Markklößchensuppe

Die einfache Gemüsetütensuppe mit alten Kartoffelresten, einer wabbeligen Karotte sowie Trockenpetersilie ausm Glas verfeinert.

Dazu Markklößchen aus Traunstein – dachte ich mir: probier ich das mal. Schaut interessant aus und könnte schmecken.

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Die Suppe lecker, die Markklößchen ob der beinhalteten Hefe eher weniger. Sorry, liebe Familie Leimer, aber so kommen wir nich ins Geschäft. Die Backerbsen vielleicht. Nächstes Mal…

Wer das Geschirr scheußlich findet, hat noch nie zur Untermiete gewohnt und ist jetzt außerdem nicht mehr mein Freund. So.

(das Muster grenzt an eine Mischung aus Partykeller & Lüneburger Heide Wanderungen & Azteken – jedoch: immerhin von V&B! :-)

Poire & Cognac Fine

In Zeiten, in denen es Anderen schlecht geht und persönliches Leid mit solch einer Lethargie etragen wird, einfach deswegen weil es keinen anderen Weg gibt – in diesen Zeiten muss man das Leben so genießen wie es kommt.

Und nichts mag da sympathischer daherkommen als mein österreichischer Vermieter, der mich spontan um 12 Uhr nachts noch auf einen schönen französischen Cognac Fine, mit Poire (~ Williams Birne) verfeinert, einlädt. Ein schöner, 30jähriger Cognac, der so richtig mild und ölig, aber auch sehr süß im Mund zergeht und ich mir im Kopf schon ein Rezept ausmale, wo er auf einem schönen Flan Pudding und mit einem Hauch von guter Schokolade, die Spitze des Genusses andeutet.

Essen ist hierzulande viel zu unterbewertet, und gutes Essen sowieso. Selbst in Kenia, wo meiner Meinung nach ein Paradoxon in Sachen “einheimischer Küche” herrscht, werden die wenigen bekannten Gerichte mit Liebe zubereitet. Es mag vielleicht auch ein bißchen seltsam klingen, aber meine größte Verwunderung nach all den Jahren in Kenia und den Erfahrungen dort, habe ich mich letztes Jahr (wieder) vor allem über die beschränkte Auswahl an Gerichten gewundert. Und das obwohl es in Kenia so eine reichhaltige Landwirtschaft gibt, die nach guten Maßstäben produziert! Allein der Unterschied zwischen der reichhaltigen Küche der Swahili Kultur an der Küste und der GEMA (Gikuyu Embu Meru..) Fraktion im Landesinneren verwundert mich immer noch bis heute. Als ich letztes Jahr in Embu war, hatte ich darüber ja mehrfach gebloggt und mich ausgelassen, wieso auf der einen Seite dieses “Stadtleben” in so vielen Varianten kopiert wird, auf der anderen Seite aber beim Essen die Standardgerichte bevorzugt werden. Dies ist auch keine Frage des Einkommens oder des Wohnortes, sondern der Einstellung und der Bereitschaft, gutes Essen als Genuss zu sehen.
Allein – es besteht keine Nachfrage. Noch nicht.

Zum Cognac gab es übrigens noch schönen Tafelspitz aus ganz zartem Rindfleisch und großen Gemüsestücken.

Eine Konditorei in Nairobi mit gutem, richtig gutem Kuchen und feinem Café – wäre das keine gute Geschäftsidee? Wer Nairobi kennt, wird dies nur bestätigen wollen – siehe Java House & Co..

Bei all der Trauer um die “post election violence” und einer fraglichen Entwicklung, die vielleicht aus europäischer Sicht immer mehr in Richtung des widerstandslosen Chinas abwandert, darf man nicht vergessen, dass Kenia in diesen Tagen das nachholt, was zum Wohle des “Fortschritts” in über 40 Jahren kenianischer Republik unter den Teppich gekehrt oder nur für Wahlkampfzwecke missbraucht wurde: die Auseinandersetzung mit der eigenen Identität in einer neuen Weltordnung. Vom Konflikt betroffen sind aber die richtig Armen – und das ist genau der Knackpunkt: die Menschen werden für Ideologien missbraucht, die in der heutigen Welt nicht mehr Bestand haben.

