All food and drink included seems like a fabulous thing. It is. Because basically, you can only consume so much of a good thing. We noticed that on our second and third day on safari, we just couldn’t do justice to the array of food and drink on offer, and were eating relatively light lunches and reasonably light dinners as well. I gained 6 pounds in 10 days in South Africa, so you can imagine what we were consuming in terms of calories despite the self-moderation efforts…
For lunch one day, I started with a classic tomato and mozzarella salad, up top, in this case with peeled tomatoes and lots of fresh basil and a simple dressing. It was perfect for moment — just enough to give you the taste you were seeking, but in a modest portion that left room for a main course. This was followed by a roast vegetable wrap with a small green salad. A totally vegetarian friendly lunch for me that day.
Our daughter had a perfectly cooked medium sized cheese burger with sesame seed bun, the “best” onion rings in her opinion, and a small green salad. No starter and she barely finished this plate.
Mrs. MM had a bowl of full-bodied and flavorful tomato soup. Basta! That’s it. Clearly she was still full from breakfast just 3 hours before! We kind of giggled through lunch, thinking we should really eat more since it was all included in the package, but you know, we were stuffed as olives, no matter what. The food was familiar, properly executed, served in reasonable portions and always fresh and tasty.
For our last lunch at Singita, Mrs. MM and our daughter split a small roast beef sandwich, and she had a bit of my caesar salad (the second time I ordered this, with extra anchovies).
It wasn’t on the menu, but I asked and got a simple tomato sauce pasta which is exactly what I felt like eating that day. It had some unusual seeds in it, I guessed coriander or mustard, and when we asked the sous-chef, he confirmed they put coriander seeds with a mellow flavor into their tomato sauce. It was unusual for me, but delicious all the same.
7 Responses
Yummy, yummy! I could eat onion rings everyday especially if it’s that good. Mabuti sulit ang mga pagkain.
Now I know why your family is slim and fit…despite the abundance of food you eat healthy and if ever presented with rich food you eat very little! Ok, maybe not you MM he!he!but Mrs. MM and the Teen eh I mean The Lady. :). With all those heart pumping safari tours, I will have a very big appetite!
That full bodied tomato soup, is it in a ceramic vessel or a pastry bowl of some kind? It looks thin on one side with a lip on the other, interesting. And your photos make me feel I can actually dip my spoon in the soup and munch on the perfectly done onion rings and crusty bread.
Everything looks so fresh and simply delicious. I often wondered where they source their greens in the middle of the KNP, so fresh each day like newly picked from the garden.
No bobotjie yet?
The onion rings look tempura-ed. Light & crispy.
The trick to consuming more food is to always have fruit first followed by a break of 20 mins or so. Your 6 am bites should consist of that and non-dairy beverages. With lunches and dinners, the same but with wine. Thereafter, you’ll find yourself with a greater appetite. Stretching exercises after your safaris also do wonders for that feeling of renewal and rearing to ‘conquer’.
“We were stuffed as olives”
What a curious quote. It makes me think of possible local equivalents like “stuffed as rellenong bangus” or maybe “stuffed as pusit”. :)
Much as I enjoy dabbling in the kitchen, I think it would even be nicer to have a personal cook to whip up light meals for me while I devote more time participating in sports, reading and music making. Those depicted above are the type of dishes I would ask to be served to me in this dream.
I got this notion from a Filipino chef friend of mine who landed a job as a personal cook to a celebrated Broadway composer/songwriter. Although highly accomplished in the kitchen, he admitted that it was really his total indifference to the prospective employer’s identity and status that clinched the job for him. Anyway, he tells me all he prepares for him are sandwiches, salads and soups and considers these too commonplace except they are usually paired with wine drawn from a well stocked cellar. He laments that the only chance he gets to show off is when his boss invites guests over.
“We kind of giggled through lunch, thinking we should really eat more since it was all included in the package”. — We (four of us) did giggle all the way by each ordering and starter and a main each, with one or two extra mains to be shared, to be served in the middle. Yes, we pigged out big time. I had my Pinotage overload here.