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.