5 July 2020: It’s Dorottya’s turn, and we’re back in Africa!
Britain is still in this wierd Corona-virus limbo, but we are pushing on. Dorottya, her boyfriend Andreas, Lianne, Bernhard, and yours truly (two more friends of Dorottya’s were supposed to come, but bailed).
We had lots of beer, but were short on icing-sugar (no, not that, you naughty people – actual icing sugar, for doughnuts).
Here’s how the leadup to that dinner went:
30/06/2020, 23:29 –
Bernhard: Local beer from Kenya 🙂 Ordered us a case
Arianna:: 👍😁
Dorottya: Yey!! I was trying to get some but could only find a west African shop locally and they didn’t have it!
02/07/2020, 12:50 –
Bernhard: We have beer 🙂
Arianna: 👏👏
Dorottya: Wow! Lots to get through on an almost-school-night! 😋
Arianna: What school? Still flippin’ homeschooling 🙄
Bernhard: Haha. Aren’t we 7 people?
Dorottya: Yep!
Bernhard: So 2 per person! Perfect 🙂
04/07/2020, 13:23 –
Bernhard: Hey in regards to these beers… should I put them in the fridge right now and cool them? Or should Arianna and I just show up a bit earlier and put them in the freezer?
Dorottya: What a lot of thought going into this!! 😄 use your judgement! Speaking of which: turns out we’ll only be five people tonight…
Arianna: We’ll manage 😉
05/07/2020, 13:26 –
Dorottya: Hey! Have (has? 🤔) either of you got any icing sugar at home? My delivery got messed up and i didn’t get any and could do with some…no panic if not…
Bernhard: I don’t have any. But I can definitely get some from the store if you need me to
Arianna: Has. I do but I’m not there…
Bernhard: Should I pick some up?
Dorottya: If you can?
Bernhard: No problem at all 🙂
Bernhard: Weird. My local shop didn’t have any either. I’ll check w another store
Dorottya: Don’t stress too much, we can eat african doughnuts without!
So what did we have?
The centre on this dinner was excellent Kuku paka (African chicken and coconut curry) (which apparently means ‘delicious chicken’, which it is), served with fluffy Ugali (cornmeal buns) and vibrant Kachumbary (Kenyan tomato & onion Salad).
I love eating with my fingers and making a mess, so pinching off bits of Ugali to dunk and scoop up the stew was brilliant. Dorottya clearly practiced to get the texture of the buns right (could easily be too crumbly or stodgy) – they were perfect.
The fresh, crunchy salad was very welcome on a warm July evening Besides, you would never have a non-carbs-protein-veg-balanced meal at Dorottya’s. She’s a nutritionist as well as a good cook; But just to show that she’s not above indulging in guilty pleasures, she made soft Mandazi / Biegnets – African doughnuts. That’s where the icing-sugar came in.
And plenty of Tusker beer…
I credit the doughnuts with the fact that none of us suffered crushing hangovers the next day. Nothing like a heavy carb stomach lining to spare the ol’ head.
The soundtrack was this Kenyan Spotify playlist.
