The saying ‘A hungry man is an angry man’ may not necessarily be accurate, but we all know how inactive we can be when lunchtime is around the corner. Hunger ripples through your tummy and sends signals to your brain. And woe unto you if your office is adjoining a restaurant! Nothing else matters other than the smell of food. If you aren’t craving anything specific, your mind wanders into the contents of your wallet or M-Pesa, you consider your budget and sometimes even debate whether you really need to spend the money you have. Your lunch location is decided based on a number of things, and we are certain that quantity is on that list.
This is probably what leads you to a street nearby with a variety of informal restaurants we call kibandas. There is always a man or woman, armed with energy, beckoning you with words like “Chakula tamu hapa” or “Ni saa ya lunch”. You walk into the open shed with wood benches and take a seat beside individuals or groups who don’t look up because it is lunchtime and food, food is very important to Kenyans. There is no menu but you look at the plates around you and decide on the most tantalizing looking meal.
On another occasion, you are on your way to the bus stop after work. A three-wheeled white trolley is surrounded by three or four people who are gobbling little pink sausages or eggs that are on display. The vendor has two lunchboxes with a mixture of tomatoes and onions, he has a salt shaker and if you’re lucky, even a bottle of ketchup. You hear another person ask for a yai and hand the vendor a Ksh 20 coin.
In another place, there is a jiko with hot coal and a bowl-shaped pan above it. The smell of hot oil draws you nearer to the deep-fried mandazi or cassava. But more often than this, you will find a man roasting maize with such skill and precision; you know that there is nothing quite as good as mahindi choma. When the crackle of the kernels win you over and you buy an entire cob, he asks if you’d like pili pili on it, and he takes a lemon, already out of its bitter juice, and dabs it in a tin with chilli powder and decorates the cob with red particles.
The informal food trade is the backbone of food security in Kenya and is an important source of food for urban dwellers. All these wonderful snacks and filling foods that we enjoy, usually for less than Ksh 200.
