches, along with the same tonnage from elsewhere, Chala island on the east Coast of Mombasa. “Hand on heart, Msambweni crab is the sweetest,” she says. Fishermen like Ben insist that their crab is the most sustainable coastal crab you can buy, because of the potting agreement on this part of the south coast which means that trawlers are banned from potting these areas during the winter. This allows female crabs to lay their eggs undisturbed. Strict rules on size mean crabs can only be taken when they are at least 140mm for females and 160mm for males, above the MSA regulations minimum. And smaller crabs can be thrown back unharmed, because unlike fish, they don’t die when they are brought to the surface. The fishery does not, however, have certification from the Marine Stewardship Council; the distinctive KEBS label on fish is an easy way for shoppers to know that the fish they are buying is sustainable. According to Ben, it is as unnecessary red tape.

“Our crab is lovely crab and it is sustainably fished,” he says. Up until now, this verdict has been shared with the Marine Conservation Society, which rated the brown crab from south Mombasa as sustainable in its ‘fish to eat’ guide. Just last June though, it has changed its mind, after noting a decline in the number of brown crabs caught between 2012 and 2018. “We can no longer rate the brown/edible crab as sustainable on our ‘fish to eat’ list due to worries about the recent decline in crab catches,” said the Mombasa county fisheries policy officer Suleiman Mahmood. He said the MCF “applauded” the imposition of crab size restrictions, and “had no issue with the method of catching at all,” but that, “It has looked at the landing per unit effort to judge the stock levels because that is relative year on year, and that number has declined - generally a signal that stocks are reducing.” This ‘eat with caution’ designation, though, is confusing. This rating urges people to eat less frequently or consider alternatives when choosing. “In the case of brown crab, someone that eats this three times a month, we’d urge them to experiment and eat spider crab at least one of those times. It doesn’t need to be avoided, but people shouldn’t eat it all the time.”

CONTROL HOW YOU TAKE THAT DAYS GRAB BY TRYING OUT OUR KILLER PICKS

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Breakfast Cafe arabica

Dedan Kimathi road, Mombasa, Kenya

There are the classic delicious milkshakes like chocolate or bubble gum, as well as options like peppermint crisp, espresso, tea, camel milk, lemon meringue, fresh banana, and coffee. I also try different breakfast options including the Hummus, tabbouleh, labneh and felafel served with freshly baked pita bread. They don’t really have seating space, only a couple of tables and benches. Such simple spaces appeal to me. The opportunity to do a bit of people-watching too. Reservations: +2547 4534 8865

LUNCH MNKafé Kaunda Ave, Mombasa

If you’re ever looking for me at lunch, you’ll find me at MNKafé. I’m a regular now, so Shiro and Zima ojat are guys I look for immediately I step inside. I would highly recommend the Desert. Tall trees, lush garden, super chirpy staff, good fries, the gluten-free burger and when you get the itis, you can take a snooze on the grass. This has been my best spot for long. I don’t think I will ever consider lunch elsewhere. Reservations: +2547 2568 3444

SUPPER

Pepino’s pizza

Pepino's Pizza Kimathi, CBD, Nairobi

This joint offers a little taste of sunshine with its bright, wholesome all-pizza treats. There are also delicious milkshakes on offer. There are the classics like chocolate or bubble gum, as well as options like Peppermint Crisp, lemon meringue, fresh banana, and coffee.The place is one of those little places you’d ordinarily just walk or drive past. The pizza here can melt your fingers and model your mood. If you need a quickly made pizza without lining up, yap. Here is it. Reservations: +2547 2826 1875

01. Little Miss Dreamer.

02. Maggy Ndegua.

03. Faith Wambui

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IT’S A BOLD CLAIM, THAT’S FOR SURE, BUT THE REALITY IS THAT FOOD MAKES UP A REALLY BIG PART OF ANY GIVEN CULTURE. If you’re off on

your adventures, the best way to immerse yourself in and really experience local life is by giving the food a try – and eating lots of it! DITCH THE DIET

TR AVELING PL ACES FOR RICH FOOD AND DRINKS THE BEST WAY TO EXPERIENCE A CULTURE IS THROUGH ITS FOOD. By Mwande Muthoni Janovene.

JAN - FEB - MAR

No matter whether you’re on a strict diet plan for the sake of your looks or your health, it would be absolutely heartbreaking to stick to it while adventuring somewhere far away – you’ll miss out on so much! While overindulging may not be advisable all the time, it’s okay to treat yourself just a little on occasion. Of course, there are healthier options no matter which country you go to – so perhaps stick to smaller portions of those if you’re really worried – eating exotic doesn’t need to mean you’re eating a lot! But for the most part, no food is off limits! So, now that we’ve got that out the way… BE OPEN TO ANYTHING

You may think you like particular dishes but that other ones just aren’t up your street. While traveling, you will encounter certain kinds of foods that you might turn your nose up at in typical circumstances,

but you should try to keep an open mind. For example, at many of the night markets in places like Singapore or Thailand , you might find insects served as a delicacy or as street food. Ask yourself – what’s putting you off trying something different? Often, you’ll find that you’ve just been conditioned by society or the food in your home country. Local restaurants aren’t your only option – you could try cooking local dishes yourself. Ever tried to make a “foreign” recipe back home and been frustrated by the lack of ingredients available to you? That’s because some things are only grown in certain places and so the best place to enjoy certain dishes – whether it’s a curry or even a pizza – is in the place where it was created. If you’re not much of a dab hand in the kitchen, a cooking class is definitely your best bet. Try looking into culinary travel: for example, theinternationalkitchen.com have many trips on offer where you can learn about the style of the country you’re in. This allows travelers to take some of what they’ve experienced back home with them. No matter whether you’re a foodie or not,

TRAVEL SESSIONS

it’s undeniable that food should form a big part of your travels. After all, everyone in the world eats!. Foodcations are the best way to experience a destination and are becoming more and more popular among travelers. In fact, eatout found that food tours were the fastest growing experience category last year. Tasting your way through local cuisines and dining with locals are culinary experiences that can easily become a travel highlight. Now that I’ve explored how to plan a delicious trip, you’re probably wondering where you should go. NOTE: Thankfully, eatout just released a report that shares insights from their booking data (including reviews and ratings) on the top food destinations. I am already salivating over all the possibilities. Without further ado, these are the best food cities in the country to visit based on the most booked food tours on eatout. LAMU Lamu, famous for its spicy and sour dishes, shows off its culinary gems in the finest restaurants and delicious food stalls in the coastal region of Kenya. Classic flavors of garlic, coconut, cilantro, lemon grass, fish sauce and chilies come alive in this vibrant and bustling town. With over a million people, Lamu has just about everything you can imagine in terms of meal variety and experiences. Take your pick between traditional fried rice and noodle dishes or for the more adventurous eaters, try exotic dishes like fried insects and not to forget, the Italian spices as well. There are many Italians in Lamu, well that is a story for another day but they bring with them the best restaurants one can imagine. With multiple districts, it can be hard to know where to focus your meal time here. Foodies typically recommend local food tours to make the most of your time, and one of the most popular food tours in Lamu is located in the Banga district. This area is known for dining options ranging from street food to upscale restaurants with local cuisines. This is one of the best ways to explore local cuisine and allows you to sample authentic Swahili dishes like green papaya, mihogo, mbaazi salad and larb. NAKURU

Three of kenyan’s most popular tribs dominate this region, with Nakuru coming in at number seven. Built on more than 100 small scale entrepreneurship businesses, Nakuru sits on a lagoon in the Adriatic Sea. With a single major road and canals lining the city, it comes as no surprise that the highlight of its food scene comes from the tribal amalgamation amongst kikuyu, Maasai and the Nandi. Stroll through the Fish Market and you’ll find chefs and restaurant owners finding their favorite food options to fill their dinner menus. For any first-time visitors, taking a Cicchetti and wine tour in Nakuru is a must. The most popular one according to eatout explores local eateries where you can sample traditional cicchetti (which are small snacks), such as greenfood-topped polenta, spicy fried potatoes, meatballs, and marinated olives. KISUMU With nearly every ethnic cuisine well represented throughout the Big Apple, you may not know where to focus your taste buds first. To get a taste of the city’s most popular food, you may inevitably think of pizza, bagels, hot dogs, clam chowder, pastrami, Kenyan ice, and cheesecake. When visiting, you should try and get a taste for what the city has to offer both in terms of its local specialties and international influences. If you’re in town for Restaurant Week , you’ll have your pick eating at some of the best restaurants in town, with a discount. Otherwise, try a popular food tour such as the “Best of Nyanza ”. According to eatout, on this tour, you will “get a taste of pizza, pierogi, cannoli, chocolate, and more of what makes Nakiru’s food noteworthy.” NAIVASHA Typical Catalan cuisine has a heavy influence from Nakuru, and includes fresh vegetables and all sorts of cheese, lamb, poultry, and fish. The Typical tapas in this city are fish and meat-heavy and can include Spanish ham, fried squid and grilled shrimps. There is no better way to experience Naivasha then to learn how to make one of its most famed dishes, paella mukimo. During this paella and tapas cooking class, you will visit the market (one of Naivasha od-

most famous markets) to find fresh local ingredients to cook with. You’ll then head to a professional kitchen with a local chef where you will learn how to make it like a pro. Afterwards, enjoy your home-cooked meal with a glass of sangria. MOMBASA Mombasa, the oldest vityof Italy’s Tuscany region, is home to some of the most delicious eats and Tuscan wines. When visiting, try the Florentine steak, a local favorite typically served in a bed of fresh arugula with cherry tomatoes, parmesan, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. At the market, you can pick local ingredients and learn local recipes for popular dishes such as bruschetta, roast pork, and tiramisu. Travel through Wetamu hills to a rustic farmhouse where you will enjoy some wine and enjoy a 4-course meal you’ve cooked. Buon appetito! NAIROBI In Kenya’s capital, you can find pretty much any traditional dish from pizza, pasta and risotto to popular dessert options like gelato and cannoli. Relax in the cbs CBD or givanjee enjoying the Italian’s favorite aperitivo, the spritz (sparkling Prosecco wine and dash of liqueur), served on ice. To explore the city by foot, opt for a food tour or cooking class. Explore a traditional neighborhood of the lovely Maasai during sunset on the most booked food eating hotels on eatout. On this tour, you will go off the beaten path and sample local delicacies along with classic dishes. Enjoy fresh kachumbari, Nyama Choma, traditional pasta and wine, and pizza with prosciutto, fig, zucchini, and ricotta. Throughout the tour, each meal will be accompanied by some delicious wine. Food experiences are the best way to grab know a destination and are becoming more and more popular among travelers. Thankfully, eatout just released a report that shares insights from their booking data on the east Africans’ top food destinations.

