EDITORIAL
WELCOME
BACK,
Right after our first issue on Coffee hit the
streets last month, we started thinking up
ways to keep you salivating, but also looked
for a theme that would tell the story behind
the restaurants that serve the food we
feature. That’s how we came up with the
idea for a Seafood Issue.
As the global demand for fresh,
healthy and nutritious seafood
continues to grow it seems that the
seafood craze has finally caught
on here, as well. Open any menu,
from low-end budget city centre
fast food joint to expensive upscale
Westlands restaurants and you will
find a seafood menu fishy enough
to whet your appetite. From Kilifi
oysters to Diani or Mtwapa octopus
and everything else in between,
this manna from the Indian Ocean,
the stuff Kenyan fishermen pull
out of the deep blue sea, is either
consumed directly at the coast or
shipped, prepared, cooked and
enjoyed here in the capital city. But
there is more to that story—the one
of the local fishermen for whom
setting traps, casting a net, throwing
a line is one of the few economic
activities that fills their growing
subsistence needs and the one of
the tons of seafood that’s flown in,
shipped in, trucked in our city from
neighbouring or far away countries.
The questions we asked ourselves
while preparing this issue is how,
as the needs of our fishermen and
our taste for nutritious and healthy
seafood grows, will the issues of
overfishing and protection of our
natural resources be addressed?
And how can we, as citizens of the
world, justify eating food that’s
coming in from the other side of the
world. As a food magazine, we don’t
pretend to be, nor intend to become
political. However, out of respect for
our well-informed and highly-critical
readers, we thought we should ask
these questions.
For a big blue experience where
we review seafood in all its forms
-- alive, dead, beaten to death,
cooked, and paired -- forward to our
Seafood guide where we begin our
seafaring adventure with the journey
of an octopus from the coastal town
of Diani to the tables of one of
Nairobi’s gourmet restaurants. We
then move on to whet your appetite
with fishy recipes and unveil the
new red-wine-paired-with-seafood
phenomenon. We travel the coastal
length from Lamu all the way to
Zanzibar to bring you a list of coastal
restaurants where your taste buds
can get hooked on the best catch of
the day the coast has to offer.
Our foodie-in-residence Susan
Wong stops in and reviews a few
dishes at the newly opened Ocean
Basket and declares it officially ‘off
the hook’. We start a conversation
with home-grown Chef Joseph
Gacheru where he speaks for the
local ingredients. Man About Town,
Jackson Biko, people watches as he
sips pricey whisky at The Explorer
Tavern and Charity Keita recounts
how she successfully threw a dinner
party she wishes she hadn’t. Anies
Peillet reveals how wine can turn
perfectly down-to-earth women into
hysterical broom riding witches.
That’s it for now. The team and I have
gone fishing. Until next month!
Hiyabel Tewoldemedhin
General Manager
EatOut Africa
5.