Home on the Range...

I know I’ve been a bit slow on getting a post out about my vacation to Tanzania and the island of Zanzibar. I apologize and am skipping to the present for a ‘New York minute’ because I just had a fantastic meal about an hour ago and need to share. I will get around to blogging about my awesome vacation eventually.

I hope you're not hungry because I just went out to dinner with a few other volunteers and had a wild game meal at a restaurant called ‘The Lawns’! I was a bit apprehensive at first to even go because of the price but then again I don’t care about the money and never have or I wouldn’t have joined the Peace Corps in the first place… It’s all about the experience! The atmosphere of the place made it seem like I was dinning in the garden of a semi-classy (but not too formal) restaurant in the States. No reservations, a rabbit running around, dining under the open sky by candlelight, and sitting on Coca Cola brand chairs.  I split a sample platter with another PCV and it came with 8oz of crocodile, blesbok, impala (which is weird since I had a vehicle with that name), and springbok. It was a decent amount of meat and equivalent to eating 1/4lb burger patty. As a table of 6 we also split a starter of kudu poppers which consisted of 6 mini skewers with grilled green pepper, pineapple, and a bite of kudu (small antelope) wrapped in bacon. Now why would you wrap a rare game meat such as Kudu around such a common meat? I ended up taking off the bacon and eating it separate from one another. I would love to tell you what all of these animals actually look like but you could either Google it or use your imagination. The only animal on the menu we did not try was ostrich… but I’m guessing it’s similar to chicken. 

Back to the sampler platter… there were 3 dishes of sauce on the side: garlic, BBQ, and an unidentifiable green sauce. The plate was also garnished with steamed vegetables and a few potatoe wedge fries. Because of the 3 sauces I would slice the meat on my plate into 4 slices; you eat one plain and the others with each sauce. It was very enjoyable to actually taste the meat. I felt a bit like an iron chef judge when we would all take a bite and explain the flavors going on in our mouths. Then we would compare the meats to one another. My vote goes for the Springbok… it was very tender, sweet, juicy, and almost melted in my mouth like a piece of candy. I could have ordered and entire steak of springbok and maybe next time I will!

A meal that deserves to be talked about and shared. 

I feel like my father would be proud of me because in the states I’m ashamed to say that I used to refuse game meat and now I know how healthy it actually is (and tasty!)

Adding that to my list of things I never thought I’d do!