#been working hard with these bc of small size & low q
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Diego Luna by Oscar Ponce Vicario for Estilo DF Magazine, 2016
A short video with the shooting of the popcorn photo can be seen here
#diego luna#estilo df#just wanted to have them all together in one post#sorry for the quality...it's the best I could get#been working hard with these bc of small size & low q#my (what I could do) edits
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Somewhat of a life update I guess ...
Q
So... this is going to be long but uh..
My best friend I and have been looking for a nice small flat to live in since we both are going to study/work in a bigger city - which is slightly intimidating and overwhelming considering we both grew up in small villages and visited big cities for sight seeings - that is not too close to our current homes. And .. we’ve been desperately messaging literally everyone who offered a flat close to our workplace/uni with a decent rent n all that jazz. We’ve visited 4 flats in total and the last one on Saturday was AN ABSOLUTE DREAM!! The second we entered the house we already felt ... at home ? And after checking out the flat we just fell in love with it so badly. It has the perfect size, great rooms, it’s super bright - there is a lot of daylight beaming through the windows - and so welcoming and home-y with a huge forest right next to the flat (I mean, what are the chances to live in a big city AND still enjoying the luxury of pure nature??!). But our joy only lasted that long because we were quick to catch up with the crushing reality.
.. my best friend and I, we just looked at each other and sighed defeatly . Because it was obvious from the start that we wouldn’t be the desired candidates the couple (who was renting out the flat) probably was looking for. There were other people with us, checking out the flat . Families with young kids, freshly married couples.
2 kids, one of them being a student with no loan, and the other a being a chef who’s recently got their degree.. 2 kids would’ve never stood a chance.
We drove home with a heavy sadness settling in our guts. We talked with the landlords, they seemed very nice and interested but we still tried to keep our hopes quite low. It was just the first flat we guinuenly fell in love with ... and it was hard to have something presented right in front of you on a silver tablet .. and then seeing it crashing to the floor, breaking the expensive porcelain on it in the process.
My friend wrote them the next day anyway, asking if they needed more documents from us since we were highly interested in moving into the flat. The landlords simply answered that everything was fine and that they would call us within the next week.
2 hours later my friend suddenly calls me - which is strange bc she would never call me, that’s just not how we roll lmao - and I immediately start sweating. Holy cow could it be ... that we -
I pick up and I can hear the smile on my best friends face through the phone when she delivers the holy message:
Sasha, we got the place. It’s ours now!
#my body wasnt sure how ro react ..#should i cry? laugh? scream ???#is this real life ??#like we were so certain that we would never ever get the chance to move into the flat#sasha talks#like its our dream flat ... literally i jus cant believe how insanely lucky we are holy smokes#no flat hunting anymore#no sleepless nights#i love life
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Hungry Heart...
Hungry Heart.
A quick game of ‘Family Fortunes’. (Family Fortunes the game show where the answers were requested from a publicly polled question, i.e)
Q = Name a type of American Food.
A = Hamburger ....our survey says, Hamburger ✅ Top answer.
Next;
Q - Name a type of Italian Food.
A = Pizza …our survey says, Pizza ✅ Top Answer
Next;
Q - Name a type of Kenyan food.
A = Ugali…our survey says, Ugali ✅ Top Answer.
I’m confident the above responses would be the most popular answers to those questions if a survey were taken on the streets of Nairobi today.
Ask Donald Trump, what’s better than a Hamburger? Juicy, succulent ground beef with tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, pickle, mustard, ketchup all held together by an air pumped bread bun…nothing fake at all about that.
Or what about a Pizza? oven fired circular dough, topped with an infinite amount of cheese options under any mix of vegetables and meat varieties…a billion deliveries every year can’t be wrong.
And let’s not forget a Kenyan staple, Ugali, ground maize meal, mixed with boiling water and then formed into a solid white ball. Delicious, well, ok…it’s not really delicious…it’s more a way of life and enjoyed because there’s very little other choice.
