Liver, Kidneys and Ostrich...Oh My!

I am currently on a business trip in Africa, so some of these posts relate to this trip, like the one below:

Well I thought I ate some crazy stuff when I was in China, I guess I am trying to make Africa just as exciting from a food standpoint. Actually the difference in between eating weird things in China and in South Africa mainly has to do with the fact that when you are eating the weird things they are prepared in a gourmet way…so they have some nice flavors going with the weirdness.

Our first night in Johannesburg, we went out with one of the South African partners of our firm to an upscale African type food restaurant called Lekgotla in Nelson Mandela Square. There were a lot of great choices on the menu of foods that I had never tried, so it was pretty tough just to choose one. A colleague began his meal with chicken liver prepared in an spicy African sauce. I can say that I am not normally a big liver fan, but this might be one of my favourite dishes I have ever had. The sauce had a great spice to it yet the spice didn’t take away from the great taste of the Peri Peri sauce…a sauce that is derived from a Mozambiquan chili. For my main dish, I decided on an Ostrich Filet, which was pretty amazing. Ostrich (much like Buffalo) tastes like beef, but has significantly less fat then beef and is very tender. I have to say, my meal of Chicken Liver and Ostrich was pretty amazing.

Not to be outdone by the first night’s meal, we went to one of the best restaurants in Pretoria, Ritrovo Ristorante, with a partner from the Pretoria office for our second night’s meal. While I did get the house special pasta for my main dish (awesome), I tried one of the specials as an appetizer, lamb kidneys. I have to say that I am not a huge kidney person…but the way that these were prepared was absolutely divine.

So within the first two nights I had been pretty adventurous with my food, but it paid off, all the dishes were some of the best meals I have had in a long time. I guess the only problem is, I still have 2 weeks of eating like this…I could be in trouble.