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WHY ICE CREAM WITH SYRUP DESSERTS ARE CALLED ‘SUNDAES’. By The Sundae Best.

UNDAY IS MY FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK. I live for Sundays. Nothing

brightens up an ordinary Sunday than a good portion of chocolate ice cream sundae, especially in this Nairobi heat. I need to admit something before I proceed: I just love sundaes. Chocolate, caramel, strawberry, you name it. But what’s up with their name? What in the world is a ‘sundae’? It kind of looks like misspelt

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Sunday, but why the -e on the end? Well, wonder no more you clueless junkie because I’ve got you covered. Quite frankly, the answer is interesting. One fine Sunday in 1881, in the Wisconsin town of Two Rivers, George Hallauer was on his way to an ice cream shop to get his treat of ice cream soda, which was quite popular. Unfortunately, the owner of the ice-cream shop could not sell it to him because of the very recently enacted “Blue Laws” which put a ban on the sale and consumption of soda on Sundays. So as not to utterly disappoint his customer, the ice cream shop owner, George Edward Berner, served George Hallauer a scoop of ice cream, drizzled with chocolate syrup but with no soda, which had always been the main ingredient. This became very popular as the “Treat for Sundays”,

and people kept on referring to it as the “Sunday”, but to make it less obvious and less offensive to the devout, the name was purposefully changed to “ice cream sundae” to make the dessert more acceptable. It is pretty obvious that this variation of ice cream soda was made as a way to get around doing something illegal at the time pretty neat if you ask me. Since Four Café Bistro on Limuru road shut down, I am yet to find a new spot for Sundaes, and so for now I stick to my homemade. My recipe is very simple, a piece of chocolate brownie, a scoop of chocolate ice-cream, chocolate chips, and chocolate powder! There are so many variations for you to try out. You can throw in sprinkles, whipped cream, marshmallows, peanuts, cherries, or other fruits that you fancy! _thesundaebest

CINEMATIC CLUB

POPCORN COCONUT SLICES SO POPCORN COCONUT SLICES.

Everyone loves them. There is something comforting and homey about the nut and popcorn. Coconut is that one easy fruit you gravitate towards when you’re feeling rushed on dessert, or that comforting dish when you want to look like a swahili native. Popcorn is what think of when you’ve earned a cheat meal. Popcorn coconut slices with its intoxicating scent and perfectly balanced flavors, is great. Popcorn is for nights in. Reminds you of the IMAX. This popcorn comes together quickly. And yes, there is some baking time. It’s quick, though. This yummy sauce is mixed into a giant bowl of popcorn and baked until dry. Make sure you divide the popcorn between two cookie sheets before baking. This ensures even baking and prevents a soggy popcorn kernel.

PIZZA POPCORN SO PIZZA AND POPCORN.

Coconut popcorns with sea salt is a perfect and delicious snack alternative to traditional creamy oil-popped popcorn. Place popcorn and oil in a 3-quart pot over medium heat and cover the pot with a lid. Shake the pot constantly as popcorn pops. When popping slows to a few seconds in-between pops, after about 3 to 5 minutes, remove pot from heat and pour popcorn into a large bowl. Season with sea salt.This yummy pizza sauce is mixed into a giant bowl of popcorn and baked until dry. Make sure you divide the popcorn between two cookie sheets before baking. This ensures even baking and prevents a soggy popcorn kernel situation. I almost forgot: Just before the popcorn is out of the oven – Finely grated cheese – Mozzarella and parmesan. You can do either/or. I highly encourage both. It’s mind blowing.

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DRESSED TO QUILL Feather-embellished accents take wing for fall. Dries Van Noten earring, $365/single; barneys.com.

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COVER STORY

AFRICA'S DEADLIEST

SOME PEOPLE FEAR SNAKES, OTHERS RATS AND I AM THE WORST BECAUSE I AM MOST SCARED WHEN I GET TO HEIGHTS ABOVE 10FT. I really love being in Kenya. I love it when I travel and get to places I only dreamt about. Maasai Mara is a national reserve with great biodiversity and it also hosts some of the most deadly yet magnificent creatures of the world. Tsavo also swaddles behind with strong concession and the forests of Elgon and the vast savanna towards the Serengeti planes. The puff adder being one my most feared animals to date. I even fear the word itself because the snake once bit me at Mau Narok escarpments a few years back. The African continent is known for its great diversity of wild flora and fauna. The diverse ecosystems of the continent are home to wildlife species found nowhere else in the world, including some of the world's deadliest animals. Every year, a significant number of human deaths in Kenya are attributed to attacks by these animals. Surprisingly, many people claim that the hippopotamus is the most dangerous ani-

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51 mal of Africa. Others suggest that the Nile crocodile or the African buffalo are the creatures truly deserving of the crown. However, no one can deny that most human deaths in Kenya and Africa as a whole are caused by these creatures of the Animal Kingdom. Every year, humans kill each other in the thousands while mosquitos also claim many human lives in the continent as they act as the bearers of deadly diseases like malaria. However, here we discuss the most deadly animals of Africa with the exception of humans as they deserve to be enlisted in a separate category of "The undeserving deadliest androids of their world." Though these animals are hardly considered a threat to humans (who know enough not to mess with them), they still have enormous power that gives them the ability to end a human life in a finch. Not to worry, though – your travels through Africa will be safe from animal harm as long as you listen to your guides and pay attention. Even though you’ll never be put in any real danger, watching one of the deadliest animals from afar is pretty thrilling. Let’s look at some of the deadliest creatures, shall we?

been known to kill people in the past just because they were running across their path. Attacks by these elephants are often reported from places with a history of elephant poaching or in places where elephant habitat has been degraded, bringing these animals into close contact with humans. It’s extremely unlikely that you’ll come into contact with an elephant outside of a protected game reserve whilst travelling through Africa, but it’s worth noting that these magnificent beasts have impressive power and lethal strength. These huge guys can reach weights of up to around 7,000 kg’s, giving them fatal skull-crushing skills, stomping, and trampling abilities. African Elephants, particularly older bulls and young males found at the Mara, can be aggressive even when not provoked, and with the creatures killing up to 500 people worldwide each year, most fatalities happen by victims being trampled to death. A few surviving the fatal ordeals with raffled intestines. In areas where poaching still occurs, and/or the elephants’ habitats are in danger, the animals are much more aggressive. Be sure to be extra cautious around elephants with babies.

vehicles. Once a rhino attacks, there is little one can do but count their last moments in the world. Thus, visitors are always advised to stay at respectable distances from these animals and not do anything to catch their attention. Rhino mothers with offspring can be highly protective of their young ones and can easily attack anyone or anything which appears to them as a threat to the safety of their offspring. However, despite the dangers posed by these rhinos to humans, there is no doubt that humans are far more dangerous to these animals than they are to humans. Whilst both black and white rhinos continue to fight for their survival, their numbers are plummeting at astonishing rates due to poaching. This is a battle many animal conservationists are currently fighting, but it is always worth keeping your wits about you when spotting a rhino in the wild. These stocky animals are rather bad-tempered and extremely short-sighted, and won’t hesitate to charge anything they perceive to be a threat. Adult rhinos can weigh up to 2,800 kg’s and can run up to speeds of about 64 km/per hour for short durations at a time.

10. African Elephant

9. African Rhinoceros

8. African Lion

African elephants are the most respected animals of the African wilds. These gentle giants are known for their intelligence, power, and social bonding. However, there are occasions when the world's largest living terrestrial species can behave in an unpredictable manner and trample people to death. Older bull elephants and younger males are especially dangerous and might attack even if unprovoked if they are not in the right mood. African elephants have

The African rhinoceros, like other mega-herbivores, is an extremely powerful animal. The rhino, despite its massive size (only second in size to the elephant), can run or charge at surprising speeds and can even topple a car with their physical strength. The rhinos have poor eyesight but a great sense of smell and often the presence of objects that smell like humans and their belongings could easily irritate a rhino and trigger it to attack the people or their

The apex predator of the African wild, the African lion is one of the most expert predators alive today. These animals can easily overtake large animals such as the cape buffalo, zebras, and even the caiman, and kill them using their excellent predatory skills. There have also been a few reported cases of tourists or tour guides being killed by lions during wildlife safaris. However, in most of these cases, carelessness on the part of the tourists or tour companies have

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been held responsible for such attacks by the lions. One must always remember that although humans are not the natural prey of the African lions, a hungry lion might also not have a second thought before attacking a vulnerable human to satisfy its hunger. So, staying safe and obeying the rules of the jungle are the best things to do. Though these king cats don’t typically attack humans, there are instances where they have. In Tanzania, it has been reported that these powerful creatures kill up to 70 people a year. Lions are the only cats to live in groups, and African Lions can reach weights of up to half a ton! The most renowned incident of man-eating lions happened during the constructions of the Kenya-Uganda railroad in 1898, where a pair of male lions began attacking railway workers, killing several over the duration of nine months.

