At Nyege Nyege festival we discover yummy Uganda cuisine
Beef in G.Nut sauce wrapped in banana leaves served with Matoke served and greens. PHOTO|KEMZY KEMZY
What you need to know:
Park villa Restaurant, Jinja
I did not know my love for chapati would follow me to Jinja in Uganda. While attending the Nyege Nyege festival, my first meal was the famous “Rolex” which is an omelet wrapped in chapati. It sounds really basic until I got someone who was making a “Rolex Pro Max” which had cheese, shredded chicken, mushrooms, cabbage, and carrots. It was heaven in my mouth! That was before I was informed about the other restaurants in town which specialise in traditional Ugandan Cuisines. Park Villa restaurant came highly recommended.
A motorcycle ride from our hotel cost only Sh30. That’s one thing I loved about Jinja Town. Any movement to and from town did not cost more than Sh30 and then I remembered how I once paid Sh200 to a boda guy to drop me from GPO to Kencom.
This small but mighty restaurant located on Kampala road right across from the famous Kobil Gas station is very easy to spot. We knew it is not a fancy restaurant so we didn’t expect the perfect ambiance or dimly lit lights and jazz music playing in the background. It was the equivalent of Highland Restaurants in Nairobi. Green and white table covers with toothpicks and serviettes in an empty water glass, tomato sauce in red plastic bottles, and metallic chairs dotted the space.
The menu was a one-page pamphlet with all the meals and drinks included. I wanted to try out chicken Luwombo which is a favourite among the Ugandans but it was not available at that time. I settled for mashed Matoke with beef in Ground Nut sauce while my other two friends ordered deep-fried fish with Ugali and fish fillet with chips (they were playing it safe). The service was quick and the meals came through sizzling hot.
Huge deep fried fish on a bed of tomatoes and onions at Park Villa Restaurant in Jinja. PHOTO|KEMZY KEMZY
The beef in groundnut sauce was fully wrapped in banana leaves which I later learned is used to maintain the ground nut taste and keep the meat hot. It was yummy with a tangy ground nut taste and the Matoke was sweet and soft just the way I like it. The other meals were okay too and the servings were huge enough to sort the hunger. The enormous fried fish with tomato and onion toppings was worth the UGSh15,000 which is the equivalent of Sh500!! It was perfectly crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside. Our entire bill was UGsh59,000 inclusive of two sodas and one glass of passion juice.
