Kakamega Market:
Once there was a rumor that some members would sneak in at night time and change the sign from Kakamega Market to Meg’s Market. But this plot didn’t succeed due to the night guards. The city’s only open market is guarded by guards during night time so that the vendors can cover up their ware and leave them to go home without worries.
The market is extensive. You can purchase everything for your everyday needs from fresh produce, meats (Kenyan’s favorite), household goods to clothing. Walking through this kind of market and talking to the vendors is one of my pleasures when I travel. Also it was convenient that most of Kenyans speak English. Kiswahili didn’t seem too difficult to learn. I would have tried to learn some more beyond basic greetings if the stay was longer.
Since we were lucky to have cooking facility at the guest house, we went to the market everyday to buy fresh materials for the day. We purchased the beef at the butcher in the picture and asked a butcher to chop meat. He started with very small bits, and then I asked little bit bigger. Still the size looked too small for meat stew that I had in my mind, then I asked him to cut them still bigger. Oh, boy! He was right. Since there is no refrigeration, a cow is killed in the morning for the day’s sale. I learned the importance of aging the meat. After more than an hour and a half cooking, the meat was darn tough.
I would highly recommend that if you go to Kakamega, do buy their goat meat. That was the best goat meat that I ever had. And it was tender. I’d like to thank Gichuki for his recommendation.
We bought chickens live. Too bad, I didn’t have a time to take picture of Becka’s horrified face when she was looking at three chickens the vendor was holding. Still it seemed there was no problem for her to eat them later including the livers.
Kunde is Kenyan national dish of greens. The market was abundant with many greens like the familiar kale, Swiss chard and many unfamiliar Kenyan leafy stems. They had wonderful and super inexpensive Haas avocados. Becka suggested that we should eat avocado everyday. So we did. A small sized avocado was 70 cents, large one was $1.00. We should import Kenyan avocados.