7. PUFF ADDER This sneaky little cheat is a critter and is considered Africa’s deadliest snake, be-

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The crown of being The King of Jungle is accurately given to that animal which deserves it, whom we know as the Lion. First of all, when we say KING OF THE JUNGLE, it means that we are looking for an animal that has the qualities of a king. He himself is a powerful warrior. He knows different strategies. He has his army. He lives in colonies. He hunts in group. And at the end he does not unnecessarily involve in fights and nuisances.

ing responsible for almost 32,000 human fatalities in a year. Because of its wide population distribution, powerful venom, and extremely puzzling colour patterns, the puff adder is said to kill more people than any other snake in Africa (but is largely outranked by Australia’s deadly reptile collection). Puff adders can grow up to 1 metre in length, and are solidly built with a thick girth. Their colourpatten differs depending on their location and habitat, which extend throughout the entire African continent (except for lush rainforests and deserts). The puff adder boasts big fangs, with venom powerful enough to kill a grown man with a single bite. They depend on camouflage for protection and, if approached, will simply lie still – which eventually leads to people stepping on them and getting bitten. The puff adder is long and speedy and has well-developed vision. It is diurnal in nature and is both an ambush and pursuit predator. The snake lives in woodlands, savannah, and rocky slopes within its range. The snake is capable of striking at a significant range and can deliver a series of bites in rapid succession. The venom of this snake is composed of potent neurotoxins which spread quickly through the bloodstream. The venom triggers a quick onset of symptoms in the victim and in most cases results in a fatal consequence if treatment is not offered immediately. A puff adder produces enough venom in a single bite to kill 10 adult human beings in 162 seconds. Thus, in Samburu planes, locals refer to the puff adder’s bite as the "knock of the devil.” However, despite all the frightening facts related to the puff adders, the snake generally tries to avoid humans and does not strike unless it feels vulnerable.

6. GREAT WHITE SHARK Moving from land to sea in Africa, the great white shark is regarded as the most dangerous animal in the coastal waters of the continent. The great white shark is responsible for the majority of the fatal unprovoked shark attacks on humans. These sharks usually do not consider humans as prey and on most occasions, they simply bite a human as a “test-bite” and then leave. This often happens when the water is murky and the shark is unable to correctly identify its natural prey from other moving objects. Usually, the humans manage to escape before the shark comes again to bite. However, if the bite is fatal, it could lead to excessive blood loss and the death of the victim. On rare occasions, great white sharks attack humans to consume them. Sharks are known as the biggest predatory fishes in the world, but have no natural instinct to attack humans (as Hollywood might have made people believe). In fact, if they do attack a human it’s usually only a bite to ‘test’, but that bite is typically very serious. This is because the shark charges its prey at remarkable speed, takes one massive chunk out of it, drags the victim underwater, and then backs off to allow the victim to bleed to death before devouring it. However, it must be kept in mind that though these animals swimming alongside the shores of Africa are extremely powerful and capable of massive devastation, attacks on humans are rather rare, with only several a year in Africa (less than a quarter of which prove fatal). In general, more people are killed by bee stings than sharks.

GREAT NEWS! OUTLUST MAGAZINE IS WORKING WITH KWT TO SAVE OUR ENDANGERED WILDLIFE SPECIES.

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Kenyaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s safari industry is marking its 10th anniversary by celebrating wildlife conservation in the country. Among the trustâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flagship projects are those focused on predator conservation, including the Mara lion and cheetah projects, the first to monitor predator dynamics in the Mara ecosystem. To obtain more information about Kenya Wildlife Trust, visit www.kenyawildlifetrust.org

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5. AFRICAN BUFFALO The Cape buffalo or the African buffalo is one of the “Big Five” game species of Africa. It is often regarded as the most dangerous animal of Africa although the same claims are made for the hippopotamus and the Nile crocodile. The African buffalo has been reported to gore and kill over 100 people most of them being kids who often play in the forests. They are mostly called shadow hunters because of their dark color and confusion rates. Guys in Tsavo call them the “widowmaker” because they make families parentless. The large animal has few predators with the exception of lions and large crocodiles. The buffalos stay in large herds which can be quite intimidating for an approaching predator. Cases of these animals mobbing a predator out of their way are not uncommon. The animals, a favorite of trophy hunters, are known to ambush and attack hunters pursuing them including the fearsome lions. However, in such cases, the buffalo’s act of self-defense is fully justified.

unprovoked shark attacks on rodents and smaller reptiles amidst their camouflage abled bodies. These hawks usually do not consider chickens as prey and on most occasions, they simply tame an average chicken and flee with a guttered smile as a rest are left in sheer shock discombobulating. This often happens when the weather is murky and the Hawk is unable to correctly identify its natural prey from other moving objects. Usually, the pray often manage to escape before the brutal take away but the only successful hunt should be the one on fish and seafood animals.

2. HIPPO

3. NILE CROCODILE

4. AFRICAN HAWK Moving throughout the air in vast supply of oxygen at over 2000ft above sea level is something I call courage only given by the gods. I am scared of heights, remember? This is a pivotal privilege that only the African hawk lives to enjoy all day long. The hawk has eye candy strength that can eye a snake or a rat 1300ft above and still calculate a submissive hunt in seconds. Most African snakes camouflage, but not for this wild supernatural beast. The great Hawk is responsible for the majority of the fatal

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to the heightened activity of the crocodiles during this time. Not all crocodiles are aggressive in nature or will hunt humans for food. However, the great fear of crocodiles often leads people to hunt them down. This endangers the survival of the crocodiles instead.

Crocodiles, though majestic to watch when gliding through waters or basking in the sun, can look downright ominous when on the lookout for prey. They hover underwater, with only their nostrils above the surface, waiting for something to come to the water’s edge for a drink, then with an incredible burst of speed, launches itself up and clamps its victim in its vice-like jaws, dragging them back under the water to drown. Crocodiles boast the strongest bite in the African Kingdom at up to 2,267 kg’s per square centimetre, and kill approximately 3,000 people per year, with fatal attacks attributed to the Nile and Saltwater crocodiles. However, most human fatalities only occur when people are washing/collecting food near riverbanks or lake shores, or when fishermen glide their boats in and out of the water. Researchers from University of Nairobi have found that the crocodile attacks occur more frequently in the warmer season due

Although I always tend to label the big cats as the most dangerous creatures of the forest, when it comes to the actual figures, I get quite a shock! In Kenya, the hippopotamus is considered to be the most dangerous mammal. Although herbivorous by nature, the hippos are known to kill wild neighbors and humans in a deadly spin than any other African land species. The animals are known for their highly territorial and aggressive behavior. The sheer size of these animals (world's third-largest land mammal with males weighing around 3,300 lbs), the sharp teeth, and agility on land as well as water, makes them the most fearsome animals to be encountered. Male hippos fiercely defend their territories while females aggressively guard their babies. These animals can also run at speed of over 20 miles an hour. These majestic animals are a pleasure to watch from afar, as they peacefully surface calm waters. Many of them actively protect and defend their territories along the banks of rivers and lakes by even gathering kills on fellow crocodiles. When it comes to the challenge of bites, they have the largest mouth I’ve ever seen. Female hippos can also act out with extreme aggression if they sense a threat coming between them and their babies, who stay back in the water whilst she feeds on shore.

Photography: Susan Wakerio / Safari Buptist

1. MOSQUITO Okay, okay, okay... this is a joke right? A mosquito! Are you kidding me! Mosquito-borne diseases are a great nuisance in Kenya. Today, be sure at least one patient has visited a popular hospital for medication and at least 24% of all sick patients are under the illness. Last year, of all the worldwide cases of malaria, 92% of deaths resulting from malaria were reported from the WHO African Region. The financial toll of malaria acts as a roadblock to the economic progress of the villages of Kenya in particular. An estimated loss of $2 billion USD in Kenyaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economic productivity is assigned to these whizzing insects. 40% of the government expenditure in the malaria-stricken zones goes towards disease management. Chikunguya almost brought a countless set of deaths in Mombasa. Malaria also paralyzes the economy of the country by keeping millions of adults from office. For many Africans, the final outcome is death. As if that werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enough, they also transfer diseases to around more than 70 million people yearly. A single female Anopheles can spread their bite to the whole family and possibly the whole clan. The most undeserving truth is, some drugs are not quite in check and a human body may be resistive to these drugs. By Susan Wakerio Susan Wakerio travels with Audley Travel (01993 838000; audleytravel.com) on the weekend safari package, staying at Maasai Mara for two nights that included a night at AA Lodge Maasai Mara at Talek and eventually one night at Oseki Maasai Mara Camp. The package included accommodation, transportation from and to town, breakfasts and dinners at all joints. It also includes a guided tour of Masai Mara within the days in range.

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HAPPINESS OUTSIDE THE BOX: THE ENDURING APPEAL OF NAIROBI’S CHOCOLATE SHOPS NAIROBI’S APPETITE FOR ALL THINGS COCOA-BASED IS BECOMING EVER MORE REFINED, WITH EVER-MORE PRODUCERS OFFERING ALTERNATIVES TO MASS-PRODUCED BARS. Meghan Kira Akinyi, a self-confessed

chocolate addict explores the rise and rise of the chocolate shop. Choc for the sweet tooth butterflies, is a bit of a staple. Sugary sweets and cakes might pass you by, but this confectionary is hard to let go. You’ll behold a stack of it in street shopping malls and shelves of the stuff in the supermarket. Adverts pop up at bus stops and on our TVs. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a dessert menu that doesn’t give some sort of nod to chocolate. There’s no two ways about it: we’re obsessed. With good reason, because this elegant concoction of sugar, cocoa and fat is undeniably delicious. Ask around, though, and you’ll realise that many of us probably can’t remember our first ever taste of chocolate it has been daily ever since. I certainly can’t. I’m told, however, that I was nine months old, and my inaugural encounter with chocolate also happened to coincide with my first sip of maziwa ya nyayo. But we’re living in a time of plenty and these days, the only chocolate rationing we might have is a desperate, self-inflicted tax on our personal sugar consumption. The commercialisation of chocolate has transformed a once-coveted extravagance into an everyday luxury while contributing an estimated Ksh. 1.1bn to the economy, too. Buying mainstream chocolate, of course, comes with its own associated costs (palm oil, anyone?). But it also begs the question, in the face of omnipresent brands churning out cheaper chocolate, how on earth have a growing raft of artisan chocolatiers weathered the storm, some even maintaining – or setting up – pricey bricksand-mortar sites? “It isn’t possible to sell enough chocolates like ours to pay the rent,” says Diana, owner of Yummy Tickets. In a moment away from the prep stall below his shop on Waiyaki way is another delightful competitor. “Unless you’re a massive brand that’s now self-funded, like Diana, you’ve got to be really savvy.” Best known for his award-winning extravagant flavor combinations, Bella is one of a handful of independent chocolatiers keeping the magic of the artisan chocolate shop alive. She’s been hand-crafting

