 The Kenyan culture, they all believe that when you eat your greens, it, you know, it makes you stronger. Look at it! Look at it! I want to eat some dinner. I want to eat some dinner. Are you trying to encourage... It's calamari without... Are you trying to encourage all the kids out there to confront their fears or to let their fears stop their progress? Jordan, you inspire so many children to not be scared of animals. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Don't give me, don't give me the encouragement. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. Hold on. All right. Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. What comes to mind when you think of food from these countries? If you don't know, then get ready, because they're all delicious. We're having an East African feast joined by our friends Jordan Dakers and Jordan Visley. Growing up in the Seattle area, we did have some friends from these backgrounds, but I don't think we've ever really delved into the cuisines. Which one is the best in our opinion? Let's find out. All right, man. We are here with Jordan Visley and Jordan Dakers. Thank you guys for joining us today. And our first spot on our East African food crawl is going to be Kenyan food at Rafiki Restaurant and Lounge in Kent. Yo, I've never had Kenyan food before, but you know... Yeah. I've never had it. It's the first time for me too. Kenyan food? I don't think I've ever had it, bro. Like, honestly. So guys, today we're going to be hitting up Kenyan food, we got Somali food, and we got Ethiopian food. So it's going to be this whole thing, guys. I mean, I guess Jordan, you can tell us about the animals on the water. Yeah, you're... I guess I can. I know my zebras and my lions and, you know... You're going to tell us about the animals and then JD can spin the soundtrack. Oh, wow. Let's go. All right, we're here at Rafiki and we are starting off with some appetizers. And you guys have not had any of these. I mean, this one looks familiar, but I feel like a samosa is almost like a noodle dish. Like everybody got a noodle dish, but like, or a rice dish or something. So this samosa, this triangular wrapping to accompany it. We got some Tusker Kenyan beer. Jordan, you said you had this before? I've had it before. It's very smooth. It's very, it's almost classified as like a light beer almost. Did you get it? It doesn't have an elephant on it. Yes. Kenyan samosa. It reminds me of the most of a Jamaican patty. Okay. We did the flaking crust before. And Jordan, we did a Jamaican food episode a couple of years ago, but like, I feel like even the Caribbean obviously does have a lot of like African influence. No, absolutely. I mean, for us, we have the patties. You know, the tray to add in your roti is also really popular in the same boat. You want to put that in some cocoa bread? I bet it would taste good though. I bet it would taste good though. Well, this is your opportunity to eat it. This is kind of like a fried bread. Mandasi. It tastes like a sweet chalupa. Yeah. Or, or. Which is a fried bread, by the way. Yeah. It's dense like a chalupa. Yeah. It's much thicker. All right, guys, we're going to just add on the Kenyan sausage. I feel like that paprika is like, no, like nutmeg. It's like softer. It's not as green. That's nutmeg. Yeah, nutmeg. It's like, it's like a slightly like sweet. What, is that pork? Okay. We got our, we got our three main entrees here. This is the samaki kanga, the fried tilapia fish. This is the buzi choma, the grilled goat. This is the cuckoo chicken. This is the curry chicken. Niyama kanga, the fried beef stew. This is the matumbo stew. This is a goat stomach stew. I feel like all cultures eat tilapia. It's more of what's, they call it an invasive fish, invasive species. So it takes over and they kind of just, just reproducing it everywhere. So they are everywhere. That's why. Yeah. Sakuma wiki appears on every dishes because in the Kenyan culture, they all believe that when you eat your greens, it, you know, it makes you stronger. It's supposed to carry you out throughout the whole week. Sakuma wiki. Mmm. To take this right. Sweet, a little salty. What are you guys going with next? Ugali and the fish? Oh yeah. I'm packing everything onto a bite of the fish, actually. You did say that too. It's very thick. It's like a thick flour cake. It's, it's really a, it's actually cornmeal. No, you can't fry it. That tilapia was cooked perfectly. Yeah, I was going to say, I enjoy the tilapia. I enjoy the tilapia and you're right. I don't typically, like that's not my favorite fish, like you know what I mean? But this was done really, really well. This is like the fried beef stew. So here you have chapati, which is like their flatbread, their roti. I think, yeah, Indians eat something very similar. So there is some shearing. Non, looks like non. Non, but they also have a chapati too. Oh, they do have a chapati. They have something that's called chapati. So Miyamakanga. Would you say it almost like, looks, reminds you of something more, more western? At least in your mind. Stewie, yeah, stewie. Yeah. Very tomato stew. You know, that flatbread is really dense, but it really holds together. It's almost like a very, like almost dual tortilla. Like it's good, savory, it's