More different meals, Byoona Amagara, Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda

I was last man standing so stumbled back to the big dorm room trying to make as little noise as possible, which I think I did a good job as no-one tried to shush or tut at me. The sleep wasn’t the greatest, but it had been a long day with an even worse sleep the night before. The guy on the bunk above me couldn’t keep still and was quite noisy with it. I wasn’t the only to notice it. On the plus side my snoring wasn’t too bad apparently.

Various meals, Byoona Amagara, Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda

Lake Bunyonyi is a small volcanic lake in the far south west corner of Uganda very close to the borders with Rwanda and DR Congo. I’d been informed by a few people how beautiful it was and a good place to go for a few days R&R, not that I need it.

After an aborted attempt the two previous weekends (I had a meeting to attend on Friday afternoon that ended up not taking place the week before and the week before that it wasn’t clear if I would be going back to Amuria for the quarterly meeting. I didn’t, as there was no budget for me to go and I wasn’t going to start paying to work).

Lunch, Ranchers Butchers Shop and Grill, Garden City, Kampala

I’m a bit behind sorry. Anyway a couple of weeks ago on a warm Saturday morning (all the mornings are warm) I decided to try one of the three cinemas in Kampala for the first time. Two of them are found in the adjacent malls of Garden City and Oasis and are part of the same chain. The third, which also boasts 3D enabled screens is in a large out of town shopping centre on the Northern bypass. Both are fairly convenient for being a 10 minute boda drive away, but the one at Metroplex doesn’t have a website I could find, so I settled for one of the two Cineplex cinemas.

The wrong cinema

Having chosen the film that I wanted to watch (Star Trek Into Darkness, as I’ve managed to watch Fast and Furious 6 and Iron Man 3 separately) I saw that it was showing at Oasis so I made my way to the southern-most mall. Upon arriving there was a guy behind the counter who clearly didn’t belong there and he was just holding the fort till the qualified staff came in. I nipped downstairs to the Nakumatt to get a drinks and snacks rather than paying the usual exorbitant cinema prices. Snacks bought I headed back upstairs and only had to wait another minute or two till the right person came by to let me know that Star Trek was showing in Garden City instead.

It’s a good ten minutes on foot to get from one cinema to another and it was getting close to 11am when the film was due to start. Normally in the UK this wouldn’t bother me in the slightest, but I’d been told by several people that there is one thing that runs on time in Uganda and that is films, with usually only one or two trailers and no adverts. I got there at just before 11am and the three staff there were on a seeming go slow and around ten minutes later I emerged with a ticket. Naturally the screen that I needed to be at was the furthest from where I was so at about 11.15am I entered the screen fully expecting the film to be in full swing to find a completely deserted room.

The correct one

If I was ever to win the lottery (which would be difficult seeing as I don’t play it) one of the things I’d have in my home when I eventually got round to getting one would be in a cinema. Here in Uganda all you have to do is go to a late Saturday morning showing to get your own screen. Eventually some more staff came by to inform me that I was entitled to a free soft drink (Pepsi, not Coke) and some change. All in I paid 16,000 UGX (£4) for a ticket and drink in a deserted theatre, a bit like the PCC then.

The film was alright, Benedict Cumberbatch awesome as ever, but by the time it had finished it was well after one so I ventured downstairs to get some lunch. I shied away from the food court worried that the waitress from the Lebanese place would laugh at me from my foolishness last time. I went back to the ground floor, where in one corner there is an upmarket butchers / deli that also has some tables outside and serves various grilled meats. I had read in one of the local magazines that it served the best burger in Kampala so naturally had to give it a try.

Popular venue, I struggled to get a seat

Whilst waiting I had a mooch round the butchers and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of produce that they sold slightly better than the Quality Cuts concession in my local Nakumatt. Incidentally a week or so later I got about 400g of not too shabby Rib-Eye from the supermarket for the less than 7,000 UGX (£1.75), absolute bargain.

Cheese, wine and meat. All the essentials

Anyway on to the meat of the review, after a reasonable wait the double cheese burger arrived. It came with workaday chips and bit of salad garnish. The bun was slightly over toasted and clearly came from the bakery that also services Nakumatt supermarkets. The patties weren’t too bad, but not particularly special. Since I’m writing this review a couple of weeks after the event for a change, I’m really struggling to remember much about it. It was by no means bad, but pretty uneventful and quite expensive at around 18,000 UGX.

2.5 out of 5. I would go back, but would have steak or a mixed grill from this meat lovers paradise. The wings are also supposed to be good, but after 'Winger Winger Chicken Dinner' at Patty & Bun, I don't think I'll ever wings anywhere near that good again.

Thanks to Max I recently got in to Luther, if you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it as well, but Tuesday night's episode (s3e3) was very sad.

Dinner, Masala Chaat, Nakasero, Kampala

A little while ago one of my friends from Backpackers went away for a couple of weeks for a research project in the forests near Kabale, a small town in South Western Uganda no too far from the border with Rwanda and DR Congo. It’s also the end of the tarmac road if you’re heading to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest NP to see the Gorillas. I’ll get to them at some point, but the permit is expensive. It’s $500 for a one day permit, and if you’re lucky enough to see a pack, herd, gaggle, pod, whatever of Gorillas you get one hour maximum with them. In May and October it’s only $350 as it’s wetter.

