Die Strandloper

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Finally all caught up to the date of the blog posting...

I think my clock may be finally getting back to normal. Today as I normally would after a night/day of “partying,” I woke up at 8:30 am. I quickly got ready and jumped in the first car that would head out to our adventure for today. Today we decided to go to a “restaurant” located on the beach called Die Strandloper. This was not your ordinary restaurant and it was a good 1 and a half hour drive from where we were staying. Luda actually found out about this restaurant in an airplane magazine, when he couldn’t sleep due to a crying baby nearby. I am definitely thankful for that crying baby. From Luda’s description he said it was a place on the beach that served you a 10 course meal of seafood that they caught that morning and grill right there in front of you on the beach for 190 Rand, which is about $25 US dollars. With that description and cost who could pass up on an opportunity like that. The drive there was pretty nice with vast expanses of lustrous green shrubbery, spotted by a single area of desert looking sand mounds.

When we arrived at the place it was a little different than I had first envisioned and was far better. The tables that we ate at were these wooden tables spread across this small area on the rocks right near the beach. There were grills and ovens all around the place that would soon be adorned with scrumptious seafood. Since we had arrived early we found our table of preference which was located higher than all the other tables in the sun, as it was another gorgeous sunny day that overlooked the entire grilling areas and the beach shoreline. We then explored the beach nearby, which was amazing and decorated by several seashells. The shells replaced the sand in some areas and it was very easy to find shells in perfect condition. The, what I assume to be the manager of the restaurant, told us that there was a better beach with more shells and possibly shark teeth around the bend 3 minutes walk away. So we decided to take a walk there during which we walked on the softest sand I have ever felt in my life. It was literally like walking on finely grated flour, and as a friend blurted out “It’s like walking on cocaine.” The beach was definitely flooded with shells. After looking around for a little bit we went back to our table ready for our 10 course meal that would last 3 hours.

The food was amazing!!! We had 10 courses and the utensils were clam shells. What did we eat you ask.. this is what we ate...
-Baked Bread (that was baked right there in ovens)
This was the best bread I have ever tasted. It was so delicious and at the end we were able to take a couple loaves back home with us. The loaves were definitely heavier than any normal loaf of bread.
-Mussels in a Wine Sauce
-Mussels in a Garlic Sauce
I have never had muscles before except for random tastes here and there. And I have to admit I was a little skeptical of eating mussels, but at this restaurant they do not know the meaning of little as they pile high every course on your plate. I was definitely glad they piled it high because it was delicious.
-Harder Fish
I don’t remember all the names but I believe this was the type of fish that was cooked. It was grilled over a fire and was pretty good with a little squeeze of lemon
-Seafood Paella
It is like a Jambalaya, but slightly different. It was a rice dish that had calamari, mussels, and fish mixed in cooked in a large pot.
-Some Barbequed dough balls (bread) and Snook (Which is the equivalent of Barracuda) with bell peppers and onions.
The dough balls were pretty awesome, and the barracuda tasty again with a squeeze of lemon
-Lamb Stew
Delicious! There was some seaweed type plant that was also in the stew. The plant and the stew had a little kick to it and were awesome.
-Sturgeon
That looked like it was a kebab. Very very delicious!
-Smoked Angel Fish
Had a great smoky taste.
-Crayfish
The best!!! This was absolutely D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!! excuse my French when I say I was jizzing in my pants!
-Cook’s Sister and Coffee
This was dessert. The Cook’s Sisters were very similar to the Indian dessert Jalabis. It was basically dough fried and dipped in sugary syrup. They were pretty good, although they were not warm, which would have been so much tastier.
They made their coffee a little odd. They stirred the coffee using one of the logs from the fire. They said that by doing that it would raise the alkalinity of the coffee and make all the coffee rinds settle at the bottom of the kettle. They also said that it had to do something with surface tension. All it really did was make the coffee taste like cigarette smoke. But then again I am not the avid coffee drinker.

The manager at the place was pretty funny and amusing as he made some good conversation with us and told us about the courses and some facts about the area. There was also a guy playing the guitar, named Jakes, during the whole meal and he would go around from table to table taking requests and playing at those tables. When Jakes came to our table he sang a song from Lion King as requested, “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” “No Woman no Cry” and a bunch of other recognizable songs that I cannot remember at the moment. He also played some fun African type songs with words I’m sure he made up about the seafood restaurant and the city that we were in. He was quite the character as he left the table saying he had to go “upstairs to the bar” which was just around the rock, to smoke some “weed” when he had a cigarette in his hand as he said “I’ll be back I love you guys.” Although I am not the biggest seafood fanatic the food was good and the fact that the place was right on the beach was remarkable. They really did slather on the butter and garlic on every item too. They had a pot full of garlic and butter and used a giant painting brush to slather each item in butter and garlic. All in all the place, food, and experience were amazing. We even brought 5 bottles of wine for ourselves to supplement our meal.

After we had finished all our courses one car headed home, while another car stayed back to try and find a local bar to catch the Ghana/Australia game. I picked the car that stayed back since I didn’t want to go back to the house to watch the game. So we drove around looking for a bar that was televising the game. However, it appeared that we were in straight rugby country as every bar was playing the S. Africa/Italy rugby game and refused to change the channel. We ended up missing the first half till the end of the rugby game and caught the second half at one of the bars. It was not the best game and Australia once again found themselves playing short with 10 men due to a red card. Granted this red card was more deserved than the Cahill red card from the previous match. After the game we headed back home where we relaxed and watched the last game and then played some light party games before ending the night relatively early.

However eating 10 courses in one sitting does have its later penalties that I am currently paying for out the butthole while writing this blog.

There's just too many good pictures of this day to post them all on the blog. Because of bandwith problems I won't post all the pictures here just yet of the food but I did take pics of all 10 courses, just for Sunny to pay you back for all the pictures you take of the food you make and send us.

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Comments

[atul]

jizz
excuse your french? jizz!!!! LOL!

[anonymous]

oh god, you were on the toilet writing this??? bleh!

[megha]

BTW, don't repeat the toilet blog entry again! haha, or just don't tell us!!