Revisiting Pho, and returning to Narok

We're finally back at home with our intestines in shambles and our spirits slightly exhausted. Due to our shaky health, we've been eating a lot of soup- and I've been craving (and thus making) lots of pho. I made it back in spring for the first time (entirely from scratch) and have 'perfected' and simplified the recipe here in Kenya. Making chicken broth from scratch is noble and tasty but takes a lot of effort- particularly because it's hard to find happy, free-range chickens here (unless you kill them yourself).

I make a quick broth of chopped garlic, ginger, onion, a sprinkle of peppercorns, a cinnamon stick, a star anise clove, a dash of cardamom and some cloves. After about an hour of simmering, I strain the broth, add some more water and a couple cubes of vegetable or organic chicken bouillon. It smells amazing! Then I add some carrots, mushrooms (on the rare occasion that we find them in our local grocery store), rice noodles, sugar snap peas (or whatever other suitable veggies we have on hand) and serve topped with cilantro and lots of lime juice. It takes about 10 minutes of prep time and is delicious.

I should say, it takes 10 minutes of prep time if you aren't fancy. But a few weeks ago, Nathan cooked dinner (!! I know!) and the spirit moved him to cut the carrots into fancy flower shapes. It was the cutest thing and I loved it- ever since, I've become a bit of a carrot snob and have taken to flowering my carrots too. Because why not? We all need fancy carrots in our lives on occasion!

In other news, Nathan went fish-tastic at our little cottage last week. He bought a fresh reef fish nearly every day from a local fisherman and prepared it by steaming in foil with limes, or BBQ'ing it, local style. We're planning to go back to the same place over the holidays and I know he is looking forward to more fish BBQ.

He is holding the fish in a little BBQ trap doodad. I can't remember the kiSwahili word for it. 

The trap doodad with fish pinned in it. 

The imprisoned fish is then placed on a charcoal BBQ stove thing called a "Jiko". Most families cook over this for every meal (they balance a pot on the top). There are gigantic bags of homemade charcoal sold on the side of every road. It's unfortunate that there aren't many cooking options, because the homemade charcoal is made from local trees- and has contributed to huge problems with deforestation. 

 The cooked fish.