Nairobi · Food

Rows of nyama choma stalls where you pick your cut, it is weighed raw, roasted over charcoal and brought back chopped on a board with kachumbari and ugali. You order by the kilo and share. Busiest at lunch and at weekends; cash is easiest.

The old covered market in the city centre: fish and meat counters, fruit and vegetables, and a hall of carving and basket stalls at the front where you will be hustled hard. The food stalls at the back do cheap plates of stew, chapati and beans for the traders.

The tilapia restaurant, off Marcus Garvey Road — a whole fish deep fried, served with ugali and greens, eaten with your hands. It is a long-standing family place rather than a smart one, portions are large, and it fills up at lunch.

The counter-service Indian food court behind the shops on Fourth Parklands Avenue: dosa, chaat, kebabs, bhajia and paan, run by and for Nairobi's long-established South Asian community. Cheap, chaotic, mostly vegetarian, and open late into the evening.