Sunday Dinner, Cafe Javas, Kampala

It was a fairly quiet typical Sunday afternoon / early evening and I was in a bit of a dilemma as to what to have for dinner. I’d already enjoyed the Backpackers Spanish omelette (omelette with peppers and onions) for brunch as whilst feeling suitable lazy I couldn’t face a second meal of the day at the hostel and really didn’t want a rolex.

So after a successful trip to the relatively close by Café Javas a little while ago I decided to go for a bit of a Sunday afternoon stroll up and down a couple of hills to the City Oil petrol station where the café is situated. The place is very modern, clean, well air conditioned and has free wi-fi. The AC was a welcome relief after the 30 minute journey and fee wi-fi a boon since the hostel had recently started charging for access (5000 UGX for 4 hours).

The restaurant was fairly quiet with mostly locals and a couple of older noisy American gents. I had a hankering for Mexican so I went for the steak burrito with chips and a Coke. The chips were the same as with burger, nothing to set off the fireworks for. The burrito itself was more of a San Diego style than the San Fran Mission style that we usually get in the UK. The tortilla itself just had the steak inside it and the plate had cheesy beans, salsa and guacamole on the side.

The guacamole was garden variety mushed up avocado, with little else and sadly lacking in garlic. The salsa was very dry, but quite tasty and the cheesy spicy beans were pretty good. The steak in the tortilla was really good, big lean chunks of nicely marinated beef. Adding all the ingredients together produced a pretty tasty dish, but the guacamole definitely needed more oomph. I might try and make some this weekend.

All in all a pretty good three out of five.

After the meal I went to the next door supermarket which was typical of petrol station places by being ridiculously overpriced, and picked up some supplies. I also went back to Javas and bought a small banana loaf to take away. Since they’d heated it up I scoffed it down pretty sharpish on my return to the hostel after the walk back. It was damn good, another three out of five.

P.S. Congrats to Simon and Sarah on Baby Jack, and belated congrats to Jamie and Jo on Baby Zebby

The lost review

Sorry it’s been a while since my last update and I’ve no excuse other than the fact that there hasn’t been much to update on. Other than moving out of Hostel where I had become part of the furniture over the past few weeks. I miss it, but it’s no good for the wallet having a bar and restaurant on tap a few metres from my spacious single room. Plus it was always good for the banter and meeting the various people staying for shorter periods. I almost didn’t move out as on my way to pick up the keys to the flat. In mild traffic in Nakasero, Carl, unbeknownst to me, decided to show off the power of his Boxer motorbike and from a standing start popped a wheelie. I’m not sure how I didn’t end up flat on my arse.

Anyway I’ve now moved to a bijou one bed apartment in a large secure compound in Bukoto. Despite what Google says it’s not Vicross nursery and day care centre. I’m on the ground floor of a two-storey block of four flats that isn’t on Google Maps it’s that new. Still new doesn’t always mean everything’s fine. The water heater works fine in heating water, but less well on giving up the hot water through the pipes. In fact even the cold water struggles at times due to a general water problem, and we had the same problems at the Hostel on the other side of town.

You could fit 50 homes in the area of my compound in the top right

Location wise it’s much more convenient for everything apart from work, still it’s only 15 minutes or so on a boda, probably about 2 hours in a Matatu. There’s a Nakumatt supermarket within a 10 minute walk, Café Javas, Gusto, all of Kololo, Shoprite and Game are about 5 minutes on a boda. Plus there are a few local shops, a pork joint and a rolex guy at the top of the road. The other night there was even a lady selling freshly grilled corn. I picked one up for 500 UGX (12.5p), it was interesting. 1 out of 5.

I ate it sat on my porch gazing out on the fancy buildings of Kololo whilst immersed in the sounds and smells of the neighbouring slum, which I can’t see from the flat due to the high walls of the compound. To be honest as slums go, it’s not too bad, there’s electricity (most of the time) in many parts, and at least one stand pipe is just outside the compound. My existence in this part of the world gives ample entertainment to the local kids that congregate near the water pipe. There are plenty of animals around. I saw some pink (dyed) chickens, plenty of goats and even some ducks the other day. The one thing I hope I never get used to is the intermittent smell. Waste disposal, human and otherwise is something that is very easy to take for granted. Here at lot of it, or at least what can, burns. The aroma isn’t pleasant.

Yes those are dinosaurs

Anyway that wasn’t the lost review. A few weeks back I found myself at Garden City again. My laptop charger had blown, and so I needed a new one pronto and after a brief RFI on Facebook I decided to go to a shop in Muzungu central of Garden City. I could have braved Kampala’s equivalent of Tottenham Court Road, but I always end up getting stung when I go there so decided to play it safe with Kampala’s equivalent of PC World (one tiny shop mind).

