Soup in summer is strange

I love soup.  That is one of my favorite things about fall in the northwest…cooking warm or spicy foods to warm you up after being out in the wind and rain of Portland.

It’s never really like that here in Kenya.  It pretty much feels like summer year-round, so now, even though it is strange, we eat soup in the summer.  I can’t give up soup!

I’m gonna try the Ginger-scented Apple-squash soup recipe that my friend cooked up and raved about on her blog.  If I could find the ingredients here, I’d also be making this, which I think is a favorite of my friend Erin.

 pre=”">THAI CHICKEN COCONUT SOAP (TOM KHA GAI)  from Sunset Magazine 2008

Yield: Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1  can (14 oz.) coconut milk
• 1  can (14 oz.) reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 6  quarter-size slices fresh ginger
• 1  stalk fresh lemongrass, cut in 1-in. pieces
• 1  pound  boned, skinned chicken breast or thighs, cut into 1-in. chunks
• 1  cup  sliced mushrooms
• 1  tablespoon  fresh lime juice
• 1  tablespoon  Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla)
• 1  teaspoon  sugar
• 1  teaspoon  Thai chili paste
• 1/4  cup  fresh basil leaves
• 1/4  cup  fresh cilantro

Preparation

In a medium saucepan, combine coconut milk, broth, ginger, and lemongrass and bring to boil over high heat. Add chicken, mushrooms, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, and chili paste. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is firm and opaque, 5 to 10 minutes. Discard lemongrass. Garnish servings with basil and cilantro.

I love that this has just 7.2 carbs per 1 1/2 cup serving!  Just my kind of meal these days!  Some of the reviews added egg noodles from Trader Joes or rice to bulk the soup up. 

If any of you decide to try it, let me know what you think!!!

 

Our mini vaca

 

Our night away into Nairobi for our anniversary was fabulous.

As I said before, we began our evening with dinner at Cafe des Arts.   They have a wonderful patio dining area that is covered by a large tent cover.  It is a lovely place to relax and enjoy good food:

Ian was pretty excited about his dinner, he even looks like he's glowing a little

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s an up close of his shredded lamb, slow cooked for 9 hours, then put into a patty that is refrigerated and then grilled just prior to service:

Lamb with mini roasted potatos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I choose the spinach quiche (I love quiche) in hopes of saving room for dessert.  The dessert turned out to be pretty standard European dessert…a little dry and not quite sweet enough.  Next time, I’ll go all out on the dinner itself.  Here I am in a blanket shawl the restaraunt owner gave me when it began to storm outside:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a wonderful time, and we still enjoy being together!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, we found our way to the Serena Nairobi which was wonderful.  I had to take a few pictures of our accommodations as this is the nicest place I’ve been a quite a while.  We felt pampered, and relaxed and renewed.  It was the perfect was to spend the rest of our anniversary.

Ian relaxing in the air conditioned room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we arrived in our room it was pretty darn cold so I started to hunt around for the thermostat.  It was NO WHERE TO BE FOUND!  Ian even had me look in the closet.  So, finally, I sat on the bed in defeat and looked over at the nightstand.  And what do you know?  There on the nightstand was the REMOTE CONTROL for the air conditioning!  Never seen that before!  It was great.

 

This is the fabulous bathroom that was pretty much my favorite part of the trip.  That gives you insight into our every day bathroom situations, because  a bathroom is not generally my favorite feature to point out:

 

The fact that there was cold AND hot water faucets was amazing and the granite and marble didn’t hurt either.

 

Here was the other half of the bathroom, which was equally as handsome:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then the view of downtown Nairobi from our room:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only question left to answer is:  When can we go again?

 

Sunday lunch

We joined a small group from church. For you non-churchies…that is just a way of saying being assigned a group of friends that you meet with to socialize, and support, and study with.

We’re trying to expand our social circle a little…..it’s a big adjustment to go from many close, close friends in Portland to very few here.

The other families in our group have been in Kenya for almost 10 years each. They’re old pros.

As old pros, they suggested that we go to lunch at Diamond Plaza. The best Indian food around they advertized.

This Diamond Plaza is a place we pass all of the time and cringe….because the traffic is always so backed up there. Crazy drivers going every direction at once. We arrive and the lot is PACKED OUT. Ian, being his forward self asks the security guard who they are saving the “Reserved” spot for. The guard doens’t answer Ian, but tells him he can park, “Right Here”. We took it. No hunting. Good job Ian.

We walk through the plaza which is filled with every kind of shop you would imagine that you would find in India. This truly was like “little India”. Electronics, knock off kids Diesel jeans, rugs & scarfs, buddhas or other gods I’m not aware of…..

And then we arrived outside to the food court. Holy cow!

 

I ordered a mango juice and an avocado juice.  They came mixed together.  Not what I anticipated, but good anyhow! 

Here is a sampling of the other food we ordered:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is this???

My mango juice and advocado juice came “together”. Not quite what I expected, but it worked and was actually pretty yummy.

These amazing sliced/fried potatos with cilantro. Mmmmm. Almost better than fries!

Chicken Palak. Looks a little gross. Tasted yummy!