just like beautiful flavor. It's very, it's very like, it flows. That makes sense. Like it just goes down the palette. This is how you do it. That goes. I've actually never had grilled the goat before. I've had it only in stew. Yeah, it's very chewy and very meaty. Yo guys, here we have the... Yo, JV, you were super excited to try this. Jordan, yeah, you were just talking about how much you love goat stomach and tripe and everything. We're going to go with you last, sorry. Yeah. Why don't you take the rest of that beer along with it? Honestly, bro, I got to hold it and I need more of that. Go ahead and knock that out. You could go with goat stomach. Is this reaching that level where it's a little bit of a weird cut? No, not at all. I mean, you had a cow tongue. Okay. Here's my thing. Intestines, usually a no-go, but stomachs, and therefore. Testines. Look at it. Intestines. If it's tripe. We're all going to try it and then put the pressure on. Try it. I work with these animals, right? And like I see what they put in their stomachs. I mean, it's healthy stuff, it's good stuff. Don't you feed them? Okay. Feed them. Listen, listen. Listen, listen. Now, listen. Oh, yeah. Do you know what a fermenter is? You know what fermentation is? Is this going to ruin the meal if you tell us? It might. You know what? I'm going to eat this first. Go ahead. Go ahead. Eat this first. All right. You're not going to eat this? You don't have it? Oh, God, bro. Like this. I'm usually, I'm way better at trying stuff nowadays. We're just going, bro. I think for me it's more about the thought of what's, like it's in my head. Well, you know what it is now. I know what it is. Are you trying to encourage... It's calamari without... Are you trying to encourage all the kids out there to confront their fears or to let their fears stop their progress? Jordan, you inspire so many children to not be scared of animals. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Don't give me, don't give me the encouragement. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. Hold on. All right. I think it's the thought already. It's not that bad. Really savory. It's great. It's almost like a fatty tendon or a fatty meat piece, but without maybe some of the fatty coating. Bro, because you know you have that fat coach your mouth when it gets really fried down. Yeah. It gets like really chewy when it's fatty. This one like goes down smooth. So far the Kenyan food we've had, there is clearly some crossover with Indian food, right? And this is no different. We have kukukuri, which is a chicken curry. Do you guys want to try with the cream or without the cream? If you give me cream, that lactose might kick in. Oh, man. You know what I mean? Kukukuri. There's like a deep, deep, deep chicken flavor. It's almost like chicken cooked in chicken. That's been sitting in the pot marinated for like hours. It really depends on where you are at from Kenya, right? Because, and that's the way with a lot of countries, if they border other countries, the areas of that country next to the borders are going to be different food than the center of the country. Right. All right. So we just had five Kenyan entrees and I thought they were all really good, really stew-y. I mean, I'm a fish guy personally, I mean, the tilapia is always going to be like a go-to for me, but the fried goat was really, really, really good. So I had a favorite. It's kind of a dots-up right now between these two. I can see the bone marrow melting right there in between the bone. Let me just show you. My favorite actually is that, this is the beef stew. Mandazi in the yam. No, you gotta dip more than that. Dip it, dip it, dip it, dip it. It's good. Yo, that mandazi is crazy. I'm going with that too. Any time I see a different style of curry that I haven't had before. No, that is true. I'm just visual over the way. Try the coffee, try the coffee. You'll feel the deepness of the flavor. It's strong. Chai has a very strong tingling. I think Kenyan food, I think if you guys get the chance, man, definitely try Kenyan food. All right, so we just finished up with the Kenyan restaurant. We are here. We have the table set up and we have a spread of Somalian food. All right, so do you guys have any experience with Somalian food? This might be like my first actual time having a full spread like this because I grew up with a lot of Somalian friends. I have had Somalian pasta once and it was so good. I've been looking forward to trying it again. I'm down to just get into it. Here we have a beef pasta and then here this is where these are the side dishes that we're going to be eating with injira, which is also eaten in like Ethiopia and Eritrea. And then we have goat, we have chicken pasta, we have sambusas, which are kind of like somewhat samosas and then we have lamb over rice. So during a Somalian meal, it's very common to also eat a banana. How do we recognize goat because everybody else was kind of like we kind of were unsure, but you were like, no, that's goat. Well, for me personally, I know it from the bone structure just because like when we eat our goat, it's not necessarily like a big slab of it. They're more chopped up. So like when I was looking at this certain side of it with the beef sticking out and also