Brunching at Vasha

The set-up quickly sends you into a frenzy; there are starter pastries on one side, with a pot of soup, live cooking barbeque station on one end, and dessert

The long weekend that was, was worth a foodie experience. As I write this, I’m still experiencing food coma, which automatically sends me on a stomach cleanse just to reset the body back to normal. I took a short trip to Naivasha and while I would like to give you a full travel tale, I will save that for later and torture you with the food escapade.

A rainy Saturday afternoon in Nairobi found me on my way to ‘vasha’. Not to mention the traffic because all roads led to the Safari sevens in Nakuru. I got to a dry Naivasha at 6pm literally feeling like I’m coming down with a flu, but after a few mugs of dawa (a mix of hot water, ginger, lemon and honey) at the Lake Naivasha Resort quickly set me back to my usual state. The itinerary was quite clear, food, food and more food, and yes if I was you I would want to be me too, pure bliss.

I didn’t want to get too full at night because there was a white cap big brunch that awaited the following day. So a plate of spaghetti bolognese and a piece of chicken did it. But I will tell you what usually happens when I picture this meal, I expect a mixture of both the spaghetti and the mince. I know that’s not how it should be, but I just like the fact that you get to experience the taste better. Just like fried chicken and waffles. But let’s not get into a foodie argument just yet.

Fast forward to the early morning in Naivasha. After me time at the steam room and sauna, we had a mini breakfast and head to Enashipae resort for the white cup brunch. The set up quickly sends you into a frenzy. I see a guy called Mwirigi and I automatically know it’s going to be an amazing afternoon with a great crowd. If you have been reading Fork and Life you already have an idea what brunch means.

Usually, brunch has a buffet layout and buffets always overwhelm me, but not when there is plenty of time. This was a unique kind of brunch famously known as the bottomless brunch. For Sh4,000 you get brunch and free flowing white cap beers or champagne if you’re not a beer person.  For brunch, I usually will start with the breakfast basics, the eggs the bacons and sausages let it go down then later go for the lunches. Bacon, which is almost everyone favourite was what I loved most, especially since it was in between well done and crunchy.

There are different sections, with starter pastries on one side, with a pot of soup, live cooking barbeque station on one end, and dessert. Like ordinary foodies I skipped the soup and went right in. On my lunch plate was chicken curry, chicken scallops, fried rice and roast potatoes.  

 In case I left you at chicken scallops, it basically comes from the Italian word ‘scaloppine,’ which translates to “small scallops” but has now taken on the meaning of a piece of thinly sliced meat.

This was particularly my favourite lemon-caper sauce, which makes the dish almost indistinguishable from chicken piccata (chicken usually drenched in flour and lemon juice).  There was only one option of rice, which was steamed rice, but it paired well with the chicken scallops.  

 Then came dessert, which had a mix up of cakes and mousse. But a rare foodie, came up with an unusual pairing, which I surprisingly ended up liking; mandazi served with a side of custard sauce. Such a rare, but tasty mix. That is the only dessert I ended up having, throughout the brunch session.

 After such a filling escapade, we later went down for a boat ride, with a close up scene of many buffaloes, in lake Naivasha.