 As I had no plans for the day I headed up to the cinema to see if anything was showing anytime soon. Sadly not, I turned up when both Iron Man 3 and Fast and Furious 6 had just started. They’re still showing many weeks later so I’ll probably get round to going to them sometime. Disappointed, but peckish I braved the food court at Garden City to get a bite to eat. There’s a fair bit of choice and it’s different than this pictured I nicked.

After being proffered menus the thickness of War and Peace from each establishment, I decided to go for tried and trusted Lebanese as the Shawarma they had on the skewers looked pretty good. The only name I can find for this place several weeks on is ‘Lebanese Food’ Leaving numerous rejected waiting staff from the other establishments I took a seat in the food court with a good view of the nearby golf course. Eventually I settled on the Chicken Shawarma platter and a Coke for about 22000 UGX (£5.50).

The Lebanese Food place is now right at the back

A healthy amount of time later and my food arrived. I had a plate of chicken shawarma, houmous, pickles and mixed salad, a plate of chips, and a pot each of chilli and garlic sauce. As I was liberally dousing the chicken in the chilli sauce, my waitress arrived with a basket of two flatbreads. Visibly shocked by my nonchalant (my word of the week) approach to the chilli, she exclaimed “No, no, it’s too hot”. I calmly reassured her that it’d be alright whilst thinking to myself surely that’s the point. Chilli sauce dealt with I did the same thing with the Garlic sauce, but didn’t receive any plaintive cries of “No, no, it’s too stinky”.

Nicer view than at Westfield

The chips went first, pretty disappointing and greasy. I keep wanting to say ‘nothing to write home about’, but as I pointed out last time that is pretty much what I’m doing. So dear reader, I need your help. I need other suitable idioms, if I get more that two suggestions, I’ll do a vote or something and the winning entry gets a surprise gift from Uganda.

And so on to the meat of the review and the chicken shawarma was pretty good, easily at a Massis (Has this ever reopened?) standard of marinated grilled chicken, but not quite in the Antepliler (Upper Street) league. The salad and pickles were perfunctory. The houmous was OK, a bit too much Olive Oil drizzled on, but the flatbreads were great. I used one to eat bits and pieces along the way and used the second one to construct a kebab.

Just like at the Natural History Museum

As I was working my way through the first part of meal and making the brilliant kebab, I started sweating from my brow. A bit strange I thought, but this is open air, after 12pm and another wonderfully warm day in Kampala. A short while later my lips were tingling and my moustachioed top lip was also sweating. By the time the waitress came over to offer some greaseproof for the wrap I’d obviously got a grain of dust in my eye as a few tears were coming out.

In my admittedly limited experience, Ugandan’s tolerance for chilli heat can be best described as non-existent. Even the mild stuff I’ve brought in to the office have been criticised as being way too hot, so it was this in mind that I decided to pay no heed to Ugandan waitress’ warning. It was surprising how gradually the heat built up, there was nothing unpleasant in eating it until I obviously tipped over the capsaicin edge.

Despite that it was still pretty tasty and I enjoyed most of it. A solid 3 out of 5. The next day was nowhere near as pleasant, but at least I didn't need to worry about a boda on the way back

2 more burger reviews and pics

Supper, Cafe Javas, Kampala

Last Friday after a particularly dull, but short week at work a few of us hostel-ites were at a bit of a loose end food wise and with no particular idea about what to eat. This dilemma was easily resolved as everyone decided to vote for the nearby Cafe Javas. Since I hadn't been there yet, had heard good things about the food, and sampled their very good chocolate cake, I was happy to go along.

So the five of us piled on to three bodas and made the short, 2,000 UGX (50p) ride to the City Oil petrol station and supermarket, that this particular branch of Javas was attached.

Cafe Javas is a small Ugandan only (I think) chain of cafe / restaurants. It's not the cheapest joint in town, but the quality is consistently good and apparently it's not a bad cup of coffee. Apart from the horrors masquerading as coffee that I tried up in Amuria I haven't had a coffee since. I don't think I'm going to start again anytime soon.

After a quick perusal of the menu and a switch of tables to be near a power point. Oh, I forgot that the main reason for us going out for food was because there was no power at the hostel. It was like that all day and continued until after midnight. Since the 'assertive' Aussie owner has been away, standards have been slipping. Showers are a lottery, one day a bare trickle of luke-warm water, the next a torrent of boiling hot, and the next a steady stream of freezing cold. A good strong, Goldilocks temperature shower is one of my greatest pleasures in life, I long for the day when I can experience one again.

