Focus: Brochette, a prominent feature in Kigali

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” - Benjamin Franklin said many years ago. He forgot to add-“God wanted us to accompany beer with Brochette”. Sunday Times’ George Kagame goes undercover to find out how brochette on top of providing many of the country’s youths with employment, is also having a significant influence on the lives of Rwanda’s YUPS-Young Urban professionals. Brochette is one of the most noteworthy experiences to have in the Kigali night clubs, restaurants and hotels. In various blogs by many first time visitors to Rwanda, brochette is one of the most fascinating features about Rwandan life. Tourists, locals, government officials and the blue collar residents -especially the unmarried, brochette for goat, beef, pork or fish steak is an essential part to the lives of many urban centres, it is a daily ritual almost bordering on worship-at the cathedrals of barbeque pubs-where many of Rwanda’s national policies are discussed. The cows slaughtered are said to come from Mutara and the fish mostly comes from Uganda while the Irish potatoes from Ruhengeri District. Unfortunately there are no statistics to determine the quantity of the grilled to perfection beef, fish, baked Irish potato, and matooke in most of Kigali’s popular hangout joints. In places, where European football matches are broadcast, the action just gets more attractive. Here, brochette and beer in one sentence is like music to Rwanda’s YUPs. For many, the daily routine is never complete without a trip to the pub for a one for the road and a brochette. Peter Magezi, a clearing and forwarding agent says, whenever he leaves the gym in the evenings, he gets invited by friends and the place they always propose is the Canteen behind the General Post office, “Not one to resist such offers, he always end up there before heading home, having brochette is one way of maintaining my social relations.” Magezi says evening brochette routines are good because they are an important avenue of maintaining friendship, “Keeping relationships informal creates friends wherever you go. Paying with food or an exchange of services forges a bond that money can’t touch”. He says. For Rachael Mutoni, an Accountant with one Kobil Petrol station in Kigali, brochette is the only excuse she has to hang out at Arada pub. She loves the ambiance and thinks they make the best brochette in town. Arada-before its brief closure recently was a sleek bar and grill restaurant located just behind Kabindi, next to offices of Rwanda Investment and Export Promotions Agency. I had been there a couple of times previously for drinks but didn’t quite understand what the hype was about. However, recently, I found a reason of my own to hype in Arada. As is often the case, Arada was not very full that night. I have only seen Arada packed to capacity once, on a Saturday when it hosted a party. However, this time the place was full of interesting people, good music, and the drinks were flowing. I found it hard to tear myself from Arada that night and didn’t make it home until 3am. The menu consisted of a lot of meat, mostly steaks and grills. I don’t usually order meat when I dine, but that night, I decided to go with the flow. I for ordered a ‘fish brochette, which was basically, while the people sitting closest to me ‘commanded’ for a burger and a plate of baked bananas. If you need to see how brochette is embedded in Rwandan urban life, the place to visit is Chez Lando, where people relax in the evenings drinking beer and enjoying the goat or fish brochettes while watching soccer. At Chez Lando, it is more than grilled meat that you eat-here it is a way of life. Even in tiny villages in rural Rwanda, brochette is a very popular delicacy, because it is mainly served in bars, it compliments and influences the character of men mostly and affects the nature of domestic relations. However, one should ask him/herself if the same men in bars retaliate home with same kilograms of beef they command for grilling. Most brochette lovers are characterised with a lot of debts almost in every bar, that is why they never run out of reasons of hoping from bar to bar. One Mukangabo 34 housewife says, the steak joints not only encourage men to indulge in cheating because they meet women every evening in bars “instead of coming back home early” but also fail to fulfil their financial obligations as fathers. She says the culture of brochettes is also dangerous as it exposes men to health dangers (gouts) because “some of these steaks are not properly prepared.” How brochette is prepared All that is needed to make a good brochette is a charcoal stove, charcoal, and the meat-for the basics. For the extras, you will need vegetables, spices bananas and Irish potatoes-which are all roasted till ready to eat. The charcoal is fanned to make it very hot and the goat or beef steaks are placed on top of the stove, once in a while the man on stove keeps turning the steaks till ready to eat.However, ‘ready to eat’ varies from place to place. In some brochette joints, the beef pieces are so hard to bite leave alone chewing and potatoes look like they have just been picked from garden to your plate. In some places, the brochette is prepared in very exotic ways. At Carwash for example, the meat is simply ‘boiled’, but not in the way you are reading it here. A senior chef at the popular joint says, “Our brochette is prepared with the highest consideration for hygiene. We rarely use oil while cooking. It is for this reason that we have a full house daily.” Ends