Matongee: Indigenous cuisine in a leafy environment

By: Elisha Mayallah

You might be forgiven for thinking you have arrived at a popular shopping mall setting judging by the number of luxury cars and air-conditioned minicoaches gleaming in the sunshine.

Instead, you’ve arrived at Matongee club in Arusha, a popular establishment offering indigenous cuisine for a range of clientele including foreigners, corporate and Arusha’s growing middle-class.

It is an ordinary house that has been converted into a drinking joint and restaurant, which once traded in the name of a Chinese restaurant.

The sprawling open lawn land serves various drinking populations and the house in the main is a distribution point while the adjoining house behind churns out mouth-watering dishes.

The club seats close to 90 people through its indoor and outdoor patio areas. The tables are covered with bright ‘rangi ya mende’ [an assortment of beers] while waiters float about in smart jeans.

Travellers transiting through Arusha prefer it for its quiet, leafy environment that presents it with that hearty bright green look from afar. Scores of Arusha residents stop at the club because of its generous buffet-style spread of indigenous food with its close to the central business district attractions – such as the Clock Tower, Museum and the Arusha International Conference Centre.

Matongee club offers patrons classic music played through a high-tech music system. Mr. John ‘Cool man’ one of the patrons at the club says music provides "fuel for the body while enjoying a drink" - a chance to try this renowned establishment.

The music, pumped out with stunning force is elite-taste, a powerful mix of rap, techno, Rn'B, Zouk and local tracks of our premier crooners. It's the stuff that one finds at the famous Triple A.

The meat dishes are served in large stainless steel plates; include sizeable chunks of beef, goat or chicken. The boiled, mchemsho, thoroughly boiled for almost one hour is delicious while the brave at heart will want to sample the ‘kuku wa kienyeji’ grilled menu.

On several visits to the club over the past one year, Mr. James wa Njombe and John ‘Cool man’ both have marvelled at the beef and chicken soup’ and fallen in love with the menus, and dubbed them ‘crowd-puller menus’.

‘Jeff special’ unlike other dishes is a speciality only prepared and served to the zonal manager for TOTAL, the oil company, popularly known as Mr. Jeff. I further noticed the other day, when I had those rare chances of rubbing shoulders with the man that he also uses a ‘very’ unique beer mug for his castle lagers.

When I enquired from the owner of the club, Mr. ‘Sombyo’ on what was the qualification of getting a speciality at his club, he referred me to his manager, who seemed to be engrossed with the customers orders. And therefore, I offered to postpone my interview.

The restaurant has hosted notable personalities who feature the cream of this town's half a million residents: middle-aged businessmen and women, midlevel managers, executives, politicos, expatriates and a troop fancy dressed girls. A few weeks ago, a senior officer from Board of External Trade in Dar es Salaam, visited the club to find out what attracts many people from a far to this club.

Then there is its wildly diverse clientele, which really makes Matongee club comes alive: while Arusha’s best chatter in one corner, a group of trendy, young locals are celebrating a birthday or ‘something’, comparing the latest cell phones and reminiscing about the days they were in colleges.

"It's a great feeling to just know you are mixing with the kind of people that make this town move. It's a refreshing night of plentiful fun," a reveller, Mr. Novatus Makunga said. "Night-time fun is wholesome here", he adds.

One single word that can capture your imagination of Matongee Club is the serenity, but that's perhaps even a hazy description of a place that absorbs you into absolute tranquillity, comfort and that elusive feeling of being at peace with yourself.

Experience and experience alone can only afford you a better appreciation of Matongee club.