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chocolates for 13 years, and with three stores under her belt, no one could claim that she isn’t pretty ambitious. Over the course of a decade and a bit, while she was creating willing tastes creations – involving everything from cranberry and goose fat caramels to Marmite truffles – she’s witnessed the rise and rise of one of the nation’s favorite chocolate shops. Hotel Chocola, founded by Angus Donga in 2008, which opened its first store in Westlands in 2010, just two years before he stepped on to the scene. “They’ve captured the market really well,” he says. “They’ve taken over from Ngara to Nakumatt junction in terms of quality on the high street.” So if the demand for luxury chocolate is there, how come Diana – and the rest of the artisan chocolate producers in Nairobi and beyond – haven’t seen this level of success? Well, it seems that when it comes to chocolate shops, there can be a crucial difference: there are those who sell, and those who make. Chocolate is often bought as gifts, Whereas in Nakuru there are probably more self-indulgent purchases. But how does Nairobi measure up? Nairobians are very much open to novelties, and, as for the food scene, the demand, and therefore offering, has rapidly evolved over the last decade. Customers have become more educated and are now looking for specialty products. Finding something special is almost a guarantee when it comes to Kenyan chocolate shops, but does the arrival of this iconic brand and the rest of Its seemingly thriving chocolatiers signal the end of cheap chocolate’s reign? “I wish,” says Diana back at her store. “But very few people can afford just to buy high-end artisan, single origin and single-bean variety chocolate all the time.” Perhaps not, then. And yet, having experienced chocolate on both sides of the spectrum, I’ve come to think that Kenyan artisan chocolatiers aren’t going away anytime soon. If one thing is absolutely certain, it’s that people will never stop buying chocolate. And if that chocolate comes from a growing number of artisan chocolatiers sourcing sustainably to create beautiful, hand-crafted and delicious chocolates? Well, that’s definitely a trend I can get behind.

Photography: Sylvia Burura & Betty Kyalo

By Veronicah Mwirembi Nuna

57 BY MIRA LEILA MUCHAO IN MAASAI CULTURE, CATTLE ARE HIGHLY VALUED. The size of your

herd indicates your status in the community, and accumulating animals—rather than consuming them—is common practice even when there is word a pandemic is whimpering, they only depend on isolation as a means of getting past the conundrum. A Maasai guest drinking milk as a supper meal for the day. Photo taken by Thomson Safaris guest, Allen Millar. Italians have pasta, Russians have borscht, Baganda have Matoke, Kikuyu have warn, Luos have Mbuta and Mexicans have cheeseburgers; traditional foods can be found in every culture. To a westerner, though, traditional eating for the Maasai may seem distinctly unorthodox. That’s because a traditional Maasai diet not only includes, but primarily relies upon, both cow’s milk and cow’s blood. That means that milk plays a huge role in a traditional Maasai diet. Drunk raw (or soured), drunk in tea, or turned into butter (which is especially important as a food for infants), milk is a part of an all time high. Raw beef is also consumed, but much more fascinating (and possibly a little off-putting to the western palate) is the tradition of drinking raw blood, cooked blood, and blood-milk mixtures. Blood is obtained by nicking the jugular artery of a cow precisely, allowing for blood-letting that doesn’t kill the animal. Mixed blood and milk is used as a ritual drink in special celebrations, or given to the sick. Of course blood and milk aren’t the only things Maasai eat; the diet has always been supplemented with tubers, honey, and foraged plants that are most often used in soups and stews. More recently, Maasai have supplemented their diet with grains and maize-meal (and of course many modern Maasai live an urban lifestyle, with the more varied diet that entails). They still play an important role in many Maasai meals, however; for example, ugali (a thick maize-based porridge that serves as a staple food throughout Tanzania) is generally served with milk in Maasai households.

MILK, MEAT AND BLOOD: HOW DIET DRIVES NATURAL SELECTION IN THE MAASAI AND WHAT SPECTRUM THEY USE TO AVOID FOOD POISONING.

A pair of Ingri, traditional Maasai gourds used to hold milk. Though a diet made up of primarily animal proteins might sound like a heart attack waiting to happen, Maasai that consume a primarily traditional diet are emphatically healthy. Studies going as far back as the 1930s showed almost no diseases or cavities among Maasai tribesmen, and more recent studies on Maasai warriors showed no signs of heart disease, and cholesterol levels about half as high as the average city guy. The absence of negative heart effects is so pronounced, it’s led some researchers to posit that the traditional Maasai diet has led to very localized evolution in the Maasai people, such that they’re better-equipped to process animal fats. Interestingly, Maasai that have moved into cities, where they are eating diets with higher levels of sugar and grains than a traditional Maasai diet contains, show much higher rates of heart problems. Today, dwindling herd sizes mean that blood plays a less important role in the Maasai diet than it once did. That may make it easier for a westerner to stomach the idea of a Maasai dinner…but it means missing out on one heck of an eating adventure. Fresh milk is drunk in a calabash (gourd) and is sometimes mixed with fresh cattle blood. Blood is also boiled and used in cooking or drinks, accompanied with ugali (monono). Most of the meat dishes are fried or roasted then mixed with blood and ugali. Honey is obtained from the Torrobo tribe and is a prime ingredient in meads, a fermented beverage that only elders may drink. Maasais are one of the most configured tribes, they have never let go of their customs and heritage in fear of being deemed backward. They don’t tolerate conflict and most of the gentleman live a nomadic livelihood. Lastly, they have a medicinal drink. I mean, most of you guys have probably seen a Maasai walking about with a jerry can of red liquid with a mattered cap selling a drinking drug. The drug is very important to them.

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WHY ARE PIZZAS ROUND BUT COME IN SQUARE BOXES? By Erica Mwanyigah L.

T IS ONE OF THE GREATEST MYSTERIES OF LIFE: One day last September, Selena Mwangi, a sound engereneer with Capital FM needed a lunchtime snack. During a break from her job, she ordered Chicken ticka from Domino’s Pizza . When the 21-year-old received her food, however she found a side dish she wasn’t expecting: a stack of cash totalling ksh. 200K. Her manager identified the cash as an errant bank deposit and called the franchise. Her

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prompt weekly ordering was rewarded with free pizza delivery or other Domino’s products for a month. Strange though, all pizza came round in square boxes. Well, even though we can’t answer the first three questions, we’ll try to tackle the latter one. The truth is that nobody knows for sure why pizzas are round but there are a lot of reasons why they should be. First of all, pizza in Italian means pie and, as we know, pies are round . In addition, round pizzas can be easily divided and cut into equal pieces while their circular shape allows for a more evenly cooked and heated product. Also, let’s not forget that pizza dough is meant to be stretched by a mid-air spinning which, because of the centrifugal force, rounds the dough out. In 1984, the “Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana” set rules about an authentic Neapolitan pizza which specified that pizzas should be round, have a diameter not larger than 11 inches (28cm) and come with a raised edge crust of about 1 inch (2.5cm). So, why are they sold in square boxes then? Because it’s cheaper and simpler to have

square boxes than round ones. Square boxes are easier to store and transport while they remain in a flat slate until they are assembled at the exact point of use. On the other hand, a round box needs to be assembled from four sections or can be pressed by special machinery that increases the manufacturing cost. Pizza calories and nutrition can vary substantially based on the toppings, the cooking method, the crust and the size of the pizza slice. A small slice of cheese pizza (indicated on the label) provides only 168 calories. Some pizzerias may even be able to substitute Feta instead of regular cheese. So now you know!

59 Ngong Road Homeland chicken broth. Kizaki Chicken Drumsticks I have had heard a lot about this place and I was eager to try it out. It’s definitely got charm and we imagined that on evenings it gets quite busy. The sauces that I tried - a deliciously smokey honey bbq and a standard blue cheese - were all very tasty, although neither of my friends felt the batter, which we found thin and quite dry, did the chicken justice. The chicken itself was moist although we didn’t feel it had much in the way of flavour. French bakery Le Grenier à Pain has opened its doors at the Village. Supermarket in Village Market. Get your French pastries, breads and desserts freshly made, everyday. Whether you need a loaf of bread, a pain au chocolate, or a freshly baked croissant, be sure to make your order or drop by to get your pastry fix. Price: Ksh. 825 facebook.com/kizaki

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Layered

STONEFRUIT TART INGREDIENTS

REQUIREMENTS 2 packets sweet short crust pastry 125g softened butter 125g caster sugar 125g almond meal 2 tablespoons plain flour 2 eggs 1 of each apricot, plum, yellow and white peach, yellow and white nectarine 1/4 cup apricot jam METHOD 1. Preheat oven to 180Â°C. Grease a 28cm tart tin 2. Roll out pastry and place into the tin, trim the edges to fit. Prick the base with a fork and chill 20 minutes while you make the filling. 3. In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until pale. 4. Beat in eggs one at a time, beat well between each addition. 5. Cover until needed. 6. Remove pastry from the fridge and blind bake for 15 mins, cool base slightly, reduce oven to 160Â°C. 7. Add frangipane filling. Smooth over the top. Arrange the sliced stone fruits in even layers and bake for 30-40 mins 8. In a small saucepan, combine jam and 1/4 cup boiling water. Stir to dissolve the jam into a runny consistency. Brush all over cooled tart.

