Happy Hour at Onami Kitchen and Bar
So I LOVE Onami. Onami is on the 2ndflour of Westgate Mall in Westlands. I love their food and to be honest they have the best cocktails I have ever had in Nairobi. I discovered them in 2010 and I always try and go there for cocktails when I am in Nairobi. I particularly love their litchi martini. It’s like ORGASMIC, just one glass of those babies gets me giggling and it’s sweet too. Most of their martinis are quite great, I’ve tasted kiwi and banana (not sure they still have this on their menu though) their quite yummy. Their strawberry daiquiri is good and oooh their mojitos, how can I forget that.
FYI I am not an alcoholic, I have not drunk through their cocktails menu, its too long that even my girl Mona who is an alchoholic (pun intended) would have a hard time doing that. I was there a few weeks ago with my girl Waringa. We went in for a drink after lunch and got a surprise that made us VERY happy. They were having a BOGOF (buy one get one free) for their Happy Hour, so that is two drinks for an average of just Ksh 600/= so it comes down to 300/= per cocktail!! how cool is that??. Waringa had the Mai Tai it was mighty tasty, I of course still had the litchi Martini. Went back two weeks with my man, Dennis, who had a Whiskey Sour,
- Whiskey sour
why I never tried it before I have no idea because it was sooooo tasty plus it has a lovely high. Last week I started off with a Frozen Bublegum.
Frozen Bubblegum
It was quite sweet actually it looked like and smelt like a strawberry milkshake, it was a tad too sweet and creamy but funny enough it had no cream (it’s made with Southern Comfort, Bailey’s & Strawberries) but it still does what alcohol is supposed to do. Who doesn’t want that? To be honest though I don’t think I’d order it again unless if I was just having one cocktail at lunch time and I did not want to feel like an alchy so I’d have it and pretend it’s milkshake , I’m bright I know hehe.
I’d forgotten to tell you the last time I was there was on a Thursday so they had salsa night, the music is really enjoyable and for those of us who can’t dance salsa for shit it’s a great people watching experience as there normally really good dancers, another incentive of going on Thursdays?? they have Johny Walker cocktails such at whiskey sour selling for only 450/- OOOH and on Tuesdays there Cocktails are just 500/- Ok I’ve stopped I sound like an over enthusiastic drunkard 🙂
I love the ambiance at Onami, the service is also mostly decent. By that I mean that on the occasions I have been there for drinks and I sat at the bar the service was great, on days that I have been there for lunch the service was great but most times I have been there for dinner their service has been lacking.
There food is also great I’ll write about that later., although they did up their prices when they changed their name and also removed some things I liked from their menu 🙁 But when you can head on over there for happy hour or even if its not happy hour I’ll bet you that by the time you leave you will be REALLY happy!!
Bloody Mary
Our bar tender that night Geof, he was great
Geoff mixing up his special cocktail
I feel like a cocktail just by looking at this bring poured
Final product, Geof’s special cocktail made with Sheridan’s Ciroc Vodka and sugar syrup
HAPPY HAPPY DRINKING!!
Lamu Tamu
AMAZING!!
So I went to Lamu over the new years holidays. I went with a group called Bunduz Safaris. They did a very decent job and in some areas actually surpassed my expectations.
I enjoyed my trip, for the most part only down side is that it was a road trip. Who knew Lamu was that FAR??? I should have done my research. I was also a bit dissapointed with the food. For some reason the places that the organizers chose to take us for stop over lunches and dinners were AWFUL. Our first stop over at Voi I actually chose to have chicken and chips coz in my mind we had 5 days to have lots of GREAT swahili food. Waringa had the mutton pilau and it was OOOH SOO DELICIOUS and that i could say was one of the best dishes that whole holiday. We had a stop over in Malindi where i really hated the food. I had smoked fish in coconut sauce it was cold, others tried biriani and pilau but it was terribly bland, again in Lamu same thing bland food not a reflection of the spicy and exciting swahili dishes.
But the breakfast was amazing. They would serve viazi karai (directly translated to mean potatoes on pan,have to make this soon), mahamri (kenyan doughnuts) , mishikaki (beef in spicy marinade on a skewer), mbaazi (pigeon peas in coconut sauce), bhajia (potatoes or onions dipped in gram flour then deep fried), masala tea, fresh fruit juices (the orange was to die for).
