(Re)birth of a cocktail
It was probably one of the last summer weekends of the year - and one of the few where all my friends, and some guests, were in town - so we took advantage with a Sunday afternoon in Karen, the posh suburb south of Nairobi named for the Danish writer Karen Blixen. (She was the one played by Meryl Streep in "Out of Africa.") Karen is a lush playground for wealthy Kenyans, many of them descendants of the British settlers who came here about 100 years ago. As a result the place is known as cowboy country, as in "Kenyan cowboy" or "KC" for short, for the freewheeling outdoors lifestyle of the stereotypical White Kenyan.
The rest of us like the town for its great restaurants and gardens - the perfect setting for Sunday lunch. We opted for Talisman, which for my money is the most beautiful restaurant in Nairobi - a single-story house with the back torn off to reveal a huge garden. The dining area is inside-and-out, so you can sit under the sun on Afro-casual teak or under the roof on benches and cushions that are kind of Persian. It's just a really cool place. Inevitably you'll see some minor Kenyan celebrity, and Sunday was no exception - at the table next to us was seated the girlfriend of Tom Cholmondeley, a descendant of the famous Delamere family of settlers, who's currently on trial for the murder of a black stonemason on his massive ranch.
After Talisman's requisite fresh tangerine juice and awesome feta-and-coriander samosas (recently praised in the New York Times) we moved on to a friend's house for some drinks on the patio. That eventually gave way to a ritual viewing of "The Big Lebowski," which, to do
just right, requires that you consume multiple White Russians (no sasparilla in Nairobi).
We had to make some local modifications - Kenya Gold coffee liqueur instead of ridiculously expensive imported Kahlua, locally distilled vodka sold under the Smirnoff name, and to top it off, off-the-shelf (as in non-refrigerated) milk, the kind favored by those without reliable electricity. (Powdered milk might have been more appropriate, but whatever.)
The drink would have made the Dude proud. It was so good, in fact, that we think it ought to be a fixture in Nairobi bars. Inspired by the afternoon in Karen, or the intoxicating combination of vodka and milk, we named our cocktail the White Kenyan, and eventually the KC. Look for it in soon in your favorite Nairobi watering hole.
The rest of us like the town for its great restaurants and gardens - the perfect setting for Sunday lunch. We opted for Talisman, which for my money is the most beautiful restaurant in Nairobi - a single-story house with the back torn off to reveal a huge garden. The dining area is inside-and-out, so you can sit under the sun on Afro-casual teak or under the roof on benches and cushions that are kind of Persian. It's just a really cool place. Inevitably you'll see some minor Kenyan celebrity, and Sunday was no exception - at the table next to us was seated the girlfriend of Tom Cholmondeley, a descendant of the famous Delamere family of settlers, who's currently on trial for the murder of a black stonemason on his massive ranch.
After Talisman's requisite fresh tangerine juice and awesome feta-and-coriander samosas (recently praised in the New York Times) we moved on to a friend's house for some drinks on the patio. That eventually gave way to a ritual viewing of "The Big Lebowski," which, to do
just right, requires that you consume multiple White Russians (no sasparilla in Nairobi).We had to make some local modifications - Kenya Gold coffee liqueur instead of ridiculously expensive imported Kahlua, locally distilled vodka sold under the Smirnoff name, and to top it off, off-the-shelf (as in non-refrigerated) milk, the kind favored by those without reliable electricity. (Powdered milk might have been more appropriate, but whatever.)
The drink would have made the Dude proud. It was so good, in fact, that we think it ought to be a fixture in Nairobi bars. Inspired by the afternoon in Karen, or the intoxicating combination of vodka and milk, we named our cocktail the White Kenyan, and eventually the KC. Look for it in soon in your favorite Nairobi watering hole.
Labels: Nairobi life
posted by Shashank @ 2:01 AM
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