Chege Waruingi has a word of warning for patrons of his restaurant: “If you are dying of hunger you will get upset with us. But once you get it, you will see it was worth the wait.”

The fact is, good nyama choma takes time. And Waruingi’s spot, the Olepolos Country Club, has some of the best you can find in Kenya. So I ordered, popped an ice-cold Tusker lager, and settled into a picnic table with a panoramic view of the rolling hills east of Nairobi that are the traditional haunt for a community of goat-herding Maasai.

Kiswahili for “grilled goat,” nyama choma is Kenya’s unofficial national dish, and can be found at innumerable “choma zones” that appear along every major