Ich wünsche mir für Kenia ein friedliches Miteinander, in dem diese Euphorie des Vorwahlkampfes (“auch Deine Stimme zählt”) den Ruck in die Gesellschaft bringt, den man für positive Veränderungen braucht. Von einer Regierung, und das hat wohl jetzt jeder verstanden, kann man bestenfalls nur das Abstecken legislativer Rahmenbedingungen erwarten.

Ach, und besseren Kuchen in Nairobi – den wünsche ich mir auch! :-)

Im Herzen Frankfurts

A week in Frankfurt am Main, and it already feels like I’ve never really left this place 8 years ago. Images, scenarios, smells, speeds, people, this peculiar atmosphere – a very familiar place with lots of interesting sights and sounds.

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view on the skyline from a rather filthy Bahnhofsviertel…

One of those really nice places in Frankfurt is the restaurant “Im Herzen Afrikas” (“In the heart of Africa”), which is something like a mixture of the 40 Thieves place at Diani Beach (because of the sand and numerous comfy corners) and one of those typical Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurants = good food and nice coffee.

These folks over at the restaurant organized some sort of beach party – in the middle of downtown Frankfurt, just about 100m away from the European Central Bank, in a close section of the road that passes in front of the restaurant. A beach party with real sand (!), a kids corner, life music, a DJ and a beautiful atmosphere. It started at around 1 pm and we went there at around 8pm and stayed for a few drinks.

Ok so I missed taking some decent pictures of the event as I was busy munching some fine Injera and getting jiggy with someone special, but for those lovers of comfy places with that special atmosphere in the middle of Europe: you certainly missed this!

Im Herzen Afrikas
Gutleutsraße 13
60329 Frankfurt am Main
(google maps)

==> Does anyone know of Kenyan joints in the Rhine-Main Area?

Currywurstshushi

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Nothing else illustrates this typical Frankfurt-feeling better than having Maki & Inari Sushi served on a typical packing we normally use for Germany’s most favourite fast food: Currywurst :-)

Oh and btw: Frankfurt rocks, the internship is great & inspiring, there’s fresh and good Sushi available (as pictured above – a mandatory condition with me), the folks I am staying with are great people and it’s just a damn good feeling to be returning to a place I’ve lived before. What I also like about this City is the multi cultural atmosphere and how all these things mix up to a big picture. Oh, and did I mention the affordable Sushi? ^^

(all of the above is just my own lame excuse for not being there with them :-)

soup, baby!

The following post on cooking goes out to all my friends out there who hardly ever cook. Yes, those very same ppl who enjoy watching Jamie Oliver creating some culinary miracorrrrs, but prefer to opt for the quick & dirty solution when it comes to organizing dinner.

Ok now, this is Germany, which means lots of people eating bread. Healthy wholemeal bread and not that kind of white bread the Brits (who can’t cook! yes, I said it!) presumably introduced to a country like Kenya. If there’s one good thing about Germany, then it’s the beer, a wide variety of whole-meal breads and different kinds of sausages.

As for the bread, there are ready mixtures available for as low as EUR 0,35 that just require 320ml of warm water, 2h hours of resting and about 45 minutes of baking in the oven @ ~ 200°C. A simple and quick solution for your own bread that doesn’t come with any preservatives and other fake ingredients. Since you’re the one who bakes it, you know what’s inside. Pefect.

soup
vegetable soup with fresh parsley and home-baked whole-meal bread

And then there’s the vegetaboooool.

The vegetable they are selling here in Germany often comes from some articifial plantations in Spain or the Netherlands – and while it looks great, it often tastes like…nothing. The potatoes I bought, for instance, have come from Israel.

