At Amaica restaurant, you can literally travel to every corner of the country — with your taste buds, thanks to the variety of authentic traditional cuisine, writes NJOKI CHEGE.
Tucked away from the hustle and bustle of Nairobi, sits an all-African themed restaurant, the Amaica Restaurant, famed from its exclusive Kenyan cuisine.
The environment is serene and comforting, and the interior décor is out divine. The rugged but smoothly finished furniture with cushions donning earth colours brings out the homely feeling, and entrenches the desire to stay longer.
"I thought since we are serving traditional Kenyan cuisine, it befits to have an all-African themed restaurant. Besides, you don’t have to be sophisticated to make a place exiting and exotic," Pamela Muyeshi, the director of Amaica Restaurants, says.
This could be the reason why the restaurant has chandeliers are made up of African cooking sticks ‘mwikos’ bulbs covered with perforated gourds, curtains made up of sliced gourds, and a pot for a sink.
But where did the idea come from? Muyeshi reveals that her passion for traditional food is what made her start the Amaica restaurants.
"I stared out in November 2006 as a Luhya restaurant but in 2009, I diversified my scope and started serving dishes from all over the country," she says.
The first restaurant was initially located at China Centre, but has since moved to Milimani. In December last year, Muyeshi opened this African-themed restaurant along Peponi Road, Westlands.
Market gap
But Muyeshi did not realise the potential of Kenyan cuisine until she was travelling to different countries, and saw market gap in the process.
"I realised Kenya’s cuisine has so much potential, yet nobody was doing anything about it. There was a time you could hardly find a place offering a decent traditional meal. It is for this reason that I launched Amaica to give our local food the dignity it deserves," she offers.
And now, Amaica restaurant has become a favorite of several high-rolling dignitaries, such as the German ambassador to Kenya.
Like any other business, Amaica had its fair share of teething problems before it made the milestones it has today.
"Initially, I faced the challenge of getting supplies for the traditional foods, but the ministry of Culture linked me up with several women groups across the country that grow these traditional foods and vegetables," she says.
Muyeshi has since established networks with like-minded organised women’s groups countrywide to supply her with the food she requires for her hotel business.
"As for the seasonal dishes such as quails, mushrooms and white flying ants, we ensure we harvest them in large quantities when they are in season and preserve them using the traditional methods, after which they can stay for long without going bad," she adds.
There are several other restaurants in town that boast of serving authentic Kenyan cuisine, but Muyeshi reveals the secret ingredient behind Amaica’s success.
"Omunyu Omusheragha is a unique ingredient we sprinkle on our food to make sure it tastes great and acts as a preservative and a tenderizer for our meats. You can use it on smoked food and it ensures that it stays for long without going bad," she says.
‘Omunyu Omusheragha’ is a liquid made from the ashes of green banana leaves, upon which distilled, produces a solid substance that can be used as a natural salt. The liquid is used as a tenderizer, preservative and it also used to improve the taste of food.
While Muyeshi admits that she is not an expert in all Kenyan dishes, she seeks the counsel of recipe experts, particularly women from different communities, who tutor her staff on how to prepare the dishes in order to maintain the quality of the food in her restaurant.
Natural ingredients
"We strive to make our food acceptable to most palates and prevent it from being flat; we add natural ingredients such as peanut sauce instead of frying food with cooking oil," she says.
Besides this, Muyeshi travels to different parts of Kenya to learn how to cook traditional dishes that she might have missed before. The menu is a colourful handbook with all the dishes in their traditional names coupled with a brief history and information about that particular dish.
So, have Kenyans finally come to appreciate and accept authentic Kenyan food?
"Because of the awareness created around the health implications of junk food, Kenyans have come to appreciate their authentic cuisine. However, Kenyans need to do more to market this cuisine internationally," she says.
Muyeshi reckons that the increased consumption of the traditional Kenyan cuisine will not only place Kenya on the map, but also cause a ripple effect, and the benefits will trickle down to rural people who supply the food.
"Rural people will benefit most if we begin exporting this food internationally because they are a very important cog in this wheel of authentic Kenyan cuisine. But Kenyans have to endorse their local foods before it is internationally accepted," she says.
Labour intensive
One of the greatest challenges Amaica faces lies in finding the right staff to do the job well. Traditional food takes a lot of time and effort to prepare as it involves processes such as smoking and slaughtering chicken on a daily basis to ensure they are served fresh.
"Preparing traditional food is a labour intensive process. Most cooks are not able to cope with that process; therefore getting employees who will stand the heat and the long processes is hard. Recruiting and training staff is also a costly affair," she says.
