Nyeri hotel where ‘mashakura’ all started

Simon Mwaniki( left) and a friend enjoying the meal at their premises. Kuku mutungo served at Sidai Oleng Restaurant.

 

• Former President Mwai Kibaki, Governor Mike Sonko among other dignitaries have tasted kuku mutungo
• Chicken is boiled together with the maize and eggs in a large sufuria

Mashakura. It is not really a new world. But it became popular after the Airtel television advert starring actress Shix Kapienga.

It connotes a meal of assorted food items prepared haphazardly. In reality though, mashakura (a corruption of chakula) refers to that popular platter comprising of chicken,   boiled eggs, maize, chips and nduma with slices of cucumber.

It is now a culinary fad in parts of Nairobi, where it’s known as kuku mutungo. Mutungo is Kikuyu for boiled maize.

While people from Central Kenya have no qualms wolfing down kuku mutungo, those from other parts of the country had a lot of hilarious things to say when photos of what they called mashakura began circulating on social media.

Mutungo also goes by other names like kuku bahati and kuku mathogothanio or kuku chaos.

While this assorted meal has been making forays into Nairobi over the last two years, it actually started in Nyeri County, the brainchild of Jeremiah Kamau or Kamau Bahati, who operated a restaurant overlooking the bus stage in Nyeri.

He came up with kuku bahati as a meal that would see his restaurant founded in 1964, ride the turbulent economic times. 

Kamau was once a settler cook in Nyeri, where he started a small restaurant, selling chicken to whites and later Africans after independence.

His ventures flourished and he went on to own the restaurant where he invented kuku bahati. 

After his demise, his son Joe Kamau, took over the business which has a 1980s feel to it, what with Formica-topped tables and plastic chairs branded with alcohol brands.

In fact, patrons enjoy their beer and food, whose tasty combination has not changed over the years, besides the prices that are adjusted to suit inflation.

A small plate of the meal goes for Sh300, while a Sh500 plate can serve three and 

Joe says with conviction that kuku bahati is one of the proudest exports of Nyeri County. Among the dignitaries who have had a taste and relished kuku bahati are former President Mwai Kibaki and Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko.

At one time, Joe was even invited by President Uhuru Kenyatta to have a taste of the meal. “He did not come here, but we had a plate sent over to State House,” he said.

“The recipe has become very popular nowadays, but all of it started from here. Most of the people who went on to adopt the recipe got their employees from here”, Joe said proudly, adding that the chicken is boiled together with the maize and eggs in a large sufuria and later fried at the request of a client.