Delicious Food from the Heart of Busia
Chef Justine Emoit of Busia draws crowds with her hidden gem restaurant
Ekapulu, says Justine Emoit, is the type of vegetables only found among the Teso.
“It is very nutritious and if cooked well, no one will touch meat or chicken or fish in its place” she confides.
She should know, Emoit is a rare Chef who serves original Teso recipes in her hotel aptly named Utamaduni Hotel. Utamaduni is the Kiswahili word for tradition. The other local Luyha vegetables are Echaboi (also known as saga), Esuga (Suja), Eboo (Kunde), Amudokolo (potato leaves), and Omurere.
The Utamaduni Hotel is conspicuous in that it is set at Adungosi Centre on the road to Malaba, less than 10 km from the roadblock at Busia. In fact, most travelers plying the arterial Busia-Malaba road zoom past Adungosi unaware of its culinary secrets; so they just drive past without paying much attention to it.
“But the day one stops and eats my food is always the first among the many days they will be dining here,” says Emoit with confidence.
She is not boasting for nothing, because we were referred to her hotel by one Bodaboda motorcycle rider in Busia town when we inquired where we could eat traditional food cooked in the original traditional way.
Actually, we had expected Mr. Namulanda, the taxi driver to take us into one of the many hotels and food kiosks spread around Busia, the headquarters of Busia County.
So we were a bit apprehensive when, instead, our guide led us almost 10 Km out of Busia town.
“Do you know the proprietor of the hotel?” I asked the taxi man cagily.
“Not personally, but some of my clients have asked me to bring them all the way here, so her cooking must be good”.
The proprietor of the hotel Madam Emoit has seen it all. First, she worked as a nurse in Turkana County for several years. When she retired from nursing, she was employed as a secretary at Chakol Girls’ Secondary School. While serving as a secretary at school, she aspired to go after her heart’s desire; which was to serve people with traditionally cooked meals. “nilikuwa natamani kuwapatia watu chakula kizuri na kisafi ambacho mtu anakula hadi anashiba kabisa”. She aspired to serve people healthy food that brought satisfaction to their palate.
Here I was a hungry customer at lunchtime; it was my turn to be served. The menu was simple and straightforward. Although the actual menu is conspicuously inscribed on one wall of the hotel, I requested the owner to recommend one of their best traditional lunches. I was served Atap or Ugali in Kiswahili (brown cereal cake made of a mixture of millet/sorghum/cassava). It was accompanied by a bowl with Ekapulu vegetables as a starter. The vegetables looked like a homogenous thick sauce mixture that had a pleasant smell and sour taste. Emoit explained to me the sauce was her secret recipe. As I started on the food she went into the kitchen to prepare for me what she called one of her specialties. There is a large open window between the dining area and the kitchen, so one can see her as she busies herself.
For the main dish, I am served the ‘kitoeo” partner that goes with the brown Ugali. The side dish consists of a large chunk of dried meat swimming in a light soup. She explains that the soup consists of Simsim and Peanut sauces with a touch of sour milk.
As I start eating I find I relish every bite of Atap dipped in this sauce. I notice she routinely makes the rounds to customers’ tables, the way a surgeon makes rounds in a hospital ward. She stops at each table to have a word. She asks me if I need salt. Mouthful, I shake my head.
During the next round, she asks me as a new dinner; how do I find her food. Between bites, I say I like the taste of the food. She turns to the next table with two smartly dressed lady customers and remarks, “you see he doesn’t need more salt either”. Indeed I had not even noticed the need to add more salt to the food. It is as if the cook knew the exact amount of salt to add to the sauce. I am later amazed to learn that no salt is added to the food during cooking. As I eat, I become attracted to the dishes the other dinners are eating. I can see tantalizing servings on other tables as people enter, ate and leave. Have you ever eaten in a place where you wish you could eat every meal on the menu?
I eat slowly just to savor the special taste of the food. I notice that she serves every customer personally. Apart from serving, she is throwing in a string of conversations with each one of them. Eating at Mama Utamaduni is the most homely and personal experience I have had in a local public eatery.
Which college did she go to learn such cooking? College… she is surprised. She says her recipes are natural in that they belong to time immemorial in the Teso community.
“When I was growing up, I lived with my grandmother. I learnerd everything about preparing traditional food from her diet and cooking. Since then, I have strived to cook for my family and guests according to what I learn from my grandmother. It is the best honour I can give to her. This food is timeless. You are eating this as it was cooked one century ago”.
She learned from her grandmother how to store and preserve different types of foodstuffs. Then how to prepare grain, tubers, and vegetables for cooking. She says her grandmother did not know how to read and write, yet she could plan meals for everyone from a few people in the family to hundreds at functions when needed. As a young girl, she was amazed how her people used to store and preserve different foodstuffs so that it could last for a full season; sometimes two seasons in the event rain fails for a year.
According to Emoit, this experience informs the type of recipes that rely heavily on dried grain, smoked fish, dried meat, and vegetables. Most spices and salt are either made or collected locally. Unlike factory-made and purified spices and salt, they have a full natural taste and are beneficial to health.
The common spices for Busia residents in their recipes include Simsim/groundnut sauce, peanut butter, sour milk, Ginger, and the homemade salt “munyu” called Abalang.
Among the popular dishes at Mama Utamaduni Hotel are:
Akirine naka wanoin (smoked meat)
Ikolee ka emaide/ikenyam (dried fish)
Amoten (boiled matumbo)
Akou na epeyite (roast chicken)
These are served with Atap, Akok (Sweet potato), Emogo (cassava), Nduma (arrow root), or Bananas.
One of the specialties Mama Utamadani loves to keep on her menu is Emolokanyi (the scrubbed foot of a cow). The other specialty which is prepared in advance order is the dish consisting of meat/blood/matumbo mixture cooked in a special way only her grandmother could cook; and by extension, by Justine Emoit herself. However, there is sometimes a challenge due to the scarcity of ingredients.
Indeed dining at Mama Utamaduni’s place at Adungosi is not only a meal but an event.
As finish my meal in satisfaction, I request for her to reveal to me one of her secret recipes:
Dry meat
Abalang
Simsim sauce
Groundnut sauce
Sour milk
Local vegetables mix
For cooking instructions, she confides: “tell them to come meet me in a person at Adungosi…. hahaa!” she laughs in a motherly way only a great African traditional chef does.