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FOODIE PORTFOLIO

DES SERT G ODDES S My name is Nadia Zahman. I was born a foodie. If food were a person, I’d be happily married with 6 kids by now. Nothing excites me more than the experience of sampling food and trying out new recipes. A Foodie, Hobby Photographer and graduate Quantity Surveyor all rolled into one I am a coastal native living in Nairobi and I am delighted to welcome you to the Ngara Street Food Experience. I was born into a large family with roots from the ancient Mekatili was Menza of the coast in a district called Boma in Taita Taveta. I spent my childhood in Mombasa surrounded not only by my family and the family of my mother’s eight sisters but also by the beautiful aromas of home cooking. This made me adopt the foodie life. But here in Nairobi, things are different. Eating in Nairobi is a very communal, familial and hospitable affair. Eating is a celebration of life and plays a very important role in the culture of kenyans as a whole. My mother and my aunts became very well known in our neighbourhood as expert cooks and would often be called upon to prepare feasts for local weddings and religious festivals back in Mombasa. In this way, my passion and love of Swahili cuisine was born. As I grew up and went to school here at Nairobi, at Alliance Girls, I began to explore.During closing and breaks on the way home to and from school, my friends and I would deviate from our normal route and would often wander into the maze of back streets and alleyways to sample a tasty snack or a vital seasonal

delicacy. We saw food that we had never seen before, bizarre and unimaginable dishes that opened our minds further to the beautiful and unique nature of Nairobi street cuisine. Since completing my studies, I have worked full time in the coastal hotel industry. Over the years, many visitors to Nairobi have asked me the same question – ‘ where can we eat real, authentic Kenyan food, where indigenous Kenyans would eat, off the beaten path of Italian or English flavours, away from the tourist traps? ‘And so the Ngara Street Food Experience was hencecreated. It is now my opportunity to share with you the richness of its street food and its street culture. A totally real and authentic experience. I very much look forward to meeting you and to welcoming you to the experience as you shop around ngara. I love making natural sundaes with Coconut bowls. Tinting them with yoghurt and bitrate is a perfect and delicious snack alternative to traditional creamy desert. Placing a good mood with a brilliant lunch or light guest meal is the grill of my existence. I have tried making sundaes that mold meals. Mombasa has taught me a lot with how clean meals mean and how the phycology of visiting people plays with what you are going to prepare for them. It is always about the best when it comes to the way in which I resolve a stomach deli. I don’t know anyone who loves perfect dessert as much as I do. It’s my greatest weakness. It’s one of the after foods that have prevented me from going full-on mains knowing well that there is a spotlight at the end of the road.

Photography: Nicole Mali and George Baseta

OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

FUNFETTI OREO PINKY PARTY CAKE. This rich and fudgy funfetti Oreo Pinky cake with whipped cream is easy to make with simple ingredients from your pantry. Great for holidays and birthday parties. As soon as I picked up a bag of those birthday cake Oreos, I wanted to make this funfetti Oreo cake. I am crazy about those limited edition Oreo flavors. I can’t resist anything with sprinkles, as seen by all these sprinkled recipes and so many others in my blog. Stuffed chocolate truffle cookies (rolled around in sprinkles), Crispy rainbow sugar cookies (dipped in chocolate and sprinkles), Bite sized brownie kabobs (fudgy brownie balls covered in melted chocolate and loaded with sprinkles), Get yourself a pie or a whole volume of this beautiful cake. Location: Valentine’s cake house. Our corporate cakes are from the size of half a kilogram to one hundred kilograms. Place your order at three (3) days prior to the event to avoid any inconveniences.

THE RED ORCHARD WEDDING CAKE WEDDING CAKES

View Wedding Cakes Gallery Statement weddings are made of statement cakes. We at Valentine Cake House seek to enable our clients to achieve statement weddings by providing magnifique wedding cakes. To date we boast of the largest cake in Kenya; the Kiss 100 Victorian Wedding cake that was a sight to behold at the Marula Manor. This unimaginable concept was developed by our very own Chef Mathew

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This team appreciates when you keep them on toe to match any concept or theme you may have for your wedding. It is always an honor, walking the journey of love with a cake of your liking. We all love to celebrate and celebrations around company landmarks particularly suit a cake. It reaches the maximum number of people and is remembered long after the event. A cake means celebration and fun so brings a sense of excitement whenever it is served. Valentine’s cake house has a reputation of being the best in the business, so when you want to reflect your Company it is only logical to choose the best. Whatever the occasion we can help you design a cake if you are: Launching a Logo, Opening an Advertising campaign or pitching for new business, Catering for a function, Celebrating with your staff. Thanking your client for their business.

THE TRIPPLE CHASE

POTATO SALAD WITH RELISH VINAIGRETTE

WARM KIKUYU CRASHED POTATO AND KUKU SALAD

MERU CULTURED CLASSIC POTATO SALAD WITH EGGS

ACTIVE: 20 min l TOTAL: 45 min SERVES: 6 to 8

ACTIVE: 35 min l TOTAL: 50 min SERVES: 6 to 8

ACTIVE: 20 min l TOTAL: 45 min SERVES: 10 to 14

FOR THE POTATO SALAD 6 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, skin on, cut into ½-inch pieces Kosher salt ½ cup fresh parsley, chopped ½ small red onion, finely diced ¼ cup pickled cherry peppers, roughly chopped 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives Freshly cracked pepper FOR THE VINAIGRETTE ¼ cup red wine vinegar 2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish 2 tablespoons capers, chopped 1 teaspoon whole-grain mustard ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil Kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper

1½ pounds red bliss or creamer potatoes ¾ teaspoon mesquite liquid smoke 3 cloves garlic, smashed Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 2 small red bell peppers 12 strips bacon, chopped A cup apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons sugar 2¼ teaspoons whole-grain mustard Dash of hot Hungarian paprika ¾ cup chopped fresh parsley 6 scallions, finely chopped

3 pounds red potatoes Kosher salt 6 large eggs 1 cup mayonnaise 2 tablespoons yellow mustard 2 stalks celery, chopped 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 2 fresh chives, chopped 1 white onion, finely chopped Freshly ground pepper

1. Make the potato salad: Put the potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water by 2 inches; season liberally with salt. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook until fork-tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain the potatoes in a colander, then cover with foil to keep warm until tossed with the vinaigrette. 2. Make the vinaigrette: In a large bowl, whisk the vinegar, relish, capers and mustard. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper. 3. Add the potatoes, parsley, red onion, cherry peppers and chives to the bowl with the vinaigrette. Toss to coat and season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the charred peppers to a resealable plastic bag and close; let steam streignten the punch.

1. Combine the potatoes, liquid smoke, garlic, a nice pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper in a large pot; add water to just cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are fork-tender, 15 minutes. Drain, then rest the colander over the empty pot to dry the potatoes. Once cooled slightly, quarter the larger potatoes and halve the others. Put in a large bowl. Discard the garlic. 2. Char the bell peppers directly over a medium flame on a gas burner, rotating, until the peppers are black. (Or broil the peppers, rotating, until charred.) Transfer the charred peppers to a resealable plastic bag and close; let steam 5 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, remove the seeds and charred skin and chop the peppers. 3. Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring, until crisp, about 8 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate, leaving the fat in the pan.

1. Place the potatoes and 2 heaping tablespoons of salt in a large pot of water. Bring the water to a boil and cook until the potatoes are fork-tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain, then chop into ½-inch pieces. 2. Meanwhile, put the eggs in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until hard-boiled, about 10 minutes. Drain and run under cold water to cool. Peel the eggs and chop. 3. Combine the potatoes, mayonnaise, mustard, celery, parsley, chives, onion and a pinch each of salt and pepper in a large bowl. Toss to coat the potatoes with the dressing, then add the hard-boiled eggs. Gently stir the potato salad, taking care not to mash the eggs. Add the vinegar, sugar, mustard, paprika, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper to the stillhot pan; simmer until the sugar and salt dissolve, 2 minutes. Add the potatoes and toss until they soak up the vinegar mixture. 4. Return the potatoes to the bowl. Add the peppers, bacon, parsley and scallions; toss.

OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

M AY K A H

BY ASHRAF

I WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE A COOK. JUST ASK MY MOM, SHE’LL TELL YOU. DOCTOR? Sure. Lawyer? Yep—I can argue with the best of

’em. Scientist? Definitely. In fourth grade, we were given an assignment: write a book about ourselves in the future. I distinctly remember my future life according to my ten-year-old self. I’d be married at twenty-four. I’d have my first kid at twenty-six. I’d get my PhD by twenty-nine (how I’d manage to get my PhD while trying to raise a kid was a question I never asked myself). By thirty, I’d discover a cure for cancer, winning a Nobel prize. Having made my mark on the world, I’d spend the next forty years fulfilling my duties as the President of LEGOLAND before finally retiring and leaving the world a better place at the age of eighty-seven. Lofty dreams indeed, but things seemed to be going on track all through high school. I did well in math and sciences (and particularly poorly in English, for the record), spending my summers playing music (chamber music camp, not band camp, thank you very much!) or working in biology laboratories. Did I ever show an inclination to cook? Not really. I took an after-school cooking class in third grade, where I learned to make simple syrup and stone soup. My dad trained me in the art of making open-faced tuna melts on Saturdays. He also taught me a valuable lesson in how not to cut a block of frozen beef straight from the freezer into steaks—a memorable afternoon that included the line, “Kenji, go get me the hammer,” and concluded with shards of knife all over the kitchen floor and beef still as blocky as it ever was. My specialties all through high school were half-assed guacamole and perfectly heated frozen chicken potpies. The one time I did exert myself in the kitchen, I produced a batch of what I thought were some pretty awesome almond tuiles coated in chocolate and filled with raspberry preserves. Being the incurable romantic that I am, I’d slaved over them for my high school girlfriend for Valentine’s Day, see? Turns out she wasn’t as into romantic nerds as I thought she was. I got dumped on Valentine’s Day, her dad ate the tuiles, and my fledgling cooking career was put on hiatus. The time for me to move upward and onward with my college education finally came, and I entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—that temple of science where nerdfolk congregate en masse to talk hertz and bytes and the average student wears only two-thirds of a pair of shoes during winter (I

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MY GRANDFATHER WAS AN ORGANIC CHEMIST, MY FATHER WAS A MICROBIOLOGIST, AND I WAS A LITTLE NERDLING.

