That being said, I can't name one dish here that I didn't like. It's all good. It's all fresh. And as I still don't eat meat (Dad, Jay, I am NOT eating a lion. Sorry.), I can ALWAYS find something edible. One of my biggest qualms with the restaurant industry in the States is that being vegetarian or vegan nearly always meant being an afterthought on a menu. Restaurants would craft their thoughtful meal plans and then as if they had forgotten about us, throw on some shapeless veggie burger or overcooked mushy vegetables together. Or you were stuck with a side salad and fries. Here though, it's been pleasantly different. Most restaurants boast their veggie options and take great care to make sure you get what you want/need. Everyone is freakishly accommodating. Not only that but foods here list whether or not they have GMO ingredients, and they all say if they're "suitable" for vegans or not. That's way ahead of the game in the States, where I have to carefully weed through a 2525652452435 ingredient list for deceitfully re-named animal by-products trying to sneak it's way into my shopping cart and we're still battling for Prop 37.
It's sad to say that I haven't enjoyed food this much since I was on Semester at Sea. There are few places at home that I consider to have good food. Truly good, soul feeding food. I keep saying to Caz, "I feel like I'm making out with my meal". It's that much of an event.
Today we got wild and decided to try another new place up Kloof, away from Long Street, called Toni's, a Portuguese/Mozambique fusion restaurant (as Mozambique use to be a Portuguese colony). Apart from the sweet, sweet waiter the food was not what I was expecting, it was better. I have a strange obsession with curry, since eating it in India. Curry of all kinds. Back home with Kelley, all we do is eat curry from all over Milwaukee County in search of the best. Well I have found curry that effectively trumps anything I've had in Milwaukee (sorry Bombay Sweets). Tokyo Sushi had an amazingly sugary green vegetable curry that was pure white and hot hot hot. Toni's Mozambican vegetable curry was deep yellow with enough turmeric to cure a cold. The vegetables were fresh, still crunchy, and the sauce was thick with grated coconut meat.
Oh, man it was distractingly delicious.
Before we even got the main dish, we ordered "Vegetarian Rissoles: Toni’s homemade pastry filled with veg in Portuguese sauce". Which were essentially deep fried pastries filled with vegetable "mush". Sounds weird, ridiculously tasty. Doused in lemon juice and smothered in the GREATEST EFFING SALSA (sorry dad) I HAVE EVER HAD. I had to restrain myself to not drink it out of the old beer bottle they served it in. "Can I buy this?" I desperately asked the waiter. "No ma'am it's not for sale, we make it in the back." He said very sorrowfully. 10 minutes later he walked back and slipped me an old sparkling grape juice bottle full of the LIQUID OF THE GODS as I am now calling it. I will be putting this on everything I eat. It taste like raw garlic, thai chillies, basil, olive oil, and tomato juice, pureed into a thin orange sauce. I was actually pouring onto my plate and eating it with my fingers after I ran out of things to dip into it.
I'm honestly struggling to finish this post because I'm salivating and need to go find something to eat with that sauce. Right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment