BY ERNEST TUAPE
(Craft It’s new foreign correspondent in Kampala)
#1. Just 2K
I was WhatsApp’ing my friend Kakeeto. He’s a Muganda who loves steamed and boiled local food.
He said, “I’m taking my wife and kids for luwombo this weekend.”
“Eih, man. You’re doing well, depositing good vibes in the emotional bank account of your family. Hehhe.”
He replied with a smiley.
He has humps for biceps. Toughly moulded muscles. He wanted to join the army three years ago but kept postponing. He let the dream go. Homeboy now runs a children’s education project. Decent chap.
“What’s this luwombo place?” I text
“2K Restaurant. Downtown. Opposite Mega Standard Supermarket.”
#2. Options for first-timers
So when Vestine came to Kampala, we went to 2K Restaurant for luwombo. She’s a colleague from Burundi and greets with two pecks. It’s every day culture in the heart of Africa, uncommon in the Pearl of Africa.
(Side note: Did you know Burundi is the heart of Africa?)
She’s a router of joyful rays.
Vestine orders chicken luwombo, the best option for anyone eating this type of food for the first time. It comes with steamed vegetables, rice, matooke, sweet potatoes and yams.
Please don’t say Ugandans eat too much. We like a good meal.
#3. There’s enough for all. And random Kampalans
You don’t have to buy two plates of luwombo if you have a limited budget. At 2K, you can share the meal with a friend.
It comes with two pieces of chicken the size of a 14-year-old boy’s fist, a bowl of soup served in matooke leaves (strange, right?) and a separate heap of tubers and grains. Add a drink to it, your meal is complete.
They blend their fresh juice from fruits bought from Nakasero market.
Luwombo at 2K is a feast. It’s best shared with close circles and random Kampalans.
#4. One note
A plate of luwombo will cost you one note. The one with the picture of the monument built at Centenary Park, the monument which represents “Socio Economic Growth of Kampala City.”
That note with a crater, Lake Nyinambuga, at its centre.
It’s the note a chic I matched with on Tinder once asked me to send her to buy chicken. Hehehe.
She was bold and didn’t mind asking, went straight for her target. Maybe I was going to be her chicken guy. She’s a student at uni.
I didn’t send it to her.
It’s the 20K note.
#5. Omuntu wa’wansi
The first floor of 2K restaurant gives you a view of the roofs of an uncountable number of taxis parked at the old taxi park.
Dusty roofs, rusty tops, some murky trenches, polythene bags strewn outside.
From up there, you’ll see the hustle of the omuntu wa’wansi, the common man, the guy who lifts heavy bags for a living, the woman who sells sweets along the edge of the park, the hungry street child running after a youthful man, wearing a fitting shirt and jeans, to beg for a shilling.
It’s a view that humbles your soul.
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Tuape blogs at www.silliedance.com
