« back to Rob Crilly - African Safari home

 

Lunch in Kisumu

| 9

Fish and chips at Kisumu's Imperial Hotel. With condiments
So Friday saw me in Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria, and I'm a great believer in the Catholic/Luo tradition of taking fish for my lunch on such occasions. OK so it wasn't exactly Superfish, or as tastable as Omdurman's fish breakfast, but the tilapia wasn't bad and the batter was pretty crispy. That said, I wasn't so keen on the curry paste under the batter. The Blue Band margarine on the vegetables was also a bit of a disappointment. But it was fish and chips. And that has to be a good thing.

9 Comments

user-pic
Rafiki | October 26, 2008 7:06 AM | Reply

Looks yummy. I have also had these fish and chips at Imperial, but I still prefer the fried fish sold on the lakeshore, although last time I started wondering about the quality of the fish when witnessing all the other activities going on in the water (washing of cars etc.). We don't really know anymore what exactly we are eating.

user-pic
Anonymous | October 26, 2008 7:44 AM | Reply

Lake Victoria is very badly polluted. But I reckon the fish is the same fish wherever it is served. So long as you don't buy the old stuff that is hawked around the slums...

user-pic
Anonymous | October 26, 2008 7:47 AM | Reply

Can you not get anything approaching this in Nairobi? And is bad fish an chips like sex a la the @ourman theory of pizza??



http://twitter.com/ourman/status/975900619



As I get to the UK so much these days I find it hard to feel your pain or even remember how it felt out in Asia. I do remember desperately trying to ration the three cans of Irn Bru I would stash back to Vietnam. Never lasted more than a week or two at most before they'd all gone.

user-pic
Anonymous | October 26, 2008 8:06 AM | Reply

There is fish and chips available in Nairobi. But Kisumu is the best place to have it as the city is right on Lake Victoria. I wouldn't say any of it is bad fish and chips - but it always ends up a little on the average side.



And I can't really complain about food. We have some pretty good restaurants and food stores here. You can get most things, but they are often not quite as good as I hoped. Pork pies and Cadbury's chocolate (diff recipe here) are probably the only things I would say I missed.

user-pic
Vasco Pyjama | October 27, 2008 5:07 AM | Reply

Woah, that looks really good. I mean, would be better if there was a wedge of lemon or tartare sauce. And if it was beer batter, but still, as you said, it's fish and chips.

user-pic
Anonymous | October 27, 2008 5:47 AM | Reply

The small silver jug had tartare sauce. And that greenish white thing that looks like a face on my plate is indeed lemon. But I'm sorry, lemon on fish and chips is for people who ask for guacamole when they are pointing at mushy peas in the chipper.

user-pic
onthedhow | October 27, 2008 5:07 PM | Reply

"There is fish and chips available in Nairobi. But Kisumu is the best place to have it as the city is right on Lake Victoria..."

Mombasa?

user-pic
Anonymous | October 27, 2008 5:56 PM | Reply

I can't help thinking I should be eating prawns and coconut rice, curried red snapper and Kilifi oysters at the coast. Fair point though

user-pic
Vasco Pyjama | October 29, 2008 9:01 AM | Reply

"But I'm sorry, lemon on fish and chips is for people who ask for guacamole when they are pointing at mushy peas in the chipper."



Oi. What happened to fusion cooking with bangers on lentils and that? And besides, I like my fish with a combination of chilli sambal, lime juice and soy sauce...

What do you think?