Taking grandma’s recipe upmarket

There is some comfort in having a bowl of saucy githeri topped with avocado and a sprinkle of raw tomatoes. A mouthful of this takes me back to my grandma’s kitchen, sitting around the fire whiling the countryside evening away.

To find a meal that reminds me of grandma’s cooking or even comes close to mum’s food is not something I would expect from a restaurant, but Chef Lesiamon ole Sempele’s char-grilled githeri and avocado with kachumbari hit the mark.

Served in a ceramic bowl, the githeri is topped with slices of avocado and garnished with some fresh herbs, a professional presentation with homey flavours.

Nyama Mama, where Lesiamon is the executive chef, has been pushing the boundary between traditional meals and modern flavours.

It will officially launch its new full service restaurant at the Delta in Westlands next month, but it has already been welcoming guests for a few weeks. The décor consists of things you would find at your mother’s or grandmother’s house.

From the original wooden Coca-Cola crates to the enamel cups or even the enamel buckets that are loaded with ice and beers, not to forget the repurposed classic car seats, the restaurant is a tribute to a traditional home.

Hangover cure

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and even better that would be a Sunday brunch after a night out. The serving of pulled beef benedict, one of my favourite dishes on the breakfast menu, is a perfect hangover cure.

When you cut into the dish which resembles an open-face burger, and take a bite, the combination of rich, saucy, sweet and salty dances on the pallet.

The egg sitting on a bed of sukuma wiki on a buttermilk biscuit and chipotle hollandaise is a pleasant surprise. The unlikely presence of the sukuma wiki works with the dish and the runny yolk with the sauce, all meddled with the sweetness in the biscuit.

The menu plays on unlikely combinations as well as some American favourites, an influence from Chef Christopher Lewis, an American who assisted with the setup of the brand but has since left.

Fried chicken waffles is one such dish.

“This dish has all your flavours because it is sweet, savoury, it is crunchy, soft, smooth, and heavy. You know it has all these different things all on one plate. It is one of my personal favourites,” says Chef Lesiamon.

The dish may be the chef’s favourite but the different textures and flavours did not play as harmoniously on my pallet. Also for dessert, I would not find myself sitting with Oreos, sweet potatoes and chocolate on one plate but the chocolate sweet potato pie manages to bring them together in a single dish.

The Oreo base for the pie offers the crunch factor while the sweet potato filling brings the spices as well as a barely note of heat (chilli perhaps) and this is topped with melted chocolate. This combination offers a sweet flavour in a dessert without going overboard and it is also a different way of incorporating the traditional root vegetable in a meal.

Chai and mandazi is breakfast and a snack classic. But picture a mandazi chai ice-cream sandwich? No? Well the ice cream is sandwiched in between two halves of a mandazi — which has been fried to give a crisp exterior and a soft hollowed out centre—and is garnished with tea infused apple slices.

The menu at Nyama Mama Delta has its hits and misses but offers a twist to conventional dishes and décor.

I sampled over 20 dishes and eight cocktails. The hits include the fried plantains, goat curry, banana bread; while the misses, for my pallet, included the beetroot, orange and feta salad as well as the fried chicken waffles.

Each food, explains the chef, is appreciated differently depending on the individual preferences.

To avoid disappointment, make a reservation.