Mandazi for Supper

I am never in a rush on road trips and always prefer a nice leisurely meal at a local restaurant rather than restaurant chains for a quick bite. So, on our way to the Fallingwater in Pennyslavania, we stopped at a little old town diner in Frederick, Maryland. We opted for the a la carte menu instead of the buffet despite most patrons preferring the latter. I had a seafood omelette with fresh crab meat and shrimp with a side of well-cooked potatoes along with some pancakes. It was a very filling and delicious meal that kept us satiated until supper time. 

The next stop was in Morgantown, West Virginia. Partly due to the lack of interesting eating options, we ended up having supper at the Kenyan Cafe, located in a strip mall in this university town. It was my first time trying Kenyan cuisine. I was told it is very similar to the Indian cuisine. 

We started with some vegetarian samosas and mandazi for appetizers. For the entree, I tried the spicy chicken curry with a side of chapatti. I would agree that the curry served was bright and colorful looking like most Indian food. But it differed in taste. First, unlike most Indian curries that are smooth in texture for the most part, this curry had a lot of semi-cooked veggies – mostly carrots and peas. The spicy curry already came mixed with the rice, which I was not a fan of – another reason for not enjoying the curry with the chappati. This might be because I am habituated to mixing the curry with the rice in the proportion I want. The samosas were milder and had almost similar ingredients of carrots and peas. 

My favorite part of this meal was the Mandazi. It was a slightly sweet fried pastry made from wheat flour. I was not sure whether it was to be had with a curry or stew like the chapatti but it certainly had its own taste and tasted good by it self.