Anyway, I was recommended the double burger by a friend and so went for that with a Coke to wash it down. The other orders at the table were a pie (it was a pasty), quesadillas (not sure what the filling was, but it came with rice and beans), a bean and cheese burrito without cheese (lactose intolerant), and another double burger.

Service was pretty good and speedy for here, the manager (I believe Malaysian) was particularly attentive and after a short while our food arrived.

Picture representative of meal

On to the meat of review. The chips were 'Home fries' so liberally sprinkled with Cajun spices, a bit too crunchy for my liking, I'd have preferred more potatoey fluffiness. Liberal dashs of Tabasco livened up proceedings. There was a side serving of coleslaw, it was satisfactory as it was lacking any bite. Fake Nandos is still in the lead for best coleslaw so far.

Obviously as it was a double burger there were two reasonable sized medium-thickness patties. Maybe my palate is getting accustomed to the bland food, but I found the meat over seasoned with pepper. The bun was a pretty good sesame seed variety and the salad was OK, nothing to write home about (which is strangely exactly what I'm doing). It was supposed to have chili mayo, but instead had a sweet onion relish. Not bad, but not what I was expecting. Overall 3 out of 5. Not bad at all and will go back occasionally as it's not the cheapest though at 16,000 UGX (£4) cheap by London standards.

Supper, Mish Mash, Kampala

Despite being in Uganda for 6 weeks I hadn't yet visited Mish Mash. It's a bar / restaurant / art gallery / market / chill out garden in upmarket Kololo and is apparently pretty popular with expats. I was due to go there a few weeks back as two of the hostel-ites were due to do some DJ-ing there, however after a robust discussion about the market size of Drum and Bass aficionados in Kampala their sets were cancelled and there was a bit of bad blood between my comrades in arms and the 'Philistine' management of the aforementioned establishment. I'm sure it's all blown over by now.

So, a couple of days ago I was due to meet another volunteer who came through the same placement organisation as myself. She furnished me with lots of useful, honest advice before I came to Kampala, so was looking forward to thanking her in person. We'd initially arranged to meet on a Monday, which is 2 for 1 main meals night. This was very unfortunately cancelled as one of her friends was very ill with Malaria. Thankfully she's doing better now, so we rearranged for Wednesday evening which was Burger Night and Moonlight Cinema night.

Main bar bit

 After arriving at Mish Mash I can see why it's pretty popular, it's a very good space mostly in gardens on all sides of the main building. I went for my Nile, but was tempted when I saw that they had Windhoek imported. Maybe next time. After a brief text describing what I currently look like, I'm going for the superb Jeff Bridges' Obadiah Stane look from the first Iron Man film, but fatter obviously. Vicky tracked me down so I went to another part of the garden to meet the rest of her friends.

The resemblance is uncanny

After having a good natter for a while and with the evenings movie about to kick off I ordered Burger Nights special offer of a beef burger and chips and a Nile for 22,000 UGX (£5.50). I customised the burger with bacon and blue cheese for another 8,000 UGX. So all in 30k UGX for a burger, chips and a beer. Almost the same price as Tommi's back in London, so a LOT to live up to. There was one other order of a chicken burger shared between two and no other orders for the table.

An absolute age later and the food arrived. We were already through some weird black and white cartoon and a dodgy Simpson's advert for THX sound systems (I don't think we had a genuine THX certified system in the garden) so the evening's feature presentation of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds was about to start when I was tucking into my chips. The chips were pretty good gastropub style chips. Crunchy on the outside fluffy on the inside. I even had a pot of ketchup and mayo, the mayo the first I've had since arriving and really good to dip the chips into

Seating area for the open air cinema

So onto the burger, it had a good plain bun with a crispy crust, not quite a sourdough bun, but similar in texture and overall composition. Salad was adequate, bacon good, but not enough of it and the blue cheese was brilliant, strong, stinky and pungent exactly what I look for in my blue cheese. Cheese is an expensive luxury in Uganda with the crap stuff being relatively expensive. I'll need to find out where they source their cheese and hunt down some of the blue stuff. The patty itself was pretty good, thick, medium cooked and only slightly too salty. Still the whole ensemble worked well and was easily the best burger I've had in Kampala so far. 3.5 out of 5. 

