They are called ‘Mayai pasua’ (literally ‘split eggs’) and are one of the most popular street food snacks for Kenyans, because for a small price they provide an important protein boost to the day of predominantly poor people. The recipe is simple: the hard-boiled egg is cut almost in half lengthwise, slightly opened and stuffed with kachumbari, the classic salad of tomatoes, onions and lemon juice, to which coriander is often added, especially on the side, and sometimes also green chilli (the well-known pilipili). In the case of the stuffing, the tomatoes are finely diced, like a tomato for bruschetta. The street vendor offering it will ask at the time of purchase if you would also like a splash of a spicy sauce or a pinch of salt.
You are unlikely to find them ready-made at the improvised stalls, but in no time at all, the street vendor will break the shell of the hard-boiled eggs with a spoon, open the egg with the same spoon, and from a tray add the kachumbari and then the sauce (often ketchup or chilli sauce on request).
In local restaurants, where they are used more often, you can find them ready-made.
Those who live in Nairobi ensure that the original taste of the best Mayai pasua in the capital must contain the smokiness of the sausages that the street food joint itself produces (the famous ‘smokie’), as well as a distant aftertaste of the exhaust fumes of the matatu passing on the busiest arteries.
If you want to prepare Mayai pasua at home, in the case of kachumbari, we always recommend marinating the onion in lemon for at least an hour, to make it more digestible and not kill the other flavours.
An alternative sauce for this dish can be made with maziwa lala (the local yoghurt, or in Italy with a rather liquid yoghurt) a teaspoon of mustard and one of mayonnaise.