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http://www.newslook.com/videos/491415-traditional-food-restaurant-in-kenya

38-year-old Pamela Muyeshi opened the traditional food restaurant 4 years ago in the Kenyan capital, offering Kenyan food mainly made of corn, maize, potatoes, and beans.

The idea for such a restaurant grasped her when she saw the increasing demand for traditional Kenyan food among locals and tourists who were seeking an authentic meal.

She believes the restaurant offers is not only healthy food, but also a cultural or emotional attachment.

SOUNDBITE(E): PAMELA MUYESHI, Restaurant owner
“A lot of people connect to their roots so to speak when they eat these traditional foods so they have alot of cultural values when attached to them and you find most people went out of their way to look for them because of their sentimental attachments that the meals will bring to their memories.”

Muyeshi also believes the cultural value embodied in Kenyan food could be packaged and branded so as to be marketed abroad as a cultural heritage of the country.

At Muyeshi’s Amaica restaurant, earthen pots are used to make the meals, as most traditional Kenyan communities used to do. The menu is full of diversity and colorful flavors that only the freshest of vegetables and Kenyan delicacies could produce. Every detail of Amaica reflects a unique traditional touch that modern Kenyans have forgotten.

Armed with regional authentic Kenyan recipes that have been passed down for generations, the restaurant has perfected many of their dishes with the help of women community groups from each region.

But the food at Amaica is not all traditionally Kenyan. To cater to the international market, Muyeshi and her team adjusted the taste a bit.

SOUNDBITE(E): PAMELA MUYESHI, Restaurant owner
“For example if you taste the smoked beef that we do which is our signature dish it would nit taste the same way as my mother cooked it and the main reason is, we not just cooking for the family. We cooking for the international markets so you will be able to strike a balance between how far do I go in terms of maintaining the traditional way of cooking and what do i add in the food without compromising the aspect of having the food remain natural and at the same time appeal to the palette you trying to sell the food to.”

Muyeshi dreams that one day she can expand her business to a global scale.

Traditional Food Restaurant in Kenya