Still there are plenty of other places to try and I'm sure I'll be back to Mish Mash to try out other items from their menu. The establishment is pretty cool and you could easily while away a lazy afternoon and evening their. The only downside is that in being in an upmarket neighbourhood the local Carl's try for ridiculous sums of money to get away from the area. 20k UGX for a journey that cost 5k on the way, he was having a giraffe and wouldn't budge. Still his loss is another Carl's gain after a minute's walk down the road.

A couple of short reviews and pics

BBQ, Backpackers, Kampala

Since it was a Bank Holiday weekend a few of us decided we should celebrate this by making the use of the outdoor BBQ at the hostel.

It was another hot, sunny day in Kampala and the idea for a mid-afternoon BBQ was a great one, coming from one of the longer term residents of the hostel. My contribution to the BBQ was financial and advisory only. I think I'm getting the hang of this African sport of hanging around watching other people work.

We prepared a marinade if beef stock, copious garlic, coriander, peri peri chillies, oil, vinegar and lime juice. It smelt amazing, and was suitably massaged in to the beef that we had bought. We also had some green peppers and red onions.

After getting the charcoal going properly it was on with the beef and veggies and in suitably cooked dribs and drabs. Depsite not being to my tastes I preferred to opt for the medium to well done side of things. Our chef (soon the be studying at Le Cordon Blue in London) did a good job, but the meat was a bit tough. There were some good bits, but few and far between. The marinade however was great, just a few more chillies would have tipped it over the edge. Veggies were good as well. A solid 3 out of 5.

Arirang, Nakasero, Kampala

I was due to meet a new friend at the Italian Supermarket in Muyenga to look at some potential flats in the area, so I quickly headed back to the hostel to drop my bag off. Whilst there I found out that a few of the residents were going out for dinner for one's 19th birthday (he'd already got incredibly drunk welcoming in his birthday) and also as it was another fours last night in Kampala for a while. They were heading off to Rwanda for about 6 weeks I think, on a night bus leaving Kampala at 1am.

The plan was for them to eat at 8pm, but given previous experience, I'd be amazed if they managed it. Anyway I went down to Muyenga for 6pm and Jo and I looked at 2 and a half nearby flats. The half as we didn't get to see inside the last place, but Jo was familiar with them as a friend of hers lived downstairs. We then went of for a drink and a chat at the nearby Cafe Roma where I had a glass of wine, it was passable.

Flat-hunting tactics in hand we then went our separate ways. Me to Arirang, a Korean restaurant in the centre of town. I was amazed to find out that the 10 of them had not only managed to get to the restaurant for 8pm, there were coming to the end of their meal when I rocked up at 9pm.

Thankfully there were still some drinks and fruit left to finish off, so I had time to have a quick nibble. Without really looking at the menu, I was told that the no. 66 was good and so went for that. First off I got three small dishes of pickles, coleslaw and green beans respectively. All quite nice and whilst I was working my way through that my main arrived. It was a hot stone dish filled with rice, veggies, shredded beef and an egg. The waiter had a dish of of some red sauce, and asked if he could stir it in, I politely nodded.

Our table at Arirang

My chopstick technique is improving little by little and it was good to scoop up the mixed up massive bowl of food. The sauce it turned out was a mild-ish chilli sauce and very good. Overall the dish was really good, the only fault was that it was still damn hot and I was trying to power through it making up for my late arrival. A very good 3.5 out of 5 would love to go back and look over the menu for longer, probably ending up with some Korean BBQ and Kimchi.

Day 26, Breakfast, Global Café, Amuria

I had the nice beef stew and a couple of those bready, donut things with a cool Fanta before walking to the office. 2 out of 5. I hung around for a while before I was asked at 9.50am to interview the Resident District Commissioner. We got to his office at 10am to get jokingly delivered short shrift as unbeknownst to me the appointment was for 9am. He was a stickler for punctuality. Still we rearranged to meet at 12.30pm once he’d seen the long line of people outside his office.

The RDC is the local representative of the Office of the President and amongst other duties is responsible for security in the entire district, the subject I was going to interview him on. So back to the office for two hours of hanging around during which time I had a good chat with the rest of the office staff and interns. I managed to learn a bit more Teso which will be useful for my next trip on the 23^rd June.

Eventually after waiting for the RDC to settle a bunch of local disputes we had a good chat about the security concerns in the region. The situation with the Karamajong seems to have settled down over the past few years. There has only been one incident of cattle theft in the past six months and that was more commercial in nature than previous tribal conflicts.

After the interview it was back to the office again to get packed and ready for the long journey to Kampala after a staff meeting to review the success so far of the survey especially considering it was only signed off with a very limited budget the Friday before. The Regional Director was keen for me to stay in Amuria for another week, but I’ll definitely be coming back several times over the next 11 months.

