meat and greet

This pile of molten meat is courtesy of Carnivore, the famous and very aptly named meat-emporium in Nairobi. I've been jonesing to go there ever since my first trip to Kenya, but could never get anyone to go with me (well aware that meating alone is the first sign of a "meating disorder", as well as an indicator of insufficient social capital ). However, my friend Lucy's visit to Kenya provided the first opportunity for me to get my fix. Carnivore used to specialize in the whole gambit of "farm raised" game meat- gazelle, alligator, zebra, and so on, but due to increased regulation, the most exotic thing on the menu was ostrich meatballs. It is pretty much a kenyan take on an Argentinian restaurant, with guys coming around with skewers of beef, lamb, sausage, and so on until you surrender and take down the white flag that is on your table (although, I think raising the white flag is a better sign of meat surrender).





The next day, I decided that the best way to defeat the meat hangover was the old "eat more meat" strategy. This time, I got my fix at the local nyama choma (literally roast meat in swahili) kiosks on the road behind the campsite where I stay in Nairobi. I have to say that while this place lost to carnivore in terms of "sheer spectacle", the quality of the goat was FAR superior to any of the individual pieces I had tasted the previous night. If I ever do fulfill my dream of opening my own Kenyan restaurant in New York, this is what I'm going to aim for. Or rather, I'd try to appropriate this into a nouveau meat-fest, Fette-Sau style.


And finally, here I am on top of the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi: