Rolex more than just nyanya mbisi

The rolex is one of Uganda’s most loved street foods: a chapati wrapped around an omelette, fresh vegetables and whatever else fits the moment.

In How to ROLEX, A Ugandan Cookbook, author and creative Jonathan Kabugo explores this beloved dish through more than 40 recipes using Ugandan and East African ingredients.

The book looks beyond the common rolex at your street corner. It experiments with vegetables, meat, chicken, sauces, dips and other fillings, while still keeping the chapati and egg at the centre of it all.

Kabugo brings new ways to wrap, fold and manipulate the chapati around fillings. Across Uganda, the chapati stall feeds students, workers, boda riders and is also often a place where people stop to talk and catch up.

Kabugo first began thinking more deeply about the rolex while revising his earlier book, Food That Grew Us. A small section about street food soon became a much bigger idea.

The result of a years-long endeavour, this cookbook celebrates the rolex for its simplicity, affordability and creativity. The book invites readers and foodies to look at this familiar street food differently, and to try making it in their own kitchens.

In Uganda, when it comes to rolex, nothing beats the nyanya mbisi one: fresh tomato slices added after the omelette is cooked. Others prefer* bisiikiremu*, where the tomato is beaten with the egg and fried together.

A rolex can be simple or full. It can have cabbage, tomato, avocado, sausage, meat, chicken or chilli. It changes depending on the person making it, the customer and what is available. This is the idea explored in Kabugo’s book. How to Rolex is available in selected bookshops in Uganda and online

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