After two weeks in Kabale and nearby districts, Olly was back in Kampala and we’d arranged to meet up on Wednesday evening to catch up and have something to eat. I’d heard some good things about a South Indian place downtown near Parliament and opposite the National Theatre, so we decided to give it a go.

I was late on account of having to put the last episode of Game of Thrones on a USB stick for Olly. After the excitement of the penultimate episode of the series he’d yet to see how it was resolved or not. Anyway, it didn’t take long to get there only about 10 to 15 minutes as there wasn’t much traffic.

It was dead, we were the only ones there, and it was hot. The ceiling fans were trying their hardest but in vain. Interestingly if you’re in Kampala and you want to get your Bollywood, sorry Tamil movie fix, this is the place to go as they have thousands of DVDs for sale. Apparently the place has been going for donkey’s years, so the owners must either have somehow managed to stick around or were one of the first Indians to move back to Uganda after Amin’s regime forced them out of the country.

Anyway on to the food and Olly went for a Paneer Masala and some (tiny) Chapatis. I being the greedy sod that I am went for the South Indian Mini Thali. It wasn’t mini. Whilst we were waiting for our food we were brought the staple of poppadums sprinkled with red onion and accompanied by various chutneys and pickles. A nice familiar appetiser. Another respectable amount of time later our food arrived. My Thali came on a large metal platter similar in size to the one that I had at Fasika, the excellent Ethiopian place in Kabalagala.

Picture representative of my Thali

Unfortunately I didn’t make a note of the menu so will undoubtedly have missed something off the list of what I had to eat. There was rice, pretty standard. A potato based dish a la Bombay Potatoes, a lentil based dish a la Tarka Daal, a couple of other sauce heavy veggie curry dishes, an Uttapam, which is kind of like a pizza, but not quite, and a couple of Idli, a savoury lentil and rice ‘cake’. This was all topped off with a massive plain Dosa (12 inches long) and its accompaniments of the traditional hot chutney and sambhar vegetable dips. A dosa is a fermented crepe / pancake again of lentils and rice. You can get all sorts of dosas at Masala Chaat and I’d be very tempted to try one next time I'm in the area.

South Indian pizza

Overall the food was excellent, there wasn’t anything I disliked, the idli were probably the lowest point, but as a sauce carrier they were excellent. Overall 4 out of 5, and a bargain at 18000 UGX (£4.50).

Afterwards we headed up the road by shared boda to Mish Mash as Olly was supposed to be meeting some people there, it was on my way and I was told that they were showing The Untouchables. Since I hadn’t seen it in years and fancied a bit of old school Connery badassery I came along. The friends weren’t there, and the movie was Intouchables which I have to see at some point, but the bottom row of subtitles were cut off on the outdoor screen. On the plus side it took less than 10 minutes to head home by boda.

Lunch, Good African Coffee Company Cafe, Lugogo Mall, Kampala

It was my first weekend in my new flat and amongst other things I needed to top up my dongle so I could get some internet access, necessary at home before it gets switched on at the flat and at work, where there is no internet access to speak of. As I was about to set off I was asked if I could hang around for a while as the plumber, who was trying to fix a general water problem, could and have a look at my hot water problem. I duly obliged, and when I asked if he had any idea how much longer he’d need after 3 hours received a shrug. My replay was that I was going out and would be about an hour.

I was planning to head down to Lugogo Mall as well as all the mobile phone shops there is also the Shoprite and Game stores as well as the wonderful Mr Tasty from my first weekend here. This time around the journey is much closer, it was only about 5 minutes away by boda on the bypass. After sorting t’Internet out, I was fairly ravenous and so went into the Good African Coffee Company Café also at the mall. It’s fairly popular with an even split of expats to locals.

After a brief look at the menu, it was obvious that I’d settle for the cheese and bacon burger and a Coke. A reasonably short wait for my food allowed me to do plenty of people watching the impressive footfall on the strip mall, I must have counted about a 60/40 split of locals to muzungus walking past. I had a brief moment of confusion as the waitress brought me a warm towel and I mistakenly thought that I was on a plane. Suitably warmed and moistened my food arrived momentarily.

The chips were, pretty much as they always are, nothing to set off the fireworks for. The burger was initially promising. It was a decent size, well-constructed and the patty was thick and was the size of an ice hockey puck with convex instead of flat ends. After cutting the burger in half it was reasonably cooked to a medium, but with a fair amount of juice oozing out.

After an initial bite it was obviously a mistake to have raised my expectations as the patty was particularly uninspiring, of uniform texture and too peppery. The bacon and cheese made up for things, but the bun quickly began to lose all structural integrity. I ended up leaving most of the bun on the plate (to accompany the chips). Overall not the greatest, but far better than the horrors of Mr Tasty next door. 2 out of 5.

I’m still off the coffee, but apparently the coffee here is supposed to be pretty good and you can find the brand in Tesco, Sainsburys and Waitrose in the UK as well as the Shoprite that I did my shopping in. Got some great apples.

Naturally the plumber had gone by the time I returned less than an hour after leaving, cold water isn’t too bad. At least it’s water.