Israel! Now that reminds me of the apples from China we had the other day

So I went shopping and came across a bunch of more or less cheap vegetables: potatoes, onions, carrots and celery. I added a bunch of parsley and headed home.

“No, I don’t want to eat any carbohydrates in the evening”, I heard this friend of mine complaining the other day. – “Yeah, sure…how about a light soup then?”.

Yes, how about a nice vegetable soup? My initial plan was to slightly cook the vegetable and eat it with some curd cheers, but then I just chopped everything, threw it onto the stove with some (very) salty water and let it boil until the vegetable had this particular “al dente” firmness: ready to bite.
I then pureed everything with my favourite kitchen gadgetimoja and added some nutmeg and fresh parsley and a bit of milk.

This recipe is just so simple and yet healthy as it contains no oils or other evil stuff that makes you think twice about the evening beer. Also, you may want to freeze any extra soup that you can’t finish in one day, which just makes it perfect for those many many singles out there who eat nothing at all in the evenings just because they are too tired to cook a single menu.

(this article is part of the “cooking with Juergen Kamau” series :-)

Happy Ea(s)ter!

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Well, I never really understood why ppl are eating easter eggs on easter weekend (as there are too many possible explanations), but this assortment here is just awesome.

Easter actually starts on sunday, but the bunny inside made such a noise that I got permission to open it in advance (hey, I asked!). And WOW what did I find inside?

Two beautifully painted eggs. Now that’s real love, ama? :-)

And, the best part: it reminds me of last year!

5.0 Pils

What do you do in a country, where almost every supermarket offers a choice of at least 30 beer brands?

Exactly – you change your marketing strategy.

Pils

When I came across these crates of “5.0 Original Pils” beer on Sato afternoon, I first thought these guys are kidding me. A whole crate of 5.0 Pils (@ 0.5l each) costs EUR 5.99! Now that’s cheap!

In a country where the average beer consumption is ~117,5 ltr per person/year, buying beer quickly becomes a matter of the pocket.
There’s one popular brewery in Germany with about 20 different beers on the market. It’s popular because it’s the cheapest brand out there, and they are cheap because the brewery directly sells to consumers & thereby avoiding resellers.

Obviously, the competitors are envious of the success this cheaper brand has, and, more importantly: convincing customers on quality requires special approaches. Hence this new marketing strategy that lacks any further advertisment campaigns. Customers are approached where they actually purchase their beer. Smart.

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The sticker reads: “it’s just a simple label! no expensive golden label! a simple crown cap! no expensive tv advertisment! and everything in a used crate! we’re forwarding these savings to you! we’ve saved on almost everything! except for the quality of this beer!” etc….

So I bought one bottle, opened it, tasted it and smiled. Good choice! :-)

visuals from the food corner

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At Nakumatt Likoni (in Mombasa) the chocolate is stored in the fridge. A great idea!

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Mombasa: Crispy chips, spicy beef kebap, lots of salads and 5 sauces to choose from.

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Mandazi & other sweets as sold on Mombasa streets. I also tried some delicious Swahili Pizza (egg + minced meat) for 50/= as well as Kabibi, those rice cakes.

The Coast Region really is a culinary delight.

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Back in Embu I was welcomed by oily, half-fried chips. Hmmm.

You see, I met my butcher yesterday and he asked me why I had never come back to his shop. I told him straight away that his meat tasted like OMO and that I would just LOVE to see at least ONE person in this Githeri/Mataahaaa-infested rural town to come up with the smart idea of running a Nyama Choma joint where beef kebap is sold. Those beef cubes / shashlik skewered on a stick. I am sure ppl would buy and love it. Also because those sticks don’t take too long on a grill as mbuzi choma normally takes about 45 minutes or even longer. My butcher liked the idea but of course doesn’t have the funds to start his own Nyama Choma joint.