My big sister has a gorgeous little girl.
Her name is Imani. She has the most exquisite and flawless skin with a deeply exotic look to it. It doesn’t help that she has the most divine mane of hair you have ever seen; jet black, long, thicker than the Amazon forest, and sits like a huge black halo on top of her head. So huge it seems to have a life of its own, a personality of its own, and maybe a house of its own. It looks like on a wonderfully windy day, it could fly her away better than a parachute would; maybe to Disneyland.
Every black girl’s dream is to have hair like Imani’s.
Imani means peace. She is anything but peaceful though, this wonderful niece of mine. She is a little know- it- all who is constantly digging up new information, everywhere! She is a brilliant 10-year-old artist, always drawing on her books and then on everyone’s books when hers are filled up. She drew this perfect animation of a brown girl and when I asked where she copied it from, she said;
‘This is my creation. I was inspired by the monster high dolls and the LOL dolls. I am going to make it into a series,’ I was intrigued. I hope to help her develop her series soon.
Lord have mercy because, at 10, my friend Patricia and I were roaming the village idly from dawn to dusk. Visiting people who did not care to be visited by us and getting home after dark, just in time to get a proper whooping from furious mothers. When we were not roaming around all day, we stayed home and did really stupid stuff. One time, we made thigh-high slits on our Sunday best dresses using sharp razor blades to make them elegant like Janet Jackson’s and Whitney Houston’s kind of dresses. We ruined them perfectly. Patricia’s ass-whooping was phenomenal for this one. I hid my elegant dress under my bed until the day Patricia’s mum snitched to my mum and I was asked to produce it.
A useless story but you get how many useless ways we had to spend our time then, right?
Back to Imani. When she is not drawing or soaking up information from the internet and TV, she is policing my dad and schooling him on things he already knows because he studied at Leeds University.
‘Babu, do you know if you eat this cake your sugar levels will go up and you will be getting sick? Eat your vegetables instead and take your medication,’ she says in an overly bossy tone.
Even Babu cannot argue with the Boss Lady, he follows her instructions meekly despite being a 66-year-old man with a moustache.
I nicknamed her Manny when she was born, a corruption of her name to a more Gen Z-acceptable version. She is a little fire-bird, a feisty little thing whose fire burns right through to your heart, whether you want it to, or not.
When her mom created the most delicious chilli sauces a couple of years back, she named them Manny’s Chillies. Mothers and their firstborn children are something else. The firstborns’ names are passwords for everything, business names, next of kin, and anything they need to give names to.
I couldn’t think of a more befitting name for the chillies if I tried. It remains the most suitable name because when you meet the little fire-bird, she burns into your heart the same way the chillies burn into your taste buds, effortlessly. The taste of them takes you to a place you have always wanted to go but did not know you did.
I didn’t realize how much Kenyans love chillies in their food until my sister and her husband curated Manny’s Chillies and turned it into a business. They sold like hot cake, or should I say like hot chillies? I have never taken the time to ask her how they came up with the whole concept. I should have, before rushing to write this story.
Watching ‘Friends’ the other night at 3.00 am when regular humans are all cuddled up with their human blankets, I thought to myself that I would ask her in the morning but I forgot. I forget a lot of important things. I thought about it when Joey asks Chandler what he does for a living and Chandler says he does Statistical Analysis and Data Reconfiguration. Joey, who is not the sharpest tool in the shed, is perplexed and asks him,
‘How did you know you can do that?’
I feel that way about a lot of creatives and the creations they come up with. How did you honestly know you could do that?
Maybe a house guest brought a pile of cayenne (or birds’ eye) chilli peppers to my sister someday and they did not know what to do with them. I imagine my sister and her husband, bored on a lazy Saturday afternoon watching the Powerpuff Girls. When Professor Utonium mixes the sugar, spice, and everything nice to make the Powerpuff Girls, one of them (not the Powerpuff Girls, duh!) has a little inspiration. The inspiration is complete when he throws in Chemical X and the perfect little girls are made. Bingo! The concept of Manny’s Chilli Sauce is conceived too.
‘Let’s cook these chillies into the perfect sauce, the whole world will want to have it in their kitchens and on dinner tables. It will be the Powerpuff Girls of chillies,’ says one of the spouses to the other.
‘Yes! Let’s do that!’ the other agrees.
They both rush into the kitchen and pull out their biggest cooking pot.
‘Get the sugar! The spice! The Chillies and all things nice!’ the other says.
They have all the ingredients on the table except one. They look at each other, a little confused at this point.
‘Where is Chemical X?’ I imagine it is my sister who asks this question in her innocent and naïve little voice. The husband, who is a bit of a know- it- all (you have to know where Imani gets it) says to her,
‘Let me call Professor Utonium and ask him where we can get it. I may have his number,’ he says scrolling on his phone and walking out. She can hear him talking on the phone and he is on it for a while. She sits patiently by the cooker. She is starting to get a little impatient when he walks back in with a sly and knowing smile. Rolling up his shirt sleeves and reaching into the cupboard behind her, he pulls out the spice rack and says;
‘Let’s get to work honey, chemical X is here with us.’
The perfect Powerpuff Girls of chilies were born that day. Homemade with ingredients you will readily find in your kitchen and herbs grown from a well-tended kitchen garden, the chillies make you feel at home when the beautiful burn on your tongue begins.
My sister and her hubs were luckier than Professor Utonioum on one count, they made four Powerpuff Girls instead of three. Not on that day but over the next few years. I think I want to tell you about them.
The Red Sweet Garlic Chilli Sauce
Red is her colour and she catches your eyes before she catches your heart. She was the first and I feel like she is the darling of the customers. Again, I will ask. Maybe you will decide when you have a taste.
The Green Garlic and Herb Chilli
She is green and not with envy, from the green cayenne peppers and herbs in her. I am scared shitless of chillies, but when I need a taste, I go to her. She has such a gentle and endearing taste. It feels like she is saying to my taste buds, I will not hurt you. Then goes ahead to hurt so good.
Hotties Chilli Sauce
The hottest of the girls. Not many people can handle this one, she is red and fiery as hell! Only the real baddies go for her. If you know any baddies in Nairobi, you know they go straight for the jugular. This is the jugular of chillies.
The Pineapple Barbecue Sauce.
The baby of the group and also the sweetest. Children love her and she goes magically well on practically everything. I know I love her because once upon a time, my taste buds had an annual general meeting and decided that eating chillies is akin to getting thrown into the lake of fire. Like most people on earth, they would rather not be thrown into the lake of fire. So I go for the sweet stuff, just like myself.
In case you haven’t realized by now, I made up the story of how Manny’s Chilli was born. I have no idea how my sister and her hubs came up with the perfect recipe for the perfect chilli sauces, but they did!
Over the years, they have invested heavily in improving their products tremendously. They got training at the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute -KIRDI, on how to develop and improve the sauces, preserve them, and develop additional products to give you, the consumers, a wholesome and valuable experience. They went ahead and got the products assessed and approved by the Kenya Bureau of Standards – KEBS. The Powerpuff Girls have their Alama ya Ubora! What more would you ask of the perfect chilli sauce?
You are probably begging to have a taste of these delicious Powerpuff Girls by now and it would be wrong of me to deprive you of it. Why don’t you call her on 0720613627 – Winnie? She delivers and she has a pick-up point in the Nairobi CBD for utmost convenience.
When you call her, just don’t mention anything about the Powerpuff Girls stuff, okay? Thanks!