when you start tearing it apart, the darker meat that has like a chicken texture to it, but the darker. Yeah. So I've worked with goats before, you know, as a zookeeper and I've actually never seen the inside of their leg. So, you know, this is kind of a first for me. Go shake. I like goat a lot too, but it could go bad. Like goat to me is like, you got to know how to cook it right. No, I would agree. I feel like it's in a lot of me that way, but it's, I'm a more of a dark meat fan. So that kind of works for me too. It's upright on my alley. It's pretty good. It's not at all actually. This piece looks quick. Like I told you. It's very juicy. You know what it reminds me of? Weird, but it reminds me of the turkey legs from, from like Disneyland. Yo, I got to see JV with this sauce right here. Look, look at JV's face, man. Try a little bit. It's a little spicy. No. 10 out of 10 if you ask me. Go fan. Our next dish of the Somali food, we got the injira. Now injira is I think most famously known to be part of Ethiopian cuisine. Yeah, Ethiopian cuisine. But Ethiopian and retrien cuisine. But in this region, you know, since they're all neighbors, like Somalian people do eat injira too. Do they call injira, do you know? Yeah. It's a term I think everybody uses. If you got this at the restaurant, they would be putting all these little dollops of food. It would look like this. On a platter. On the platter. As you guys have seen this before. But we could do a mini version. We'd do a mini version. So why don't you guys scoop it? Everybody just scoop what they want. I've dipped a banana in hot sauce. I'm just going to go ahead. Just throw that on there. Yeah. This is Somali injira. So yeah, you take a piece and then you kind of scoop it with different parts of it. Uh-huh. So you're, you can, yeah, I mean it's pretty common to eat everything together. Right, it's pretty common to eat it all together. So you scoop it and then you eat. Right? Okay. And jera's one of those things that's so unique. It's a little sour, but it's fluffy and spongy. Yeah. It's kind of like refreshing. Kind of gives me almost like a vinegar briny flavor. We're talking about banana. That banana was kind of key. I guess a funny story I learned with eating jera once was that apparently it's bad to eat with your left hand. Which is tough for me because I'm left-handed. So I had it with friends and family. And then they kind of kind of gave me funny looks about it. They're telling me like, hey, just for reference, you know. Even culturally, even in like Indonesia where they eat with their hands and stuff, it's more common with your right hand. Mm-hmm. I don't know. It's a right-handed world. What can I say? Yeah. David's been waiting for this Somali pasta for ten years. Wow, that long? Why? Beef and Chicken Sucar Pasta. The way they cook their tomatoes at this restaurant, this Somali restaurant is, it's fresh. It tastes very, very fresh. Anyway, we're moving on to the chicken. I'm telling you, this is not as spicy as you think. Mm-hmm. The noodles from the chicken one seem a little more plain and not as like overly seasoned. I'm going to try it with the injera out of curiosity. Okay. Carb on carb, but I like it. You know why you did that? What? Because Jamaicans do that. Come on. They put the beef patty inside of a bun. It just seems a little excessive. Send it. Go ahead and join until you try it. Right. You can't tell me a patty with cocoa bread, which is your beef on bread on bread. I guarantee you, I probably like it. I know I probably like it, but I just know it's a little much. It's like a pastry in a roll. You don't care because it's delicious. Lamb and rice and samosa. So get this lamb and rice. Dude, just get this lamb right. This lamb looks good. Loki, I'm more of a, I think I might be the goat guy though. So I got to say guys, this right off the bat, aesthetically, it kind of looks like lamb biryani. Oh. The Indian dish where it's kind of like tossed rice. It's tasty. Given the amount of meaty representation that, you know, Somalian people get, there's not a lot of it. I didn't know the food was so good. I think you guys got to try it. Samosa. That was the most herbaceous samosa-like triangle I personally had. JD, just do what you want to do. Wrapping in the intro. I'm not. No, I'm not. No. I thought about it, but not. I'm not. It was a thought, right? You said, I don't think it'd be bad. Bro, that's so, kicking you. As much as I enjoy the lamb, I got to go with the goat. The lamb is good, but there's a lot. I've had other dishes that tasted like that. I've had something where the goat was falling off the bone. And actually, guys, with the addition of the banana, because I like a little like sweet, fruity things with my meals, I thought it fit really well. Somalian food is very light, very easy to eat. It has a lot of flavor, but like, not like, doesn't knock you out. And when you really sit back and look at it, a lot of this stuff doesn't look as foreign as, you know, your mind might want to tell you from a place that you don't really know too well. Like, we're looking at some of the lentils and the greens, and like, oh, these are the things that we have back home. All right, we have an injera feast from Ethiopia right now. We have so many different