Dear readers,

A famous British TV-series called 'Is There Live on Mars?' had plot-line wherein a police officer from the modern day suddenly woke up in 1970's Britain. Now imagine a KPMG-intern finding himself at a dinner table in Nairobi, and realising suddenly that it is 2004. Yes, my dear readers, that's exactly what happened to me.

I have always held that one of the great joys of travelling is the chance to try out other cuisines. Since Kenya is rather close to Ethiopia, I was more then happy to join my friend Jamal for an excursion to an Ethiopian restaurant.

Ethiopian food is based around a small sour tasting cousin of the pancake that is filled with all kinds of meat, vegetables and cheese. The cheese, however was completely tasteless and the sour pancakes were rather filling and a bit sour for my taste. The other fillings were quite tasty however, even though they had been stripped of most of their chillies at my request.

After I had decided I could have no more pancakes without risking a heart burn (I had 3 or 4), my friend Jamal suggested I should try to eat like the Ethiopians eat. With one's hands. Believe it or not, eating without cutlery is something that must be learned and it is not something which comes naturally. My initial attempts attracted the laughter and scorn of my table companion who commented jocularly that no man would ever marry his daughter to somebody that made such a mess of eating. Apparently, the trick is to hold the food with 5 fingers and then push it into the mouth with one's thumb. Eventually I got the hang of it, but in my mind I thanked Catharina de Medici who invented modern day cutlery. She might have been a murderous harpy, but she also did the world a lot of good.

When washing my hands(and my face), I saw a calendar. On 11 September, Ethiopia had offcially made it to 2004. I am now fully convinced there is no weirder culture on this continent than the Ethiopian and I am hoping to visit the country whiile I am in the neighbourhood.

kwa heri,

D