Kenyan Food is interesting, because historically, food has developed into…well…food.
The food theory hasn’t moved too far away from the ‘don’t eat, die’ philosophy rather than into fancy cuisine.
This is why I find the average Kenyan meal to be “BnB”, basic and bland, and Ugali has to stand right up there as a great example of BnB food.
Ugali has various names across Africa and is eaten by many, so African’s aside, It is a guarantee that all foreigner’s will be quizzed by Kenyan’s to find out if they have eaten Ugali. If the answer is yes, the next question will be ‘do you like Ugali?’
And this is when the foreigner will become increasingly awkward, stutter and generally skirt around the BnB fact. The foreigner will mince out cloaked enthusiasm and say “Yes…I’ve tried it…it’s nice…I…..like it” blatantly, the foreigner doesn’t want to get anywhere near describing it’s taste or what it’s eaten with. Essentially anything to not offend the Kenyan national dish.
Then, in the not too distant future, the foreigner will be with the person, that asked all of the Ugali questions, when Lunch is served.
Naturally, the foreigner will be bumped up to pole position in the queue for food.
The food will be covered, all the lids down on the large metallic serving trays and then one by one up they pop. First serving tray open and it’s a large fresh tray of steaming Ugali.
As the cellophane is proudly pealed away, “Ugali” announces the Kenyan “You said Ugali is nice”
Now the food server hears this and loves it, how they laugh as the heavy serving spoon sinks into the epic Ugali field. The foreigner is now looking at the true scale of Ugali, out comes a Rugby ball sized portion and is placed on their plate “is that enough?” the server asks without irony.
“Yes, plenty, Asantee” squirms the foreigner politely. On piles the rest of lunch, but there’s not much room on the plate for anything else. So the foreigner sits down at a table, with their plate of Ugali and other small scale assorted bitings, as the Kenyan’s join.
They all ask the same question “Oh, you like Ugali?” “Yes, I do, but this is a little bit too much for me” replies the foreigner, only to be met with “Oh that’s not much really” from the Kenyan’s, the foreigner looks around and realises this is no lie, food is stacked up on top of Ugali which rises up to peoples chests, steam touching their chins. The foreigner takes the first enthusiastic fork full to barrels of laughter
“Eat it with your hands” say the Kenyans,
“We eat Ugali with our hands” the advice continues to come in.
The foreigner now has to quickly scan around to check how that’s done, they see many shovelling hands with golf ball sized portions of Ugali, scooping up sauce and trapping bits of meat and spinach. The foreigner gives it a go, but soon realise they’ve broken off too much Ugali and now their ball is the size of a Tennis ball. Oh dear, now they’ve got to eat up more Ugali than they thought they ever could. Each bite feels like it’s draining brain juice as their mouth dries to resemble the Sahara desert. There’s easily still 4 more bites of the Ugali ball to go. It’s time for evasive action, “hmmmm tha wath delithuth” splutters the foreigner as they stand up, turn around and spit their mouths content onto their plate and scrape it into the bin, I’ll never eat Ugali again they tell themselves.
I think the closest comparison to Ugali would be Mashed Potatoes, well mashed potatoes if you don’t add salt, pepper, butter and milk. At least with mashed spuds, the extra additions don’t stop there; cheese, beetroot, butternut, Brussels, balsamic vinegar, mustard, soy sauce, chilli sauce all work to break up the classic spud recipe’s monotony. Nothing like that with Ugali, oh hang on…it can be made either white or brown…the only difference being, brown Ugali soaks up your blood.
Speaking of Mashed Potato, there is a fancy mash version here called Mukimo, it’s very nice. It’s bright green and has whole kernels of hard maize in it. I prefer it to Ugali, but it’s definitely one to serve yourself and not have a Kenyan do it for you.
