Not that I'm old nor a
vegetarian, though I have often contemplated becoming one....oh and in fact I was one once in my early 20s before I came to Africa for the first time. Then I was dropped off in the middle of nowhere for a month in Kenya to do some research and was confronted with the choice of 'eat goat or eat nothing', so very quickly my vegetarian principles evaporated in the African sun.
Anyway I have noticed that Namibia is not a country for vegetarians or
vegans. There is a lot of meat around, of all kinds, yes you have the usual beef, chicken, pork and lamb but you also get the dried kind, '
biltong', and an array of game including
springbok,
gemsbok,
kudu,
oryx,
zebra, ostrich and
crocodile. Today I forayed into the famous watering hole of many a Windhoek resident and tourist,
Joe's Beer House where I sampled a Namibian Bush Fire platter consisting of ostrich steak, and hefty chunks of kudu and springbok served in a rich red wine sauce with green beans wrapped in bacon and straw potatoes all neatly arranged around a lit shot of
schnapps, quite a sight to behold.
Fire seems to be a theme at the Beer House. My colleague who works for
UNICEF and I sat at a long table near an open fire. We were in the
boma which is basically a large, rotunda open to the night air, only partially covered. In the middle is a huge raised open fire basket made of iron rebar in which large tree trunks are ignited to keep customers warm. It is quite a spectacle especially when the over zealous beer house staff put trunks that were much too tall for the basket into the fire and then ran around prodding and poking the smouldering logs into a frenzy sending a fountain of sparks in our direction. Thankfully my reflexes were in order and I managed to duck to prevent my hair from catching fire. After gorging on meat we indulged further by enjoying warm, chunky chocolate cake served with vanilla cream, berries and ice cream, washed down with the house speciality, a shot of
Jagermeister (sounds like a James Bond villain or Frankenstein's brother) a potent liqueur, so if you don't burn on the outside from being too close to said fire basket you burn on the inside instead. Well it isn't a bad idea really on a cold, clear night under a full moon.
