When I first arrived in Rwanda in 2004, the Canadian couple who had come to check up on the program and give me some orientation took me to a restaurant called Exxotica. No, I am not kidding. This was the name, and it was not a strip club but a nice restaurant, one of the nicest in town, filled with Lebanese families dressed in suits and flowing dresses. It has since closed, but it was just near the lower roundabout downtown, next to one of the closest things Rwanda then had to a supermarket.
Exxotica was an Indian restaurant, sort of, when it wasn't a Lebanese restaurant. It served the best dal makhani I have ever had, and when I was in Kigali, I would buy dal makhani with garlic naan for takeaway and then go sit in the Prado in the parking lot and eat the garlic naan immediately, prying open the tin foil and burning my fingers on the hot butter. The dal I took back to Kibuye and ate for several dinners in a row with fluffy basmati rice.
I had a great life in Rwanda, really.
J. and E., the Canadians, took me to Exxotica that first week and introduced me to salt-and-pepper vegetables, vegetables breaded and fried ever so deliciously. We ate them rapturously. I only had them a few times, in all, because I could not justify buying them if I was eating alone and would be staying in Kigali without a fridge for leftovers, but I have been searching for them ever since I left Rwanda. Unsuccessfully.
This afternoon, I went to lunch with a friend and my eyes suddenly popped out of my head because I saw them! I saw salt-and-pepper vegetables! They were being brought out in a big basket to the table in the corner! Only they turn out to be Thai tempura vegetables (which throws a whole new loop into what genre of restaurant Exxotica was, exactly). We ordered them as an appetizer, crunchy fried spinach and carrots and cauliflower, and I stuffed myself before my cashew chicken ever arrived.
Now they are lost to me again, though, because the salt-and-pepper vegetables were a special called Summer In a Basket, and summer ended today along with the special. These vegetables are an elusive thing, made more valuable by their rarity.
Exxotica was an Indian restaurant, sort of, when it wasn't a Lebanese restaurant. It served the best dal makhani I have ever had, and when I was in Kigali, I would buy dal makhani with garlic naan for takeaway and then go sit in the Prado in the parking lot and eat the garlic naan immediately, prying open the tin foil and burning my fingers on the hot butter. The dal I took back to Kibuye and ate for several dinners in a row with fluffy basmati rice.
I had a great life in Rwanda, really.
J. and E., the Canadians, took me to Exxotica that first week and introduced me to salt-and-pepper vegetables, vegetables breaded and fried ever so deliciously. We ate them rapturously. I only had them a few times, in all, because I could not justify buying them if I was eating alone and would be staying in Kigali without a fridge for leftovers, but I have been searching for them ever since I left Rwanda. Unsuccessfully.
This afternoon, I went to lunch with a friend and my eyes suddenly popped out of my head because I saw them! I saw salt-and-pepper vegetables! They were being brought out in a big basket to the table in the corner! Only they turn out to be Thai tempura vegetables (which throws a whole new loop into what genre of restaurant Exxotica was, exactly). We ordered them as an appetizer, crunchy fried spinach and carrots and cauliflower, and I stuffed myself before my cashew chicken ever arrived.
Now they are lost to me again, though, because the salt-and-pepper vegetables were a special called Summer In a Basket, and summer ended today along with the special. These vegetables are an elusive thing, made more valuable by their rarity.
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