Nyama choma, “grilled meat” in Kiswahili, is barbecue stripped down to its raw elements. There are no sticky-sweet glazes here, just plenty of smoke, fire and, of course, hulking portions of bone-in meat. It is also Kenya’s most celebrated dish, equally loved by rural villagers and the country’s wealthy elite.
Everything from crocodile to ostrich is fair game, but purists generally stick to mbuzi (goat) both for its gutsy flavour and slight chewiness. A dizzying array of side dishes can and should accompany the main attraction. The simplest of these are coarse-grained salt and tiny, incendiary piri-piri chillies. Other additions include irio (mashed potatoes and peas) and ugali (cooked cornmeal) for soaking up the juices, brightly acidic kachumbari (raw tomato and onion relish), and sukuma wiki (braised collards). The whole combo should be eaten with fingers – stick to the right hand, or risk disapproving looks – and washed down with a cold Tusker beer.
Restaurants serving nyama choma range from humble roadside shacks to the kitschy, upscale Carnivore (tamarind.co.ke/carnivore), where the meat comes skewered on Masai swords.
But the best of the bunch may be relative newcomer, Herisquare (herisquare.co.ke), a sprawling space with a lush courtyard for long afternoons and a dancefloor spinning everything from the African lingala (also called soukous) to hip-hop late into the evening. It may be low on frills, but the barbecue is good enough to fill the car park every night with Mercedes from Nairobi’s poshest neighbourhoods.
