The ultimate Chinese take-out

After being stuck indoors since the start of the second lockdown, I was itching to get away, so this past week I called up a friend to brainstorm on things we could do. We decided to get an Airbnb for two days in Karen, and ended up staying at the Brandy Bus, a cool converted double decker bus. Other than breakfast, I never really want to cook when I’m on a getaway, and so for dinner on the first night, we looked up restaurants close to Bogani Road.

Our criteria for settling on Hong Kong Kitchen was this: we wanted a place that would have delicious yet affordable food, and since we were really hungry, we wanted good portions. Chinese restaurants often fit this criteria, and they do really good fried noodles and rice. Options off the menu at Hong Kong Kitchen include pork spare ribs for Sh780, salt and pepper prawns for Sh975, Chicken with mushroom stew for Sh780, while fried noodles average Sh500. They also have specials for groups of two to five people, with combos such as beef with onions, stir fried mixed vegetables, special fried rice and vegetable fried noodles for Sh2600.

We really didn’t want to spend a lot of money. Times are hard. So we only went with the special rice for Sh580 per person, then hoped that the portion would be good, and we were not disappointed. Delivery was fast and the food was still piping hot. The special rice had prawns, chicken, beef and eggs for Sh580. I had thought the egg would be broken and fried into the rice, but it’s like they made an omelette then cut that into pieces- I would have enjoyed it either way. We actually each had half for dinner and half for lunch the next day.

The food here is delicious. They’re very generous with the amount of meat in the fried rice as well, and there was plenty to go around. And, because we were raised in African households, we were very happy about the takeaway tins that would soon find themselves being repurposed in our home kitchens. Next time you’re looking to order in for a group, try a Chinese spot near you.

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