Kenya - August 17th, 2007

I had planned this dinner well in advance... I want to say, probably 3 weeks in advance to make sure I had enough time to prepare and also I had planned it around some deadline at work, so imagine how upset I was when management at work moved the deadline with little notice and almost demanded that I cancel my plans. I must have missed the sign that said: "give up your personal life upon entering the building" when I accepted the job... at any rate, I refused to cancel my plans and as a result I ended up working until 11pm the night before. But, hey, this meant that I went to bed with no dinner and so I didn't feel too guilty about splurging on food the day of my Kenyan dinner! Sure I was a little tired, but since I left work at 12.30pm and got Eric to do my shopping, I didn't have to struggle to have everything ready on time by the time the guests arrived.

Anyway, about Kenya... I had envisioned a meat feast based on what Eric's recount of his dinner experiences when he visited Kenya when he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro! He said he ate zebra and he says it was a most delicious meat... however, the only place I could find it (without asking the Atlanta's zoo) was from a website in England and I wasn't about to have my dinner shipped across the Atlantic. So, instead, I resorted to looking over the web to see if I could find some traditional Kenyan recipes. I found a few interesting websites, nothing too overwhelming, so it wasn't too difficult to finalize the menu.

I always find it can be difficult to divide the menu into "appetizer", "main course" and "dessert" as many countries don't really follow this kind of order so, since I always try to have at least 3 courses, sometimes I have to improvise and what would be a side dish, could become an appetizer. This happened this time, as I just couldn't find anything that would make a typical appetizer. Then again, "typical western expectations" is not what I set out to satisfy and so I should not be too disappointed. And I am sure that most people that happen to come to my alphabetical dinners feel the same. You've got to be at least a little adventurous if you want to make the whole experience a fun one. I guarantee, there'll never be snakes at my dinner table... or cockroaches... but for pretty much everything else, as long as it can be purchased legally, I am game.

Dan and Laurel had been at my alphabetical dinners before but Peter and Pat (their boyfriends) hadn't and I always enjoy having new people to share this wonderful journey as their reactions to my few but strict rules are always a lot of fun for me. The 'rating the meal' is always something that is kind of unexpected from dinner guests and I am sure many feel like they should be sensitive of my feelings (I remember that one of my guests, Craig, used to always say that he couldn't understand how I could go through getting people critique my cooking, but I don't see it that way, to me it's about talking about the food and the different spices and flavors that make up a cuisine... although it probably is a bit egocentric to assume that one would know everything about a particular cuisine just by cooking a meal...).

At any rate, Pat - or was it Peter? I really hadn't slept very much the night before - had several questions over the rating scheme, how many decimal points were allowed and other silly questions like that! But I supposed that's all part of the fun. Especially since the rating happen at the end of the meal after several bottles of wine! And despite Dan's suggestion that I should have every dish rated after we ate it, I think I'll stick to my routine and rate the whole meal at the end of it. I think I like the fact that people have a chance of trying everything before deciding what they liked best. Although I can see the benefit of having every dish rated separately: this way one would rate just that one dish but then it would be difficult to know what was the one that everyone truly loved or hated...

I found that - as it happened before with African countries - Kenyan food had some affinity to Southern US cuisine, again probably because many of the people in southern USA are from African origins. Certainly collard greens are a staple in Georgia and the same can be said of Kenya. I also found some Indian influence (Chapati is also a very popular dish in Kenya) and this is most likely due to the English colonization.

One thing that I find always surprises me is the heavy use in many third world countries of packaged food (canned vegetables, mashed potatoes made out of flakes, etc) but as Eric pointed out, it makes sense since refrigeration isn't as available as it is for most people in Europe and North America.

Unfortunately I was so taken with the preparations and everything else (and as I said I was a bit tired) that I forgot to take pictures so you'll just have to imagine the food and us having fun eating it.

We started with plantains in coconut milk. I thought they were undercooked despite the fact that I think I cooked them for a very long time. Maybe there was something else I was supposed to do that wasn't clear to me. Dan liked them well enough that he ended up taking the left overs home with him so they can't have been all that bad. Generally I really like plantains and so I was looking forward to this dish but I have to say it left me a little disappointed...

As a main course we had meat and Irio (irio being a mix of mashed potatoes and peas) and I served this with collard greens cooked with bacon and home made chapati (a kind of bread). Chapati is very easy to make and I thought it was delicious!

As dessert I made my own mango ice cream (yum!) and served it with pineapple marinated in rum (double yum!).

Of course the food and the company and the wine always helps making these dinners a success... I am looking forward to continue on this fantastic journey.

Here is the menu and the average score:

Appetizer

Plantains in Coconut milk: 5.2

Main Course

Steak and Irio: 8

Collard Greens with bacon: 7.1

Chapati: 7.5

Dessert

Coupe Mount Kenya: 8.4

All of this was washed down with assorted red wine (mainly brought by the guests) and several bottles of 2 Buck Chuck (offically, this is Charles Shaw Winery, but at $2.49 a bottle, I guess the informality is understandable) that Pat insisted should be served from a decanter... I suppose to hide the fact that this was in fact a $2 wine... But who cares, it was drinkable and after a few glasses it didn't really matter anyway!

Next back to Eastern Europe: Latvia.

Stay tuned!