For the the larger part of Kenya, food is readily available, but with the poverty found in such places as the Nairobi slums, food has to be simple and within a ridiculously low daily budget, people don’t have too much of a choice to be flambéing duck or questioning how many times their chips have been deep fried.
From my travels, I’ve noticed that many Kenyan meals will have been cooked for a good proportion of the day. Usually a slow cook involves beans and pulses, incredibly healthy, wholesome and organic, but also served incredibly dull. It’s essentially a bean stew with little flavour or signature kick. It’s like a can of ‘no frills vegetable soup’ that’s been boiled for 5 hours. It has a certain appeal, but it’s nothing special, yet to talk to a Kenyan about boiled beans or “Githeri” as it’s called, is, as if, it is some kind of speciality cuisine. Each region seems to have it’s own version, but the variety doesn’t seem to change that much, maybe one region adds carrots or potatoes and that’s about it. I guarantee, if that dish had originated in one of the poorest regions of China, it would be a real delicacy now. Sure you’d get the odd bat claw stuck between your teeth, but nonetheless, I imagine it would be an overall tastier experience than “Githeri”. Thanks Chef’s of Kenya, but I’ll stick with the English delicacy of baked beans on toast, cupboard to table in less than 10 minutes.
That slow cooking style reverberates through many culinary styles. In fact, most food is slow cooked, this is why the over 70’s love eating here. Pasta is never al-dente, cabbage doesn’t come with a crunch, meat is a lottery as to how how much jaw action will be needed and eggs are always over cooked. Unless you’re in a Western priced Hotel or restaurant, food is never considered to be served ‘just cooked’, I’m yet to find a boiled salad, but I know it’s out there. Note to self, Boiled Salad, somebody get me Heston Blumenthal.
The word Koroga means 'to stir’ in Swahili. A ‘foody’ experience, that is often talked about, is the Koroga. This is apparently a uniquely Kenyan Swahili experience. However, from my experience, what I was told about a Koroga and what I actually encountered at a Koroga were two completely different experiences.
This is what I was told about a Koroga.
A Koroga is a get together of family and friends who will start the event off by selecting meats, vegetables, herbs and spices and then start adding them all into a large pot. These ingredients will be cooked by the party as as the pot is regularly stirred by the party, whilst allowing everything to cook for about 4-5 hours.
A Curry based BBQ, I mean that sounds like a proper great time.
No, not quite, in fact from my experience, this is what actually happens.
A Koroga is a get together of family and friends who, once everyone has arrived and is indicated to start will instruct a Chef to add meat, vegetables, herbs and spices into a large pan and then cook everything for the guests, this will be then served 3-4 hours later when the most stirred things are the guests who are totally shit-faced from all the boozing whilst waiting for the food to be cooked. I just think the Koroga idea hasn’t really been properly thought out. It’s closest relative the BBQ or Braai work extremely well, but its USP is about DIY food and standing around the grill complaining. The Koroga’s USP is that the Chef decided to cook everything outside rather than in the kitchen, sorry, I just don’t get the appeal.
One dish that is cooked quickly, at least I think it’s cooked quickly, is Nyama Choma.
Translated literally - Nyama is meat - Choma is burn. A Meat Burn.
“I’ve heard it’s going to be lovely on Saturday, so you’re all invited around to ours for a Meat Burn”
Fortunately, the meat isn’t burnt, not like at UK BBQ’s,
The choices of meat are;
Mbuzi = Goat.
Kuku = Chicken.
Nyama = any other type of Red Meat that is from a Cow.
Sorry Lamb and Pork, this scene is not for you, go find your own Meat Burn.
Just like any badly managed BBQ/Braai, the final cook quality is hit and miss, the hits involve nice juicy tender bites of meat and sucked out marrowbone. The misses include, chewy, sinewy, fatty meat if you can find it, and once again the experience lacks imagination. The only seasoning you will get is salt and there will only be one accompaniment to the meat which is called Kachumbari, a mix of tomato, onion and chilli.
