I guess it was eventually going to come down to this one important question; who makes the best brisket in Nairobi?
Is there a more important question in the gastronomical space and if there is why? I’m no meat lover, I’m a fish lover, so I will admit right off the butt that I might not be the best-suited person to lead a conversation like this. But I happen to have a mouth and teeth that chew and I’m lucky enough to have a column in the newspaper. So here I am, bringing a fork to this meat cleaver fight.
This tale starts with a friend telling me that she had the best brisket in town at this new joint called The Bull on Southern Bypass. “Bull!” I said. She said, “Yes. Bull”. I repeated, “I mean, that’s bull. The best brisket is at Texas Barbeque in Kikuyu town.” She’d never been to Texas Barbeque of course, otherwise, why would she be spreading these rumours? I’d never been to The Bull so we were both fighting ghosts.
To be fair, and driven by curiosity, I drove down to check it out. If you don’t live in Karen, the drive there is somewhat therapeutic, especially when you drive alongside the road running along the Southern Bypass.
The first thing that struck me was that The Bull reminded me of one of those shebeens in Johannesburg; open sitting area, deejay on a platform playing amapiano, a fire burning from open barrels, smell of braai. There was a whole wall at The Bull made from stacks of hay. That was pretty cool.
We engaged with their brisket and later I reported to my friend that, although I loved the vibe of the Bull and the brisket was not too shabby, I still felt like they wouldn't hold a candle to Texas’s brisket. And being competitive, she went to Texas a few days later to try out their brisket and reported later that the Texas brisket was tasty but “oily because they fry it.” Seems like the war brisket rages on with no clear winner.
