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WENDY WATTA
gies on cooking. After doing some
research in Nairobi and realising that
Japanese-owned Japanese restaurants are quite uncommon in the city,
the idea of opening an authentic
Japanese establishment was born.
“The way we source our fish is
simple,” explains Yuki. “I have a
network of fisherman up and down
the coast who have my number and
know to get in touch when they
have caught something good”. The
fishermen then proceed to whatsapp
Yuki a picture of the catch, negotiations are made and when a price is
settled on, he sends them the money
through Mpesa. Once the transaction
is complete, the fishermen load the
fish on to a pikipiki (motorbike) and
transport it to Mombasa where every
evening, Seith— now a full-time
Cheka employee, packs it all on ice
and puts it on a Nairobi-bound Mash
Poa bus.
“We depend on freshness” says
Kyohei earnestly. “Tuna is a top priority as are lobsters, crabs and oysters.
However we think it is important to
focus on what’s available and seasonal, so the frequent changes in our
menu are a reflection of this”.
While there are Nairobi shops and
distributors from which is is possible
to acquire the other elements that go
into sushi, Yuki and Kyohei prefer to
have their own ingredients shipped
in directly from Japan. “We have
a 20 foot container on which we
load everything we need,” explains
Kyohei, “sticky rice, soy sauce, nori,
wasabi and of course sake. We make
sure we never run out!”.
Increasingly restaurants are approaching the two to acquire some
of the food they