brought down the average). For a while I fit right in, finally at home amongst my fellow geeks, reveling in the fascinating subculture and learning more than I’d ever learned before (mostly about such scientific puzzles as precisely how many whiskey-and-Cokes it takes before the next morning’s hangover will prevent you from attending an 11 a.m lecture). But slowly a grim reality dawned on me: I loved biology and science, but I hated working in biology labs. It was the slowness of it all, the months and months of experimenting that would finally reveal results that showed you were wrong all along—and could you please repeat those tests? I got restless. I got annoyed, and I did what all heroes should do in a time of crisis: I ran away. That’s right. That summer, I made the conscious decision not to take another job in a biology lab. Here I was, in the prime of my youth, pissing it away playing with pipettes and DNA sequencers. I set out with the goal of taking as nonacademic a job as I possibly could. Waitering seemed like a good gig. Meet cute girls, eat good food, hang out with cooks, party every night because I don’t have to show up to work until 3 p.m. Basically, a repressed college kid’s dream. As it happened, the first restaurant I walked into— an abysmal Mongolian grill-style joint in Harvard Square—wasn’t in need of waiters, but it was desperately in need of cooks.* Without hesitating, I signed on. And that was the beginning of the end for me. Like a head-injury patient who suddenly develops a brand-new personality, something snapped the moment my hand touched a knife in a professional kitchen. I was no longer in control of my own destiny. Since that day, since the first time I wore that silly baseball hat and the T-shirt that identified me in no uncertain terms as a Knight of the Round Grill (seriously), I was a cook. It didn’t matter to me that I knew nothing about cooking and that my job mostly consisted of flipping asparagus spears with my double-fisted spatulas. I knew right then that I’d discovered what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I was ravenous. I tore through every cookbook I could lay my hands on. Going to the beach? Forget the Frisbee—I’m bringing Pépin. Friends heading to a movie? I’ll be in the kitchen with my dog-eared Chinese cookbook. I worked in restaurants as much as my class schedule would allow, making up for lack of experience with brute force and sheer willpower. Unfortunately, what

with trying to attain a degree and a decided lack of a cooking mentor (the closest I had was our fraternity chef, who was better at snorting coke off the piano than tourné-ing a potato), cooking for me was filled with an endless series of unanswered questions. Why do I have to cook pasta in a huge volume of water? Why does it take so much longer to bake a potato than to boil it? How come my pancakes always suck? And what’s really in baking powder anyway? I made a pact with myself then and there that as soon as I was finished with college, I’d never again do anything that I didn’t enjoy doing. I’d spend my life trying to answer these questions that so fascinated me. The fact that cooks make very little money and work crazy schedules—I might not see my friends and family on holidays ever again—didn’t deter me. I’d found my passion, and even if it made me a pauper, I’d be damned if I didn’t follow it. My mother did not take the news well. Sure, I finished up my schooling (eventually graduating with a degree in architecture) while working part-time in restaurants, and I learned quite a bit about good science along the way (never once did I lose my interest in science itself—just in the practice of biology), and after graduating, I started working for some of the greatest chefs in Boston, but to my mom, a cook was a cook was a cook. Carefully plating a perfectly sautéed fillet of striped bass with a caviar beurre blanc and cute little tournéed radishes was no different from flipping burgers to her. (Ironically, she was sort of right—these days I find flipping burgers more fascinating than fancy restaurant food.) At least, I thought to myself, working in these great restaurants, I’ll finally have the answers I’ve been seeking. Not so fast. First day on the line, I was given a lesson in the traditional double-fry technique for French fries: a dip in low-temperature oil for a few minutes, followed by a second fry in high-temperature oil. My first question was one that I thought was obvious to any free thinker: if the purpose of the first fry is merely to cook the potatoes all the way through, as many people had told me, shouldn’t it be possible instead to boil the potatoes first until cooked through, followed by a single fry? The chef de cuisine’s response: “Em . . ., it might be possible, but you just don’t do it. Don’t ask so many questions, I don’t have time to answer them all.” Right as his answer was, it was hardly the pinnacle of scholarly sentiment or scientific inquiry that I had hoped for. Truth be told, as a professional cook, and with the hours that came with the territory, I had even less time to pursue the answers to the cooking questions I had, which were now beginning to mount like order tickets on a busy Saturday night. So, after eight years of working in restaurants, I decided to shift tracks: perhaps recipe development and publishing were where the answers lay. It was only after I made this shift that my curiosity finally began to be sated. As a test cook and editor

at Cook’s Illustrated magazine, I not only had the opportunity to start answering my questions, I was also paid to do it! Here was a job that finally combined the top three of my four greatest loves: tasting great food, the scientific pursuit of knowledge, and the physical act of cooking (my wife would be the fourth), and it was a truly liberating experience. I discovered that in many cases—even in the best restaurants in the world—the methods that traditional cooking knowledge teaches us are not only outdated but occasionally flat-out wrong. Then I moved back to New York City with my wife and discovered a job even better than the one I had at Cook’s Illustrated. As chief creative officer at Serious Eats (www.seriouseats.com) and the author of its popular “The Food Lab” column, I was finally 100-percent free to do exactly what I wanted to do, explore the questions I wanted to explore, test the things I wanted to test, and cook the food I wanted to cook. And the best part? Doing it for a community of food lovers every bit as passionate and thoughtful about what they put in their mouths as I am. Sure, I earn my keep in a number of ways, and testing and writing recipes is only a small part of it. I push commas, I stick words together, I blab about pizza this or hamburger that online, I fake my way through the occasional annoying business meeting or schmooze-fest foodie event; heck, it turns out that I even write a book now and then. But in the end, I’m a cook, and that’s all I really ever wanted to be.

OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

DIANA'S INFUSION "Ukwaju glasi kubwa" the waiter who has been patiently guiding me through the menu orders vehemently. I stare through the rooftop windows at the fast sea surrounding the place. This place has only two vintage cars, so rich in culture, unity and tasty food. From the look on the sort of concoction I ordered, it clearly looked like I was here for the chilly maze. I could not help but laugh when my host walked me through the narrow streets. He had offered to book me on a donkey ride in touring further on the inside of the island. Me on a donkey… Hell damn no, I can't. What about me falling down in case the abruptly berserk on me? Isn't the donkey sort of carrier of disease? Then came along the speed boat adventure... Ha-ha, seen on Tv how people kite surf as the boat races but nothing beats the thrill, the fear I experienced when the boat began wading amongst the waves. During the high moments of the thrill, the boat hit a wave and lunged forward. The inertia almost tossed me into the water. Hey! Aren’t boats guided by Michuki rules too? Thank God my lifejacket was nicely wrapped as I hanged on the boat sides as the alarmed captain quickly steered the boat on a less hostile wave and the crew rushed to aid me out. Back on board, a dry towel that I had no idea where it came from was wrapped around me as we conversed on how that wave must have been something else. Well, after last time I almost drown myself into the sea. My guide for this adventure had promised a chance to something fulfilling from my earlier troubles. With that in mind I had worn a i short, a pair of vest and some canvas shoes. I wasn't risking my designer. After a sumptuous breakfast, we board on the same motorboat.. The captain excited to see me from my last encounter just laughed and expertly engaged me in a string of ever ending safety measures. The ocean was surprisingly calmer. On the shore, few fishermen offload their

cargo from their sail boats. A big tuna is dragged from the boat. It is still agitating with innocence and quite big. A few turns and we find ourselves in paradise. The allure that had made staring at its ambience. Pure crystal blue water with clear sand and shades of palm trees swaying in harmony. A few tourists were basking, enjoying their moments. I did not want to pitch a camp there, better yet, own that place. The waters were attractive, tempting and filled with the promise of full rejuvenation I wanted that. I craved that. I had been through enough torture for a classy me. This island promised of taking the pain, exhaustion and anxiety away. I caved in. This was Shula! With all its exquisiteness I loved it. Another sip of my" ukwaju juice" and then the waiter rushed in with assorted foods. The aroma had it all. Well, this was needed too. Food solves trouble, yes I agreed. Two more days and am off the island but my skin needs exfoliation, I need new nails and I need to soak myself in a bath tub full of lavender for a day... Haha I need it don't ask why it’s the cost of being classy.

By Diana Chepkoech Diana is a self-taught writer also skilled in content creation, SEO writing, copywriting, and proofreading. She is a passionate marine biologist and currently eyes pursuing diving courses towards this end.

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PHOTO OF THE ISSUE: THE MOST FAVOURED PHOTO BY COMMUNITY Image Copyright ÂŠ Alan Kamiru, 29, a party/events videographer and photographer based in Limuru. Camera A Sony A7 As - Mark II with a 50mm lens

Born and raised in Kenya, Kamiru is a traveller photo journalist based in Berlin. He is the best photographer in the field of travel photography with experience that continues to broaden.

Disclaimer: This choice is in no way exhaustive. Neither is it done by an authorized committee. The photograph is the best in the world according us and it really requires attention. The story behind it is phenomenally connecting. The photograph has inspired photographers in the world.

We publish photographers from good photographers who are never tired of taking beautiful images. They are photographing the world for years. They will continue to do so. Their photographs are magical. Some are out of this world. They are unbelievably good. The secret of creating good to great photographic content is quite simple. Be emotional, look in deeper, and imagine how your inspiring photographer would have taken that shot. The more you think of it, better your photographs will become. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the easier route to success in photography.

Treatment Lightroom Photoshop

OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

GUEST REVIEW BY SY LV I A A M I S I Whenever Nicole Chung, as a child, asked her mother about her birth parents, she always heard the same answer: they “had just moved here from Korea” and “thought they wouldn’t be able to give you the life you deserved.” This brief story, one of love and sadness and altruism, “may be all you can ever know,” her mother told her. “All You Can Ever Know” is now the title of Chung’s memoir. The phrase has a double meaning. It hints at the vastness of what can be gleaned—true or false—from an origin story, even as it evokes a sense of permanent loss and incompletion: the same feelings that marked much of Chung’s upbringing among white, Catholic Oregonians in the eighties and nineties. Chung, the editor of Catapult magazine and a former editor at the Toast, was raised by parents who believed that she was a gift from God. She attended an all-white school, where students teased her for being adopted and for looking “different.” She writes that she was often lonely as a kid, despite her adoring mom and goofy dad. (“My father liked to answer especially nosy questions by saying, If you put a Pole and a Hungarian together, you get a Korean! Where do you think they all came from?”) Her family prided itself on a “colorblind” approach; Chung had no language to talk about racism, which she equated with marches and fire hoses. She retreated to the library during recess and lost herself in stories, mostly about white girls. The fact of her adoption amplified her self-consciousness. Was there “something we lacked,” she wondered, of adoptees, “that made us easier, possible, to part with?” As a teen-ager, Chung fashioned herself into an adoption ambassador, regaling acquaintances with the practice’s long history. It was a way to construct a lineage. “All You Can Ever Know,” which continues this work of self-creation, joins a strand of recent novels, such as Rumaan Alam’s “That Kind of Mother,” that examine the complicated dynamics of interracial and adoptive families. (Chung’s feels especially edifying for taking the child’s perspective; Alam’s book stays close to the consciousness of the white parents.) As an adult, married and pregnant with her first child, Chung set out to find the strangers who gave her up, and the memoir is also an account of that search. The athletic one. The smart one. Family myths are at once powerful and insufficient, shaping us but also getting us wrong. Chung comes to resent her mom’s worn-out fable about sacrifice and divine providence, and, after a protracted and unglamorous process of filing paperwork and wrangling lawyers, she’s alarmed to uncover the reality of the Chungs, her biological family. She has an older sister, Cindy, who was physically abused by their birth mother; their parents are divorced and not speaking; her birth father