I also went spice shopping that was the highlight of my trip. I bought some for my Foodie Penpal. I got some in Lamu but most in Malindi. I’ll write about that soon. Here are pics of my trip
My bed, it was HUGE and the base was made of concrete!
Breathtakingly beautiful
spice shopping in Lamu
l
the narrow streets of Lamu
Always posing 🙂
someone opened the door before i could take the pic 🙁
not too sure if this was someones house or a hotel
sundried fish, looks a bit scary I know!!
My face is sweaty I know :-/ I was not bright enough to take a photo of this door without me but can you see how beautiful it is?
one of the many Mosques
;
🙂
and it continued
then it changed!!
beautiful ain’t it?
i just loved the doors
this thing is apparently from the early 19th century
a model of the swahili kitchen at the museum
the bedroom belonging to the man of the house
Again i know my face is sweaty, it was damn hot, but concentrate on two things; how high is that bed??? and look at my feet, those are iron flip flops if they walked with them I wonder how!!
the view from the balcony at the apartments we stayed in
some of the islands of lamu Island
floating restaurant
Beautiful sunset as we left Manda Island
how nice does this look
🙂
my gal Waringa rocking her heena
me
on the last night, we went to Malindi and had a really nice dinner at the Casino
my plate; grilled calamari and red snapper YUM
I told you I went spice shopping in Lamu, well I got the real stash in Malindi. I’ll post about that soon
Paprika Red Snapper with Red and Yellow Pepper Relish
I am getting a new appreciation for fish, maybe its because I am learning different ways of preparing it. I honestly really can not stand the fish sold by the street vendors; you know the kind that has been deep fried in oil that is weeks old, the one that makes the whole area wreak of some mutated species of fish. I actually prefer to buy my fish raw. Even on instances when I do buy from the Mamas on the streets I still get it raw then I go cook it my self. I’ll teach you how to cook that soon. For today let us cook some fillet.
So I went to the fish monger, I go to Aloha in Westlands, quite late in the afternoon and I couldn’t find any tilapia. For some reason that is the go to fish for most Kenyans, maybe it’s because it’s available in abundance. I got some red snapper. It’s quite tasty as well, just a little different in texture and taste from tilapia but it’s worth a try. I got this recipe in the February 2013 edition of BBC GoodFood (yes I’m that forward informed) and it was originally adapted from a book by Tom Aikens Easy. The original recipe asks for about 450ml of olive oil!!!! I felt this was way TOO much oil so I slashed it down 225 ml. I also used Spanish paprika instead of smoked paprika.
The recipe also calls for white wine vinegar; I did not have any so I substituted it for apple cider vinegar. I felt that the taste was a bit sour, but still tasty, and in future I would probably try plain water or fish stalk. HAPPY COOKING!!
Ingredients
- 150 ml olive oil
- 2 red onions, sliced
- 3 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 30 grams sugar
- 2 tablespoons course sea salt
- 4 red peppers, deseeded and cut into thin strips
- 4 yellow peppers, deseeded and cut into thin strips (if you like you could also add in some green peppers)
- 150 grams button mushrooms, slices
- 2 pinches paprika
- 1 red chilli, chopped
- 300 ml, white wine vinegar (if you do not like the sourness of vinegar try using either fish stalk or water)
- bunch of dhania (coriander) chopped
- 4 x 140 grams red snapper fillets (you could use any white fish fillet)
- 75 ml olive oil
- 4 large pinches of paprika
- 4 teaspoons minced garlic
- juice of 2 lemon
Instructions
Mix the juice of 1 lemon, the 4 teaspoons of garlic and some salt to taste. Smear this paste on the fillets and set aside.
Pour the 100 ml of oil in a pan over medium heat; add the onion, thyme, sugar, garlic and a pinch sea salt. Cook for 5-8 minutes. Do not let the onions color. Add in the peppers and mushrooms, remaining salt, paprika and chillies.
Cover with a lid and let the mixture sweat over a medium high heat for about 10 minutes. Stir often so that the peppers do not burn.
Once the peppers look sweated add the vinegar (or water or stalk) and bring to a boil over high heat until it has all evaporated. Set aside.
Whisk 25 ml of the olive oil with the paprika and brush the fillet with it. Add the remaining oil to a non stick frying pan and once hot add the fillets. Cook for about 4-5 mins then flip and cook for 2 mins. Squeeze the remaining lemon juice on top and serve over the relish.
https://www.themothershipvillage.com/paprika-red-snapper-with-red-and-yellow-pepper-relish/
