{"id":26932,"date":"2013-12-08T18:25:12","date_gmt":"2013-12-08T23:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=26932"},"modified":"2013-12-08T18:25:52","modified_gmt":"2013-12-08T23:25:52","slug":"tasting-marinated-crocodile-and-impala-kudu-wildebeest-and-warthog-steaks-in-zimbabwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=26932","title":{"rendered":"Tasting Marinated Crocodile and Impala, Kudu, Wildebeest and Warthog Steaks in Zimbabwe"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY Sonia Nazareth<\/strong><\/p>\n

I<\/strong>n a world where what we consume is getting increasingly full of polite, socially-approved and rather safe flavours, Zimbabwe\u2019s home to both the complex and the unusual. If you\u2019re on the tourist trail, around a national park especially, the first thing you learn is to be adventurous with your taste buds.<\/p>\n

\"warthog

warthog steak<\/p><\/div>\n

Most buffets feature an assortment of acquired tastes. Think marinated crocodile, impala, kudu, wildebeest, buffalo and warthog fillet steaks, offered with baguette-seed rolls and garnished with lettuce and chips. On several occasions, I encounter a head chef haloed by wood-smoke and the sweet fragrance of roasting, beaming over his succulent preparations with as much pride as a child showing off his latest toys.
\n
\nEvery meat has its endemic seasoning. Impala, I\u2019m told, goes best with gravy or pepper sauce. Warthog, with barbeque sauce. As vital a presence as the range of meats to the meal, is the ubiquitous Mopane worm. These insects brimming with protein \u2014 referred to lovingly as \u201cworm\u201d, are in fact caterpillars and grace the salad bar at just about every restaurant buffet I visit. They taste of muscly liver and can be eaten dry and crunchy like crisps or dunked in sauce. But while they linger in my memory for their many merits as a sumptuous exotic treat, just like the game meat, they are not for everyone. The conventional gormandizer needn\u2019t worry however; the culinary possibilities are as diverse as the landscape, and every buffet is also as adequately stocked with rotisserie, stir-fries, salads and curried vegetables.<\/p>\n

\"crocodile

crocodile curry<\/p><\/div>\n

Traditional Zimbabwean fare, although still strong on meat dishes, tends to be holistic. Sadza \u2014 a thickened porridge made from maize \u2014 is the staple. My chef tells me, ladling a huge portion onto my plate, \u201cIn my village, sadza, like all the other food, was served on a communal plate. We\u2019d roll a clump of it between our fingers and eat it with stew or vegetables. As soon as it was dipped into the accompanying gravy, it morphed from tasteless nothingness, into the food of the gods. Most of all because, no matter how poor the family you were sharing this meal with was, once you\u2019d partaken of the food lying in the large bowl at the centre of the table, you\u2019d be a stranger no more. You\u2019d be family.\u201d<\/p>\n

She breaks off and looks towards me in a demanding manner, \u201cYou know why I look so young?\u201d The question is clearly rhetorical, because without waiting for my response she launches into speech. \u201cIn the rural areas you eat healthy, walk a lot, and heart and liver problems are unheard of.\u201d She shakes her head in despair, expressing displeasure at fast-food options that have cropped up in the cities. \u201cWho wants plastic flowers when you can have the real thing? In my day, you ate the vegetables that surrounded you. Pumpkin. Sweet potatoes boiled with salt. Butternut soup. You partook of the freshwater fish. Bream from the Zambezi river. Kapenta from Lake Kariba. Trout from the rivers in the eastern highlands. You made mousse from the sweet-sour baobab fruit as dessert.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mopane

Mopane worms<\/p><\/div>\n

Identity ingredients that link modern Zimbabwe with its ancient past are peanuts and peanut butter. This edible heritage makes its way with astonishing versatility into everything \u2014 the rice, the stew, the sauces, the spinach. My heart warms even now at the memory of the taste of biltong \u2014 the heavily-spiced and salted, sun-dried meat cooked with peanut butter and eaten with sadza. If you like it, you\u2019ve sure as Zimbabwe\u2019s Zimbabwe, waltzed your way into the heart of every local.<\/p>\n

On a slightly divergent thread, what unites passengers on a boat cruise down the Zambezi \u2014 where dainty starters of crocodile mousse are being served and a local gathering in the market place at Bulawayo, Zimbabwe\u2019s second largest city \u2014 is the beer. I am told in numerous taverns over countless glasses of Zambezi and non-branded local brews, that during ancestral worship ceremonies, beer is served from special pots to appease ancestral spirits. During these offerings, people request protection for their family, an overwhelming harvest and good fortune. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is not having an abundance of food and drink, it\u2019s in failing to recognise what we now have,\u201d my driver tells me. \u201cGrowing up, my diet was very simple. We learned to never take food for granted, a sentiment reinforced in times of drought and political catastrophe. Even now, when I have food leftover, my instinct is to pack it up and offer it to one of the many poor children who don\u2019t have any.\u201d He takes a discarded apple out of the lunch case that I\u2019ve rejected and offers it to a little girl wandering by. More than everything I\u2019ve eaten here, I remember his words and the impulse driving his gesture. And even now, after I\u2019ve returned to a crowded, always-on-the-move city, I chew more mindfully and remember gratitude with every bite. courtesy: The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

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BY Sonia Nazareth In a world where what we consume is getting increasingly full of polite, socially-approved and rather safe flavours, Zimbabwe\u2019s home to both the complex and the unusual. If you\u2019re on the tourist trail, around a national park especially, the first thing you learn is to be adventurous with your taste buds. Most …<\/p>\n

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