A day to go before Adieu …

Just a day to go before  we say goodbye to Mafeking. While preparing for the final showdown tomorrow – preparing and finalising the deck – I felt it was time I made a short note on some of the most wonderful food we have been having all along. Hope this also acts as a food-guide for all future Jo’burg/Mafeking visitors.

Grilled Kingklip with Lemon Butter sauce, Peas and Fries. Had at Tashas, Rosebank Mall, Johannesburg. Kingklip is a kind of eel found mainly in the South African seas. I had never heard about this fish earlier anywhere, and if you would really want to know more, look up for Genypterus Capensis (its scientific name) and you wouldn’t like to look back at it due to its ugliness. But thankfully I never was interested to look up in Google and boy ! – does this fish taste good!
I had this Kingklip for the first time in the Rosebank Mall in Jo’burg, but went on to have it several times in Mafeking. If you don’t specify, they usually make it fried (with batter etc.), but if you want to have it great – then request for it to be grilled. You would never regret it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are ever in Mafeking, DO NOT MISS this. Not sure if you would get it elsewhere (at least my friends from 9 different countries said they didn’t) – this is African cuisine at its best. Oxtail with pumpkin and spinach. Yes – that is the tail of the Ox. Beautifully cooked and succulent, it’s a bit like mutton kassa which we have back home in India. This, by far has been the best dish in Mafeking we have had so far.

 

We were invited for a special African lunch at the SABC (South African Broadcast Corporation), which they host every Thursday. Needless to say, we did go back to SABC after a couple of weeks to have the lunch once again. Interesting menu that comprised of Chicken (grilled), Beef curry and Mashed Pork. Of course, no African dish is complete without some pumpkin and so we had them as well.
There was a nice mish mash of mushroom (at the lower end of my picture in the right), which my Vegan friends were simply thrilled to have. I liked it a lot as well.
However, on our 2nd visit to this place, I learnt that it was more than some mushrooms. But I’d rather not spell the beans  now – at least not before I leave South African boundaries.


That’s a beef fillet with rice. And yes, no prize for guessing – the yellow ‘thing’ is pumpkin paste. The amount was – how should I put it – inconsequential ? But tasted super great.
Venue – Tourism and Hotel Management Institute, Mafeking.









This was called “The Madagascar Steak”. Basically beef steak medium-done. With pepper sauce. And with veggies and pumpkin (what else did you expect?). This was at a restaurant called The Buffalo in Mafeking, to celebrate the birthday of Daniel, our bus driver who has been our constant companion all throughout. The steak was – absolutement, perfecto ! 






This was a Veggie platter, ordered by my Australian friend Chandra. In The Buffalo restaurant, this, for a change, showed that the South Africans did know how to make a veggie dish look beautiful !




There was another place that deserves special mention – and that is in the Bakubung Lodge, Pilanesburg. The buffet and the food was s-i-m-p-l-y awesome. Italian, Indian, Greek, Lebanese, Beef, Veal, Chicken, Fish, etc. etc. and etc. They had it all and the quality was truly fantastic. They also a an open-air slow-roasted lamb thing – where they put in the whole lamb inside a covered grill and let it cook (reminded me of Obelix). Pity I don’t have a decent picture of this experience.