One of the most difficult questions I find answering is “What inspires your recipes?”. I mean for the most part, my recipes are inspired by nostalgic memories of what I grew up eating and what my mom made for us, but on the other side, literally anything can inspire a recipe. From an aroma, an oduor :D, a texture, a color etc. This recipe was birthed as a result of stress and a bad workday I was having. Sounds weird, but I think most creatives get this. I had spent a Monday creating a video, that took 6 hours to make, only to be told by the client it needed to be deleted. I felt a bit frustrated and stressed so I left the house for a few minutes just to clear my head. Drove around Nairobi for about found myself in Kenyatta Market. I found the ladies just concluding frying fresh Tilapia and decided to get some. On my way home I thought about what I would make, and since I had soaked some ukwaju for extraction before I left, I decided to marry the two. Not only did the development of this recipe cheer me up, but the moment I sat down to eat made me completely forget that I was sad! This is the BEST whole tilapia recipe you will ever ever EVVVVVVEEEEEEEEERRRR try!
Tag: Kaluhi (Page 8 of 10)
I have always been a home body! I will choose a night in over a night out without batting an eyelid, without hesitation, without thinking twice. I mean why would I go freeze at some noisy, smoke-filled, crammed room when you have your cosy, warm, peaceful house at your disposal :D? It being very cold in Nairobi at the moment, I am naturally gravitating towards all comforting things, be it food or activities. I have been recreating my past favorite soups alot, this one and this one specifically. A perfect night to me is a delicious soup, warm socks on and binge watching The Handmaid’s Tale . I decided to throw in a new one and here we are with my rosemary and karafuu potato soup. Potatoes are delicious in any form right? And you bet they are just as yummy as a soup. The video to today’s recipe is on my YouTube channel as well so pass by and watch and do not forget to hit that subscription button :)).
This one has just now entered my list of my top three soups and I hope you enjoy this one as well.
There are some days I eat way too much and indulge more than usual. The day I went to Picazzo with my sister was one of those days. My morning began with a hearty breakfast of fresh cardamom maandazi my mom had made, eggs and sausages. Since I had promised my youngest sister I would take her out for lunch to Picazzo that day, that also became another opportunity to indulge. Later that evening, I was taking my bestie out for dinner for her birthday celebration at my favorite restaurant in Westlands, that she had never been too. I literally spent the entire day eating. I proudly waddled all over Nairobi with my food baby and truly tried my best to suck in my food pregnancy for the photos. Can you tell? I’m sure you can LOL!
It being my first time at Picazzo, and the restaurant being pretty new, I decided to turn it to a review for you guys. Remember, a review is an opinion, hence is subjective, so remember what one likes may be what you hate or vice versa since we are all different and that’s ok and normal. I encourage you to check it out yourself nonetheless and see how you like it <3.
So here we go!
OH MY GOD!!!!!!
I AM 26!
I won’t lie, I had a mini panic attack a few weeks back following my birthday. But as days got closer, I felt like I was actually blossoming and not wilting. And today as my mom sang me happy birthday, everything felt ok and I knew the year ahead would be fantastic since it started with the person who first held me and laid eyes on me when I came to this earth wishing me well and declaring blessings upon it. God bless mothers! <3 There is this beauty about coming into your own as you grow older and living life according to your terms and that is freeing to me. I am entering a phase in my life that where my wings shall be spread with even more splendor and I will even surprise myself by what I can achieve. I am entering a phase where I am increasingly unafraid of my power and excited about challenges thrown my way. I am excited about the glow-up in all areas of my life. I am excited about everything! And as I turn 26, here is what I pray and hope for :
<3
One of my highlights of 2016 that I told you of in this post was my visit to Johannesburg with Google Africa. I had always wanted to visit South Africa, and having this chance to experience Johannesburg was one week I will live to remember. Besides their absolutely rich culture, vibrant people and amazing weather (just like Nairobi’s <3), I totally loved their food! From the familiar like moqhoudu, which is known as matumbo to Kenyans, I absolutely loved bobotie, sosaties, milk tarts and everything else. I loved eating salmon and litchi every morning. We also had lots of lamb and oxtail while down south. My favorite dish was a lamb stew we had at Vuyo’s; it was stewed with rosemary and I loved it!!! I ate the most that day (as usual LOL!) but I couldn’t help myself. With inspiration from that unforgettable week in the Rainbow Nation,I decided to recreate this dish based on the flavor notes my palate could remember, the ingredients I had and of course with a twist of my own. I was more than satisfied by the outcome and I hope you enjoy my rosemary mint marinated lamb stew as well :))
I have said this before, and I will say it again: Nairobi traffic can send you to the brink of insanity. Lord forbid it rains or a trailer overturns on Mombasa road. Everything comes to a stand still. Meetings get canceled, dates get postpone and flights get missed. All this can simply be fixed and avoided by being at the right place at the right time. I remember the time my cousin Khetiwe came home for her holiday visit, she nearly missed her flight because of on going construction of the Southern bypass at that time. We all wished we would have left earlier and had lunch at a nearby hotel then see her off at the airport without stress, running people over like mad race horses rushing and anxiety. Next time she is in the country, I will for sure recommend Lazizi Premier Hotel for lunch, which is right inside our airport, and will save us the hustle of crossing the through monstrous Nairobi traffic. Here is a full review of my stay there:
Nothing excites me more than having fantastic food with great company. My last week Thursday at Radisson Blu, Upper Hill Nairobi, was just that! Several food bloggers including myself and other media journalists had been invited for a media tasting and all I can say is that I was blown away by everything. We were asked to give our opinion about everything and this is what the review is all about. I would like to take you through what we had and I hope you make a visit there and experience everything for yourself. The rating of each dish is out of 5 stars, which i’d like to call K-stars, because this is a rating by me :DD. From all the questions and comments I received from my Instagram story on the afternoon I walked you through the tasting, I am sure this is something you will love <3.