dishes. We have the veggie combos. We have the beef tubs. We got to, we got to peel back the layers, guys, just to show them. Show them what's inside. Oh my goodness. Oh, it's like revealing. It's like, exactly. It's, it's literally a plate. This is very, very foreign to me personally. I'm not very familiar with Ethiopia food. So we're here to walk. Walk me through it. We're walking with you. You know. We're going to make our own small injera plate. All right. We're making your own dishes. Think what you like. A little bit of everything. I brought lots of beef. Triphophobia. Are you OCD and you have triphobia? Quit playing. Bro. I'm a weird dude, bro. I'll let JD lead this. JD. I guess I don't want to put your business out there, but you used to date an Ethiopian girl. Right. She always seems a retrait. She's a retrait. I'm sorry. I mean, it looks kind of similar, but way more different selection. It looks heavier. Okay. That's a good point. Does that make sense? Yeah. It's a lot more colorful. I mean, it just looks cool. You have everything on the plate here and man, I just mean, hands first. I'm going to start off with this potato and the carrot. Yeah. Veggie combo. Veggie combo? I'm going to follow that with another veggie combo. I'm going to go with the lentils. All right, JD, you kept talking about the egg. I'm going at the egg right now. Dude, that's good. That veggie combo was really good. I was kind of eating the injera bread on its own and I was kind of like, kind of sour. I don't know. But once you get it with the filling, that's the best way to do it. There's this Indonesian dish and we'll pop up the picture right here called nasi bunkis. It actually kind of very similar. When I wrap the injera in the veggie one, it kind of reminds me of a Trinidadian double. A roti. Okay. Yeah. It reminds me of a double. All right, here we got some Ethiopian coffee. Actually, Ethiopia is one of the oldest civilizations to have coffee. And you know, a lot of the cool hipster coffee beans are coming from Africa now. Yes. Ethiopian, Ethiopian coffee. Yeah. Ethiopian coffee. It's good. Yeah. That's cool. They put a little bit of milk in there for us. Yep. It's very thick too. It's thicker than like normal, what you would, like American coffee. So this is very strong. Yes. Yes. Personally, I prefer the Somalian food. I just think it was a little easier for me to eat personally. One thing I did like about this style of Ethiopian food was the beef tips and this guy right here, the fib-fib. The tim-tib and the fib-fib. I don't know. Mumble wrap. Personally, I really do like the injera from Ethiopia. Yeah. I prefer it too. I liked it. Yeah. The mix of everything was really good. So I like the variation in this food. As far as the Ethiopian cuisine that we had, the vegetables really shined. And the meat was really good too, but I thought the vegetables were like shining above all other vegetables. And then for the Somali food, the meat were kind of what we enjoyed the most. All right, you guys, thank you so much for watching that Epic East African Food Crawl. We tried to cover as much as we could. It was just available in a very small area. We went to Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia. We got the name of Rafiki. Rafiki means friend in Swahili. Simba means lion. Oh, sorry. Simba means lion in Swahili, which is why they chose the name Simba for the Lion King. The food we had, the Kenyan food was very like watery, but very easy to eat. And then the Somali food was a little bit more like tomato-y base with a lot of grilled meats. And then the Ethiopian food was very like vegetable slash a little bit of sour because the injera was very sour when we're eating it. And I just think to have all those different flavors. I'm not saying those words sum up the entire cuisine, but at least of what we ate, that's generally how I would describe it. And it was just like and be able to put it into the hands of the people who had the chance to try any of these cuisines. I mean, go out there and try it. I wasn't going to go in fine and say, hey, look, today I'm getting Ethiopian food. That just never really crossed my mind. I mean, now at this in 2020, you can get these dishes. So anything you want to plug, Mr. Zoo Man, Zoo Lander, you can find me at Jungle Jordan 23 on all platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, follow the team to basically DJs. They'll find a lot of videos of me mixing, doing funny skits, trying to incorporate jokes into my routines, as well as some off the wall ideas. Flipped a reggae song into another song and just kind of mash culture. That's my thing. All right, guys, thank you so much for watching us in the comments down below. You let us know what your favorite East African dishes, it could be from just a number of countries and also let us know another cuisine that we should look out for. South African food, whatever it is, you guys let us know in the comments down below, and until next time, peace. Being from a culture that has a beef curry patty, tell us about the compare and contrast, man. The curry patty isn't as seasoned as this one is, for sure, but they're actually, they're pretty similar. JD, just do what you want to do. Wrap it in the intro. I'm not, no, I'm not about it,