So Kenyan Meat Burn’s are for the real purists only. I do love Nyama Choma though, if not just for it’s back to basic 10,000 BC appeal.
One experience I never tire of, is a Kenyan breakfast in a Hotel. The breakfast routine follows the International standard of the best planned meal of the day. It starts at the Juice bar and ends up at the bloated Pig table. There’s always a great choice at a Kenyan breakfast, although many will be disappointed at the lack of bacon on offer, that’s because Kenyan’s prefer sausages to Bacon hands down.
I like that many of the previous nights dinner offerings will be now re-served for breakfast. So there are always surprises to be had like Green Banana Curry, Githeri, Fish stew, Roast Potatoes, Lentil Stew and anything else that didn’t get eaten the night before.
Hands down, my favourite experience of a Kenyan breakfast is observing the Egg Chef. You’ll know it’s the Egg Chef because they will be dressed like the top google image search for Chef.
The egg is treated with the most respect, kept separately and away from all the other dishes that are hidden underneath aluminium lids. The Eggs will never come into contact with the mixed up serving spoons covered in bean juice and banana curry, they are not good enough for the eggs. But wait, what’s this, what’s hiding underneath here?, oh it’s the Hard Boiled Eggs, the common, dirty poor bastard parent of the free and easy, liberated, naked eggs that the Egg Chef will caress and massage into a beautiful work of art.
The Egg chef will be situated at the start of the line, but when you want him, he won’t be there. I say he, the Egg Chef is always a he, no Woman in Kenya is considered prestigious enough to do this job. The Egg Chef and Kenyan President are two Jobs women will never perform.
So what tends to happen is this, in the absence of the Egg Chef people will pile up their plates first. Then the Egg Chef appears exactly when he wants, just like the true artist he is, only then will the egg orders be taken.
Now the only cooking utensils the Egg Chef possesses are a frying pan and a spatula. So this limits the type of egg available to either a Fried Egg or an Omelette. I always like to joke I’ll take a poached Egg, but it’s short-lived because nobody understands what I’m saying. Don’t be getting technical with the Egg Chef, his position of authority is untouchable.
Fried Eggs will be cooked in either two choices, “cooked” or “sunny side up”. The majority of times I’ve requested Sunny Side Up, the eggs have been served closer to raw, which is a little too avant-garde for me. So, they have to be sent back which will be re-served ‘cooked’.
My advice, request cooked.
If you’re asking for an omelette it will be either served “with everything” or “without everything”. “Without everything” is a plain egg omelette “With everything” is an Omelette mixed with finely chopped onion, capsicum and chilli pepper. Both Omelette varieties are good, but as previously mentioned, they will be “cooked”, i.e a properly cooked through, no nonsense, fuss free, nothing moving, Omelette. That said, they go down well and the pomp and circumstance of the occasion overrides any need for a fancy, modern, runny consistency.
I’ve spoken to many people that blame the style of Kenyan food on Colonisation.
Typical, blame the Brits for bequeathing a bland stereotypical diet.
This is not true, because anyone that says they don’t like British Cuisine then goes onto say, except they like Pork Pie, Mr Kipling Cakes, Sausage Rolls, Full English Breakfast, Chicken Tikka Masala, Black Pudding, Sausage and Mash, Fish and Chips, Mushy Peas, Deep Fried Mars Bar, Jammie Dodgers, Sunday Roast, The Tasting Menu at The Fat Duck, Gordon Ramsey swearing, Monster Munch, Jellied Eels and Roast Badger.
There, conclusive evidence that England has a varied and incredibly well established culinary tradition of original and modern food.
So whilst there is an excellent and extensive varied selection of Kenyan restaurants, serving truly excellent food, once you step outside of all that and roam into the realms of “lazy” Kenyan food, you will be craving Pickled Onion Monster Munch all day long.
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