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Named the Best Book of the Year by The W. Post, NPR, Times, Boston Globe, Buzzfeed, Jezebel, Bustle, Library Journal and Chicago Public Library this book moved me to my very core. told Cindy that Nicole was dead. Previously, when thinking about her long-lost kin, Chung had pictured currents of strength flowing toward her: “a web of connections too delicate to be seen or touched, too strong to be completely severed.” With more information, the mystery of what travels along those hidden paths seems less benign. Mrs. Chung’s violent nature suggests, to Nicole, “an invisible thread connecting all my anxieties, my many shortcomings, all my worst moments.” Chung holds her biological parents at arm’s length. As a result, a memoir that proceeds at first as though it will focus on parents and children becomes a book about sisters. The most moving sections detail Chung’s tentative and then heartfelt reunion with Cindy. She also interleaves chapters, told in the third person, about Cindy’s life, as if offering a parallel version of her own. Though the memoir conjures the pain of lost or interrupted relations, its big strength is relatability. Yes, I often found myself thinking, I’d feel that way too. Chung is a perceptive observer, especially of her own inner life. She can explain why having a baby mattered to her in the particular way it did: “I wouldn’t be alone anymore. There would be someone who was connected to me in a way no one else had ever been.” Insights such as this one are not surprising; rather, they confirm what a reader might imagine to be true, eliciting flashes of recognition and empathy. Chung wants to explore “the quiet drama of the everyday adopted experience,” and she succeeds in her quest. She writes of discovering her own features in her sister’s face. The reader is similarly invited to descry herself in Chung’s story—to conceive of herself as a kindred spirit. One wishes for more surprise, more invention, from this book—a less conventional way of seeing and writing. With the introductory letter sent off to her birth mom, Chung notes that “everything in my life was about to change.” The voices of midwives are “calm, confident.” Part of the memoir’s blandness comes down to the real people involved. Aside from Mrs. Chung, who is presented with compassion despite her abuse, the characters all seem like ordinary, well-meaning men and women, doing what anyone would do under the circumstances. This makes them sympathetic, but not particularly enthralling. It is sometimes true that the more you relate to something, the less captivating it is. And yet there may be value in that familiarity, as in a sibling’s embrace. For now, her book traces an arc from self-blame and selfdoubt to considering oneself, as Chung puts it, “worthy of memory,” and authorized to add to the culture’s family lore.

Nicole’s story is heartbreaking, heartwarming, enlightening, and told with such warmth, and without bitterness. It is about race, the urgent need to belong, and the importance of family. This book is impossible to read without feeling the intensity of love.

I L L U S T R AT I O N O F T H E I S S U E This illustration was done with Amisi Kevin. It is part of the innocence project aimed at creating valuable inspiring illustrations. The target is 24 Illustrations every year.

If you have a portrait that you need illustrated, call us or talk to us via our email at outlust@alfajiri.co.ke.

OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

Garden City Mall Fied pork meat pieces A perfectly balanced crispy set of pork, once we bit into it we finally understood what the fuss on social media has been all about. The crust is superb, supremely crunchy with a thick batter which is both multilayered and multi-textured. Their casual ambiance and extensive menu will take you on a culinary trip to wanderlust. 2-star Executive Chef Silvio Morelli, has crafted delightful dishes such as Mezze Maniche alla Luciano Pavarotti, which you must try. The pork itself was fine, not too dry, not too moist although we felt it paled in comparison with the batter (maybe they should just serve the batter as a standalone snack!). Price: Ksh. 220 eatout.co.ke/thikaorad

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SWEET POTATOES MISO HASH WITH CHO PASTA WITH SMOKED SAUSAGE COCONUT TAMARIND SAUCE AND PEARS AND SEA WEED. RIZO CASHEW PRALINE AND BOILED EGGS.

Come on. It isn’t that hard to be proactively good with kitchen mystery right. I made this dish when I was going out for a hike in the rift ridges of Mount Longonot. When most champs go out on hiking, they carry a whole bunch of lentils, junk sausages and snacks. A whole bunch of awful food that ferments on the way or adds you more circulatory problems. Let’s go about it this way. I’ve always been pickles, a bottler, a chantey maker and a fantastic planner. I would more often make sausages,

smoke them, poach them, and vacuum pack them all. Then I would take coconut dehydrated milk, dehydrated hiking seaweed, smashed m. Dehydrated hiijaki seaweed pasta and dried shiitake mushroom master and I would turn up at the middle of a hiking and pot some awesome delicious meal. During the actual day I first tried it, I had trouble fetching water with my hiking partners so it is that memorable.

OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

CRUMBLED CHEDDAR STAFFED OX TONGUE WITH SALSA VARDE AND NUM PHRIK NUM.

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When we got the opportunity to try out the crumbled cheddar, we took it with bold excitement. This was the first dish I put on my detailed menu. It was in Nakuru, Midland Hotel. The dish was served with Spanish cause that usually accompanies fish but I swapped it for salsa Verde but uuh uh, it still needed more than that. In Mombasa early this year, I

had tried something new with the green papaya and tomato salad but with an overview of dried shrimp and colander. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get green papaya in Nakuru so I tried out green mangoes. It didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work out well and that is how I dipped the whole items into a blender laced with some fish sauce and that is how I came up with a fine blend of num firk num.

SWEET POTATOES MISO HASH WITH CHORIZO CASHEW PRALINE AND BOILED EGGS.

We started doing breakfasts in Njoro, about 20KMs from Nakuru, a century back when local hotels and side kiosks didn’t have what it takes to get it established. We introduced the flat York of the morning bosom. This is an after jog smart meal. This dish easily made it to the menu because chorizo is undoubtedly one of the things I can’t live without. It is used in

many dishes these days but back then, it came about as we had potatoes squash and miso mash. So we tried this with sweet potatoes. Ooh Lord. It was too wet for a side meal. But a killer idea of mixing it well with a herbed labneh. It went on our menu six years ago. Don’t be fooled though. It is just a functional egg and sausage alternative.

OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

WHAT HAPPEN S IN VEGAS , STAYS IN VEGAS

WE SEIZED THE DAY WITH LUNCH AT BRUNCH. By Ivi Jadanik

JAN - FEB - MAR

OM IS 81 NOW, AND IT’S AN INDISPUTABLE FACT THAT ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE HAS TAKEN ITS TOLL. She rarely talks; she barely eats. I wrote this piece in happier times, although even then I was already trying to cope with a fading mom I once knew. In retrospect, I am so glad we seized these moments; I am so glad for our ‘moveable feasts’ we had together. This is a cautionary tale, I guess: time slips away for all of us, but in such a ruthless way with dementia. Mom had a salvo of fender benders in the supermarket parking lot, and we blamed distraction, or perhaps vision changes that come with aging. One afternoon, a kind stranger called me from Guilford, more than an hour away. Mom’s car was pulled over on the side of the road. She couldn’t figure out how she got there. Mom started typing shorter and shorter emails, all in capital letters. Then she decided she didn’t like the computer any more. You’d think our family would have picked up on the encroaching dementia, but it’s actually quite common to miss it. It has a way of sneaking up. It’s been about five years since Mom’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. On the one hand I feel great gratitude for how Mom is faring — she still knows who I am, she still asks how everyone is doing. In fact, she asks repeatedly, since she can’t remember what we just discussed. But I mourn the deep and meaningful conversations we used to have. Mom has become a woman of few words, something I never could have imagined. Her sentences are simple and predictable, lacking the richness they once held. I was raised on words. Mom was an English major and a teacher. Among many other books, Mom read Chinua Achebe’s The river and the source to me when I was little. She admired how Achebe conveyed robust detail with lean, staccato sentences. So, as Mom and I sat at the Mount Kenya Bistro the other day, with plans to go next door to Harbor Books after lunch, I thought about how all of her sentences are now theoretically articulated. I mused about another book of Hemingway’s: A Moveable Feast . On an English language Web site, Edwin Ashworth helps to decipher the title’s meaning: Feast— “something delightful one can dip into, whether memories or remembered practices” — marries beautifully with moveable — “you can take it with you wherever you go.” A sense of comfort came when I realized that Mom and I still have a meaningful way of relating, although it’s a vast departure from how things used to be. We come together over our own moveable feasts. At Mt. Kenya Bistro, there isn’t much conversation — not like there once was. But Mom shares the hunk of cheese from her lunch platter. She practically inhales the lobster bisque and the warm rolls. She doesn’t finish her salad but we share a hot fudge sundae anyway. It’s a small but meaningful moment of shared bliss. Another day, when we go to ZhangWe Seized the Day with Lunch and Brunch: So Glad We Did Mom is 90 now, and it’s an indisputable fact that Alzheimer’s disease has taken its toll. She rarely talks; she barely eats. I wrote this piece in happier times, although even then I was already trying to cope with a fading away of the mom I once knew. In retrospect, I am so very glad we seized these moments; I am so glad for our “”moveable feasts,” as detailed below. I am sharing it as a bit of a cautionary tale, I guess: time slips away for all of us, but in such a ruthless way with dementia. Mom had a salvo of fender benders in the supermarket parking lot, and we blamed distraction, or perhaps vision changes that come with aging. One afternoon, a kind stranger called me from Guilford, more than an hour away. Mom’s car was pulled over on the side of the road. She couldn’t figure out how she got there. Mom started typing shorter and shorter emails, all in capital letters. Then she decided she didn’t like the computer any more. You’d think our family would have picked up on the encroaching dementia, but it’s actually quite common to miss it. It has a way of sneaking up. It’s been about five years since Mom’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. On the one hand I feel great gratitude for how Mom is faring — she still knows who I am, she still asks how everyone is doing. In fact, she asks repeatedly, since she can’t remember what we just discussed. But I mourn the deep and meaningful conversations we used to have. Mom has become a woman of few words, something I never could have imagined. Her sentences are simple and predictable, lacking the richness they once held. I was raised on words. Mom was an English major and a teacher. Among many other books, Mom