You sit at the table and all of the different vendors swarm you trying to get your business

More Indian food than I’d ever seen in my life

Our friends had a “Flat Stanley” from a 3rd grade class somewhere in the U.S. He’s making his way around the world. He liked the Coke the best.

 

Mission: Denied.

Last week Ian got to leave mid day for a meeting in Nairobi and then hopefully to pick up Megan from the airport.

Since her plane was delayed, so was  he, and he just hadto spend the night in Nairobi at the home of friends.   He called me that night to check in on me and the kids.  He was calling from the middle of a movie where he was on a “Man Date”.   Cruel.  Simply.  Not only was he alone without the rugrats in the metropolis of Nairobi, but, he had free time and was watching big screen entertainment!   I wished him well and knew that some day my turn would come.

My turn came yesterday.  We got word that it was time to visit the Nyayo House to complete paperwork for Megan’s alien card.  Sweet!   We tacked on some errands for the Centre that needed to be completed in Nairobi and were off!

Nyayo House is not an exciting place to visit in itself. Thanks to expathousewifeinNairobi you can see that it  looks like this on the outside:

and the inside is dark, and gloomy and filled with the smell of way to many bodies in desperate need of a shower.  There are long lines (longer yet if you don’t bring an extra copy of your passport and you have to go hunting around town for a copy machine),  lots of sitting here and there, and the final signal to the end of the process:  undergoing fingerprinting like you are being booked in the county jail.

Anyhow, along with the work errands that needed to be run, Megan and I decided to pop into a beauty salon I’d been tipped off to in the first week of my arrival to see if they might happen to be able to squeeze us in.

They were.

And it was pure heaven.  I haven’t enjoyed a pedicure in a while, and this one was especially sweet and necessary.  This Kenyan dust and dirt is doing some serious damage to  my poor feet….which my pedicurist reiterated time and time again throughout her multiple bouts of rubbing an enormously large pumice stone over my foot.  She went on to prescribe that I no longer wear flip flops and switch to tennis shoes or closed shoes.  I’ll opt for the closed shoes.   Shoes are pretty cheap and cute here any how, and if I’m being told that I am doing permanent damage to my feet by not having proper shoes, well then the only responsible thing for me to do is to do some serious shoe shopping.

For the health of my feet of course.

Anyhow, this story ends with us waking early, driving into downtown Nairobi, chatting with our immigration liaison and deciding to meet at the amazing Java House for coffee.

It’s not this one, but this is what they generally look like outside.  A bit like Starbucks actually but with red umbrellas and logos.  http://www.nairobijavahouse.com/

I had a cafe latte, Megan had a green tea.  And then we waited patiently for our  immigration expert to arrive.

We waited a long time, and had 2 unanswered phone calls.  We were about ready to give up when I received an odd call saying the woman who we had just talked to, and who was on her way to meet us, had taken very ill, could not walk, and was being taken to the hospital.

Guess that means we won’t be doing immigration today?

I called Ian to tell him and his response was, “That’s Kenya.”

We’ll give it a go another day.  In the meantime, Megan better behave, cause she’s not really a legal alien yet.

 

And this would be?

So on Friday after the program let out I took Megan in to the Makongeni market with me to do a little veggie shopping. She had been to the market previously with Ian, but on an off day…one with very few vendors and a crazy man screaming at them that they didn’t belong here in Africa, and to go back home. Not a great first market experience.

We walked to the market to avoid all of the trouble taking a car into the market can cause, and were there in no time. It is just a little bit across Garissa Road from the Karibu Centre. We made a short side trip to the post office to pay the electricity bill (which costs pretty much the same as in the States) and then entered through the main market gate.

It didn’t take long to find the vendors with pineapple, avocados, carrots and tomatos and then I convinced Megan to browse the purse and clothing vendors with me. We thought this purse would be perfect for her:

　

So did the vendor.

After browsing the clothing and not finding anything, we turned home. We decided to take the back path from the market to the Makongeni Police Station that allows one to miss most of the Garissa Road traffic. On the way I enjoyed seeing Megan’s face as we passed the various butchers with entire carcasses hanging in their windows. Then we saw a man cooking what looked like sausages on a grill.

It wasn’t readily apparent what kind of sausages they were. I think he said they were pork or beef. I really can’t remember because all I could see were the huge chunks inside of them. No Jimmy Dean sausage here.

I dared Megan to eat some. She took my dare. I didn’t really think she’d agree, and then I was stuck!

This is what we were faced with eating, I wish I’d gotten a picture of the sausage before the butcher made these slices:

Then I figured that if I said, “No, you go first!” that Megan would chicken out and we wouldn’t have to eat them.

She didn’t. Here’s the proof:

　

I couldn’t believe that she popped the whole thing in her mouth at one time. Then I had to pony up and eat one too. It looked worse than it tasted. Mostly, it tasted like salt. I’m not usually a chewed gum saver, but in this case we had both saved our gum so we could quickly pop it in to rid our mouths of the taste.

Phew, am I glad that’s over! That’s about as close as I’m getting to Fear Factor.