Eshabwe is made from ghee, which must be at least three weeks old. After three restaurant checks, finally, I found it at Mbarara Fruit Centre off the Mbarara-Kabale road, where Luganda seemed to be the ‘national’ language and Runyakore the ‘official’ language.
The eshabwe is surprisingly white, given the naturally yellow ghee it is made from, but apparently the whiteness is caused by the added salt and little water. It is a sauce served cold hence hygiene in preparation and serving is paramount and Mbarara Fruit Centre is a very tidy and spotlessly clean restaurant.
On its own, eshabwe tastes like ghee with salt – a straightforward taste, but combine it with food, and suddenly it becomes a tasteful salty and creamy sauce.
It tasted so good with the kalo and sweet potatoes, but even sweeter with the steamed matooke. It is a sauce that can pair perfectly with any food. The cheap price of just Shs 7,000 is well-befitting for this straight sauce.
fkisakye@observer.ug
