EATING & OUTING: The sauce is the money

The Alchemist’s yard serves as a food truck lot with different food service providers – including Street Bistro. PHOTO| FILE |NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Street Bistro is a little known food company with three branches across the city including at The Hub in Karen and Thika Road’s Garden City Mall.
  • Our complaints were met with that greatly unimaginative response, “It is coming.”
  • It appeared however, that the election gods had conspired with the food gods to surprise us with a wonderful day after all.

The Alchemist Bar in Nairobi’s Westlands has fast become a favourite of mine, for the quality of the human beings that hang out there. On weekends, it is a mixed bag of free loving, freethinking, local and foreign artistes, humanitarian workers and business people looking to wine, dine and carouse without fear of judgement. Not having a permanent kitchen of her own, the Alchemist’s yard serves as a food truck lot with as many as five different food service providers – including Nairobi Java House. The other day, amid the uncertainty surrounding the final election results announcement, I decided to investigate one of the food trucks in the compound.

Street Bistro is a little known food company with three branches across the city including at The Hub in Karen and Thika Road’s Garden City Mall. On my day there, the city was a ghost town and the understated food truck was manned by a warm, manager-type Indian gentleman and just one chef.

THE LONG WAIT

There were no other customers but my friend and I so after ordering a starter of feta coriander samosas and peach iced teas, we took time to study the surprisingly expansive menu. Attempting a shift from my usual eating habits, I went for the crusted fish and avocado wrap. My mate ordered the envy-inducing parmesan crusted fish with chips and we found ourselves a spot to sit under the canopied outdoor area scattered with wooden pallets ornamented with kaleidoscopic kitenge fabrics and cushions.

After close to half hour of banter which got slower and lighter as we got more and more ravenous, we became annoyed that nothing, not even the blasted iced teas, had come! Our complaints were met with that greatly unimaginative response, “It is coming.” When our order eventually did come, neither the samosas nor the teas were on the tray and it was all I could do not to scream in frustration. So we cancelled them and tucked into our food like the savages we had been reduced to.

It appeared however, that the election gods had conspired with the food gods to surprise us with a wonderful day after all.

Crusted fish and avocado wrap, Street Bistro food truck, The Alchemist Bar. PHOTO| FILE |NATION MEDIA GROUP

My delicious wrap was packed with a fresh salad, avocado and subtly seasoned fish which tasted oh, so divine. The homemade ranch sauce was an absolute delight and I unashamedly licked it from my hands with relish each time there was drippage. My lunch date’s chips were served with a zucchini dip whose light texture contrasted brilliantly with the thick and tangy homemade tartar sauce for his fish. It is true to say that the team at Street Bistro are masters of snacky foods but what emerged most clearly for me is that they make some of the most kickass sauces in all of Nairobi!

At just Sh700 per meal, I feel foolish for having not given this establishment a chance earlier. I now have a new go to place for my more playful culinary indulgences.