Our Neighborhood in Food

Our daily life is heavily influenced by the creek.  The creek has both advantages and disadvantages.  Big advantages include the green strip which has grown up around the creek, harboring several trees and assorted greenery.  The mango trees which provide both food and regular banging on the tin roof when ripe fruit falls, are nourished by the creek.  


Even in the height of the dry season, the creek still has a flow, so it's pretty healthy.  However, our only direct interaction with it is on the road, which is gross.  "Why is it gross?", you ask.  Trash.  For now, there are plenty of good stepping stones, but we still see multiple plastic bottles, plastic bags, and other such things on the way. In exchange for our troubles the creek gets named the [creek-up-which-you-don't-want-to-be-stuck-without-a-paddle].  

Yet we make the journey because on the far side of the creek, there are not one, not two, not three, but four good Ethiopian restaurants.  One plays lots of country music.  Another, a big bonus, has really good lasagna, a little bit of air conditioning, and a steady flow of CNN.  On the next block over, there's a good pizza place.  

If you're going for cheaper fare, at the second corner past the creek has The Chicken Man.  The Chicken Man is actually usually a woman, and actually usually means rice, greens and beans, all for five pounds (less than two dollars!).  But sometimes there is a man (or a woman) grilling chicken, which is absolutely delicious.  


If you want more of a chicken, or if you want your plastic deck table & chair to be situated on concrete, you head up the road another piece to The Kenyan Place. The Kenyan Place has a slightly more varied selection, a bigger grill, and is a bit of a networking spot. It is owned, and largely populated, by Kenyans--NGO workers, local tradesmen, security guards and, somewhat confusingly, EU election observers. I have also heard rumors of A Ugandan Place on the same road, but haven't seen it personally.

Right across from The Kenyan Place is The Sketchy Juice Place.  None of the khawajas (white folk) that I know of can actually verify that the juice place is sketchy, but the first person to tell me about it was another American who really wanted to try it but was waiting for someone else to go first to assess the digestive situation.  Fruit here, even when imported (which is sadly common) is delicious, but not always good for you.  


The other especially important place across the creek is the baker.  The baker is Muslim, which means that he's sometimes closed when you wouldn't otherwise expect him to be. He's also pretty friendly and more enthusiastic than most about trying to teach me Arabic, which is quite nice helpful, if largely unsuccessful thus far. 

A few blocks more, maybe 3/4 miles from our house, is the market, where you can get everything from a custom-made bookshelf (check) to a Lebron James jersey from Cleveland (uncheck).  Then it's back down the road home, full and happy, possibly laden with groceries, past all our favorite haunts, a handful of roadside mechanics, a few homes, and our little creek. 

- John