Our last night was at the informal POLO Lounge (or is it Polo Club) at the Westcliff Hotel in Johannesburg. We all met in the lunge and had wine or drinks; I quaffed a CONSTANTIA 2009 Sauvignon Blanc and munched nuts/biltong(quiz--do you remember what that is?) and Chutney flavored Fritos..that was a weird one.
We moved into the dining room high over the western part of Jo'berg with views to die for and all ordered small palates as we were clueless as to what time or meal it was. We had been up since 430am for our 515am game drive and then had breakfast, drove hours to the airport and flew to Jo'berg. I have to say that while I may have lost tons of sleep and gained too many pounds, we all seemed to just keep on going like the Energizer bunny.
I started with the CROCODILE CARPACCIO with CHAKALAKA and Baby Rocket. The dish was an amazing blend of pumpkin seeds, baby arugala (rocket) and the yummy chakalaka, a kind of Asian tomato/bean/curry mix. The crocodile was fleshy and reminded me of a thicker white carpaccio, say swordfish, but still very different and oh so delicious.
We moved on to a yummy ZANDVLEIT 2006 SHIRAZ from Robertson (you may recall this is north of Hermanus and Franschhoek) which was brilliant with my GRILLED POLENTA FINGERS and Smoked PARPIKA CAPONATA. This dish while billed as tapas, was huge and I had to share with everyone as they did with me. The Spinach-Cheese Phyllo spinakopita-like treats were served with a Vietnamese dipping sauce, which really explains how varied the cultures and food here are. Vegetarian Cous Cous was okay, but the TEMPURA PRAWNS with LIME & CHILLI were superb. Our fearless leader, Jenny, who has taken us on this amazing food, wine, travel and more experience enjoyed the Mushroom FILLET, a superb beef fillet w/ vegetables and new potatoes in a creamy mushroom sauce. While one of us enjoyed the CHICKEN CAESAR Salad, I polished off the superb fresh anchovies, which apparently come from nearby Mozambique.
My third tapas was a LAMB TANDOORI with yoghurt, cucumber and was more like a sausage of lamb wit spicy greens. It was the first truly pure Indian dish I had here and was quite superb, especially with the Shiraz.
Dessert was not an option and I headed back to my room to pack abit, watch the news, write some emails and cry a lot, as I have truly fallen in love with this place so far away, yet so truly amazing, exciting and adventurous that I know it won't be to long before I am back again.
Thanks for enjoying this special journey with me!
ALAN--at the BA lounge in Jo'berg airport enjoying 7 wines from South Africa and the yummy local Camembert that is as runny as it gets!
PS-My biggest regret is that we can't bring Biltong back to the US due to the import restriction!