On the way back to Kampala on the horrible Soroti to Mbale road we stopped off at several roadside markets to get several kilos of mangoes, rice, six chickens and two turkeys. I kept forgetting about our avian passengers until every now and then one emitted a squawk after hitting a particularly dodgy pot hole. From Mbale onwards it was dark and that proved to be an interesting passenger experience for 5 hours. Finally just before the hostel closed at 1am I was dropped off by Godfrey the superb shuttle driver.

It’s a Bank Holiday weekend here for Martyr’s Day, which I’ll spend most of my time relaxing and enjoying the luxuries of warm running water and almost always on electricity and an internet connection. I’ve also got a slightly larger room (Gorilla) with a set of shelves and a power socket so a right result all-round.

Day 25, Breakfast, Global Café, Amuria

Another early start and I had a basinful of filthy water from washing off all the dust that I had accumulated yesterday. Still it was good for the toilet cistern. We went for a proper sit down breakfast at Global Café and I enjoyed beef stew with boiled potatoes. I didn’t enjoy the latte though. Admittedly it wasn’t billed as a latte, but it was a large mug of hot UHT milk that you can add a small amount of instant coffee and sugar to taste. The coffee is pretty rank, Uganda exports most of its coffee, so the stuff that is left for internal consumption is either expensive and terrible or very expensive and apparently good. I’ll need to try more coffee shops in Kampala when I get back. 2 out of 5

The food was pretty good and the quality of the meat surprisingly good, it was lean, not too dry and boneless. It was washed down by a Fanta after the coffee debacle. Fanta here is a vibrant orange and very sweet. Ugandans seem to have a lot of a sweet tooth. The other coffee drinkers at my table had 4 teaspoons and 2 heaped table spoons respectively. We picked up water and glucose biscuits for the researchers and headed to the office for another extended bout of hanging around and doing nothing in the office. Plus ce change plus ce meme chose.

How many Africans? About 19 and 1 Muzungu

Eventually we set off and ended up at Amotoom sub-council office before heading to the nearby primary school where I interviewed the Head Teacher. Amotoom was the northern-most village that we visited and was originally set up as a displacement camp around 2003 as a result of the insurgency of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. They haven’t been active in Uganda in the decade since, but are rumoured to now either be in DR Congo or Pointless favourite, Central African Republic. As a result this displacement camp has become a permanent village and its inception is obvious based on how close the homesteads are together.

Group interview session by a borehole

Another survey underway

The Head Teacher told me that 400 of the 600 hundred primary school pupils have lost at least one parent, most as a result of the insurgency and many as a result of HIV/AIDS. He estimated that around 75% of the village had HIV or AIDS. Food security was very poor, most children eat once per day at home.

Amotoom

A few homesteads by the main road

 After the interview we went to the trading post where I had a warm Mountain Dew and sat in between the local clinic where you can get tested for Malaria for 2000 UGX, Typhoid for 2500 UGX, Brucellosis for 3000 UGX, Syphilis for 2000 UGX, HIV/AIDS for 3500 UGX and Hep B for 5000 UGX (4000 UGX = £1 fact fans). Next to the price list was an advert for erectile dysfunction pills, but I don’t see how that’s the biggest problem here.

Driving on the road again

Hills of Karamoja in the distance

A homestead

 There was another long bout of waiting around for the shuttle, so I watched some of the kids playing with their toys. A couple had a stick of wood with some clay covering the centre of the stick with a free-wheeling clay wheel at either end. Some of the richer kids had one long or several smaller sticks tied together to push the axle through the dirt. Eventually we were picked up after I’d had a snooze underneath an mango tree in the grass.

2 classes in progress

Sub-council office

On the way back we made a brief detour at a large gathering that I soon found out was a funeral. There must have been over 500 people there and the funeral was for a women who was a member of a VAD farming groups, hence why we were there to pay our respects. The women had died the day previously of blood loss during labour. Her child survived. Such a terrible waste, but with poor local health care knowledge, a lack of usable blood stocks nearby and terrible infrastructure to get anywhere quickly caused this horrible event.

After the funeral we headed back and bought a massive sack of charcoal and didn’t finish until 9pm. Unfortunately at this time, all the restaurants and cafes in town had run out of food, so we went to the bar where I had a couple of warm cans of beer that were horrible. At least I had 15 minutes of electric lighting to wash off that days dust and dirt.

With Oscar, Projects Officer for Amuria

With Charles, M&E Officer for VAD in Kampala