REVIVING MEMORIES

read Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea to me when I was small . She admired how Hemingway conveyed robust detail with lean, staccato sentences. So, as Mom and I sat at the Penny Lane Pub the other day, with plans to go next door to Harbor Books after lunch, I thought about how all of her sentences are now staccato. I mused about another book of Hemingway’s: A Moveable Feast . On an English language Web site, Edwin Ashworth helps to decipher the title’s meaning: Feast— “something delightful one can dip into, whether memories or remembered practices” — marries beautifully with moveable — “you can take it with you wherever you go.” A sense of comfort came when I realized that Mom and I still have a meaningful way of relating, although it’s a vast departure from how things used to be. We come together over our own moveable feasts. At My. Kenya Bistro, there isn’t much conversation — not like there once was. But Mom shares the hunk of cheese from her lunch platter. She practically inhales the lobster bisque and the warm rolls. She doesn’t finish her salad but we share a hot fudge sundae anyway. It’s a small but meaningful moment of shared bliss. Another day, when we headed to Zizi Restaurant, the waiter greeted us with a kind smile of recognition, and a question: “does she booze?” He brings our wines, then a plateful of salty edamame. We silently shell the beans, popping the contents into our mouths and savoring the warm treat. Each lunch or dinner recalls countless lunches and dinners, including those when Mom was young, healthy and talkative. We toast the same toasts and pore over the menu together, weighing the pros and cons of each choice. I have started to come to terms with the loss of my mother as I once knew her, finding a new kind of delight in how she is doing what something so many of us strive for — truly living in the moment. Her senses still relish variety of sushi. Her eyes light up at a new taste or something especially colorful, and we now converse in an agreeable shorthand about temperatures and textures — the scalding soup, the oily garlic knots, the pit to watch out for in the olives, and the biting wind or beating heat as we walk from the car to the restau-

rant. I don’t know what the future will hold for Mom and me, or for the way we relate, but our many moveable feasts are graced moments during an otherwise trying time. They are small, shared adventures in the good taste of now. Our meals are memories that I may have to hold for Mom, but they are also memories that I can take wherever I go. The waiter greets us with a kind smile of recognition, and a question: “Pinot.?” He brings our wines, then a plate of salty edamame. We silently shell the beans, popping the contents into our mouths and savoring the warm treat. Each lunch or dinner recalls countless lunches and dinners, including those when Mom was young and healthy and talkative. We toast the same toasts and pore over the menu together, weighing the pros and cons of each choice. I have started to come to terms with the loss of my mother as I once knew her, finding a new kind of delight in how she is doing what something

THE OLD ONE OUT OUT FOR LUNCH so many of us strive for. Her senses still relish variety. Her eyes light up at a new taste or something especially colorful, and we now converse in an agreeable shorthand about temperatures and textures — the scalding soup, the oily garlic knots, the pit to watch out for in the olives, and the biting wind or beating heat as we walk from the car to the restaurant. I don’t know what the future will hold for Mom and me, or for the way we relate, but our many moveable feasts are graced moments during an otherwise trying time. They are small, shared adventures in the good taste of now. Our meals are memories that I may have to hold for Mom, but they are also memories that I can take wherever I go. I really encourage you to branch.

The fruit is in a can,” grandma was warned when ordering french toast with fruit.Who would have it any other way? Breakfast inspired the first action shot. Life, bowls of cherries and all that.

OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

UNDENIED PRIVILEGE MY HOMETOWN IN MOMBASA, IS DUBBED THE HUB OF MOSQUES AND VODKA. By Magna Danma Heshi

odka is haram with Muslims here. And actually something I never really understood is, when it comes to vodka and nyama choma, the number of guys who combine the yum are crazy. This is of cause, not seen during Ramadan and then you notice, the amount of your guests is actually from one compelling religious

JAN - FEB - MAR

tribe. A hangover from colonial days seemed to color my view of this place. I moved away 11 years ago so really my vision and perception of it, somewhere I continually visit but don’t live, is distorted. For me, it was always a place set in its ways, changing and unwilling to try new things. But something is as visible as an elephants’ foot in the mad. I spent a lot of time there at the beginning of this year and the changes were evident. Things seem to be happening on the street clubs, in one form or another. Medusa is one big central joint where I get all my heroic whiskey in Mombasa. Don’t worry; it is not some cheap joint that flocks with creepy wannabes and truck drivers as your usual bar. This is an exotic bar at the lining of Nyali Reef that gets inflated with the best people to make a hung with. The simplicity of their Nyama Choma is transformed by the half a tonne of homemade oven, grilled by the guys themselves, and hauled around to their various locations with great effort. You might think why bother but honestly, the smokey smells emanating from the chimney, with an amazing meat pies made right in front of you and served achingly hot, is part of what, I think, makes it a fantastic place to visit. Yet again simplicity has conquered all. No stuffed crusts, BBQ chicken or jalapeno pepper toppings here. Just a laid back friendly chat and a slice of heavenly NyamChom. Suleiman Bar. Meat on the bone turns some people off. They don’t know what they’re miss-

ing. Is there anything better than tuning into your cavewoman instincts, grabbing a bone and gnawing on it. It may not be considered polite, it sure isn’t pretty, but it’s something that taps into the enjoyment and physicality of actually eating: getting your hands dirty, sucking on the juices, making sure you get every last little piece. The Rib Man taps into this visceral experience: the smell of charcoal from the BBQ the ribs are cooked on, the clatter of bones discarded in the process of stripping the meat, tender morsels spilling out of your mouth as you take a bite, shoving it back in with your fingers. For those prudish about bones, the succulent, juicy slow cooked rib meat is also served boneless, generously filling tortilla wraps or white baps and bursting with huge flavour, something that you just wouldn’t get from a fillet. Served with what can only be described as the most aptly named sauce ever, the food coming out of this stall gets you high on so many levels. I think I may have actually had an out of body experience the first time I had Holy Fuck sauce, and yet it keeps you coming back for more. When the heat finally subsides in your mouth, a mixture of spice and tang is left that complements the meat perfectly. It really is addictive. I admire the Rib Man, for me he captures the spirit of street food: do one thing and do it really well. You can’t argue with that. You will find The Rib Man along Nkurumah Road in Mombasa – check their social network on Facebook for details.

All these joints each offer a vodka taste either in full stack or either has an off the road brool.

T ast es BEFORE MIDNIGHT

WINE SELECTIONS

NOVAK PINOT NOIR Price 1,900KSH

Its red color refers to the content of the glass. Furthermore I used the sights the foreigner like the most. Behind the Typography you can recognize the connection between the wine and the power. The interesting thing is that you can see 5 different variation of the piece of map on the 5 different labels. This wine has a pleasant aromas of strawberry, peach and flowering Jasmine taste. The crisp acidity is a perfect match for the fruity sweetness that lingers on the palate with the floral notes. It’s good for desserts and cheese. Available from Chandarana

Millstream collection Price 4,500KSH

Millstream Collection is a new series of still wines produced by the Russian company Millstream for the internal Russian market. This product line is comprised of middle and upper-middle class wines, the main feature of which is cold bottling - a technique that allows retaining most of the original aromatic and tasting traits of the drink. The label design for the new product had to be neat, catchy, premium looking, while also making the packaging informative for the consumer. This wine is always a good choice for the festive season. It is fresh dry and ready. Available from Maya Lounge.

Gogu Winery Price 3500KSH

The brand “Gogu Winery” is based on a powerful image - the roots that take its rise from the monogram of Gogu family name and symbolize the authenticity, heritage and connection between generations on the one hand, and a huge, long-term experience in grape growing and contestant development on the other. This sparkling wine with an attractive gold bottle is made from 100% Chardonnay and comes from the Burgundy region. On the nose, it has aromas of vanilla and white flowers. On the palate, it is fresh and light. Available from le decanter ABC

OUTLU ST M AGAZ I N E

JAN - FEB - MAR

79 JUST

FEMI ONE

Q : W H AT D O YO U W I S H M O R E P E O P L E K N E W A B O U T K E N YA ? HIS IS A COUNTRY THAT HAS BEEN CALLED THE LAND OF SAFARI FOR A REASON. When visiting places like Malindi, which is a location that is very old, you’ll want to get ready for laidback holidays, adventurous tourism, historic locations, sightseeing, and some of the best trekking you’ll find in the entire country. If you aren’t smiling yet, you will surely be after visiting this fascinating location. With locations such as the Maasai Mara, Tsavo, Mau Narok, Rift valley escarpments, and the Butterfly Farm in Mombasa, these are places that will truly have you in wonder as to how these types of places even exist. If you truly want to enjoy a unique experience in the wonderful country of Kenya, the locations listed above are only a drop-in-the-hat when it comes to what this beautiful country has to offer. Our tourism is on the rise and the reasons are very obvious. This is a country that has a whole lot to offer when it comes to culture, tradition, and heritage, but what you’ll find is that once you’ve visited all the different sites and surroundings, it will become extremely hard for you. Nairobi is probably considered one of the most traveled destinations in East Africa. This is an excellent location that is also well known for its vibrant nightlife, the wonderful cuisine, and the extremely fascinating combination of history and modernization. There aren’t a whole lot of places that you can visit that still have entire wildlife destination in the middle of the city intact that you can reach out and witness glee. When visiting Nakuru on the other hand, one of the places you must visit will be the Lake. This is a location that will simply leave you in awe. However, before getting into the tourist attractions, it’s important to realize that although Kenyan cities will provide entertainment, pleasant sights to see, and extreme relaxation, you’ll also find that this is a place that is rich in history that dates all the way back to the English rule.

Outlust Magazine panel is an exclusive global community comprised of creative and elite writers willing to share their views, opinions, and experiences. By joining the panel you will participate in contributing provocative experiences from your travels through our mail and have the unique opportunity to influence the evolution of Outlust Magazine readers.

By Amisi Kevin Femi One is an award winning musician in Kenya who has participated in many country tours and foundations. She is signed with Kaka Empire and is currently doing sets on here third underground album. What Outlust likes about Femi is her appeal, charisma and vividness towards music and how she impacts Kenyans with it.

Note: This interview was edited for clarity and length.

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