Tuesday

BY BETT KINYATTI

Nostalgia is a feeling Nyama Mama has turned into something you can hold in your hands.

They’ve turned it into an ingredient, a cookable ingredient that’s in every dish in their menu. It’s an item in their recipes, a modern form of edible art, it’s a portion that’s served on your plate. It’s in that smell of food sizzling in your own mother’s kitchen.

If ever there was a way to taste nostalgia, then you’ll taste in Nyama Mama’s cooking.

This nostalgia doesn’t end with their food. It starts with their interior decor, really. That unmistakable feeling you get when you walk into one of their outlets in Nairobi. It’s like something of time travel – you may think you’re walking through their front door only you’re not. What you’re really doing is pedalling back into your own personal escape of a time-gone era. An era every urbanite obliviously aches for. Being in Nyama Mama’s diner eases that ache. Albeit temporarily.

I don’t want get caught up in details of how they’re doing it, that would be over-egging the pudding.

On this Tuesday at lunch service, me and Mburu – the artistic photographer on this project – are in the back kitchen of Nyama Mama Delta curious to see how nostalgia is cooked and served.

What we find is a story best told in photos than words.

(Well, I attempted to tell it in words here…)

      

All photos are by Mburu Muriithi, of Nyuso za Nairobi, for Craft It. Image copyrights apply. None of these photos can be used elsewhere without the express permission of Craft It.

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Shabba Ranks
Our beautiful vaginas

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