The Green Corner

I need to write about a restaurant that sustained me 4 years ago in Rwanda and that too my shame and regret I only visited this week (twice).

I speak of the Green Corner.

4 years ago on our first day here, dazed and confused we realized after dark that we had no groceries and knew of no local restaurant.  The volunteer guide said that they had heard that the Green Corner was okay and I found it on a map in the Bradt Guide and figured I could navigate us there, which I did by the long way staying on light busy streets.

Arriving there reminded me of the scene in Animal House where the gang go to see Otis Day and the Nights.  Nevertheless we were shown to a table.  I asked for a menu in French and was told "Poulet or Poisson".  I figured poisson was safe and order three along with beer and frites.  About 10 minutes later someone explained to me in broken English that the the Poisson was way to big for us to eat three and suggested we get only 2.

It took a while to arrive during which we drank beer.  The Green Corner is a typical Rwandan restaurant, painted plaster, concrete floors and resin chairs.  After about an hour, a man arrive with the kettle of warm water and a bar of soap and we were directed to wash our hands.  When the food arrived, we learned why, there was no cutlery.  They did give us fork when we asked.  The poisson was the best I had even tasted or have tasted since.  Cooked over a wood fire, exquisitely spiced.  I would kill for the spice mix, I suspect the only way they would give it to me would be if they killed me after.

We ate their 4 more times, eating the equally good poulet, sometimes both.  We took the residents there for our last teaching session.  We stopped using cutlery and tore the meat off with our clean hands  We started taking the short cut through the unpaved unlite streets.

What was interesting was that after the initial suspicion of our first visit, by the fifth visit we were welcomed as old friends.

It took me until my fourth week here to venture over there.  It had changed, bigger with TVs now.  Still the same excellent food and I took Simon my colleague there the next night to demolish a chicken and poissson.    They do have a menu now albeit just written on a white board.

Still the best place I have eaten in Rwanda maybe in the top 10 world wide.  Not in Trip Advisor.  Pity.