Impala Steak

When I was planning our trip to Africa and researching where to find wild game to eat I don't recall reading about impala. So our first night in Cape Town when we ate at Karibu and had an impala steak as part of our safari platter, I was surprised. 

A male impala in Hwange NP, Zimbabwe.

Female impalas in Hwange, NP.

I was even more surprised when we had an opportunity to compare it side by side with kudu and springbok and it was the best tasting of the antelope meats. It was most tender and the best tasting. 

Impala is one of the steaks on the left side of the plate, along with kudu and springbok.

The three steaks are cut open and the impala is on the right. 

We had two more opportunities to try impala later on the trip. 

At Carnivore Restaurant, outside Johannesburg, we had impala and I recall it was good, but was really focused on the zebra, which is for another post. 

This is a horrible picture of the impala meat at Carnivore. It was very dark.

Then at The Boma in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, we had some more very good impala. 

Two slices of impala (front) at The Boma. 

If cooked carefully (not over-cooked), impala is some of the best wild game meat there is.  

Springbok Meat: Carpaccio, Steak, Stew and Biltong

The springbok is a beautiful African antelope that I knew little to nothing about before visiting South Africa and Namibia. However, there it is very much part of the culture. It is the national animal of South Africa. It is the name of the South African rugby squad featured in the movie Invictus about Nelson Mandela. It is also a meat that can be found everywhere. 

Springboks in Etosha NP, Namibia

At our first meal in South Africa, at Karibu in downtown Cape Town, we had the safari platter and it featured springbok in two ways. First we had springbok carpaccio, raw meat, sliced or pounded into thin strips, along with ostrich and crocodile. It was relatively bland, but good, but my least favorite of the three. 

Springbok carpaccio is on the right.

We also had a springbok steak at that meal, along with kudu and impala. When we asked our waiter what meat was what on the plate, he came back with this answer from the chef: the kudu is toughest, the impala the most tender (best) and the springbok grainy. Those instructions made it easy to determine between the three. The impala was best, followed by springbok, then kudu.  

Springbok steak is one of the three steaks on the left. 

The springbok steak is in the middle. 

Later, at Gold Restaurant in Cape Town, we had springbok in a Namibian stew. You probably would not notice much difference between it in that mixture, than you would beef. 

Namibian stew with springbok. 

In biltong, the South African version of jerky, which I wasn't particularly fond of, it was a fun oddity to try, but not really indicative of the quality of the meat. 

Springbok biltong

The chef at Karibu really set the standard. Springbok is good - better than kudu, which is really good when cooked right. But it does not measure up to impala, which is great by any standard.  

Nile Crocodile Meat: Carpaccio, Tagine, Kabob, and Roasted Tail

I've cooked Australian crocodile striploin before, and had alligator in many forms, and I have loved them. These reptiles that you would think would taste bad, are so good. On our trip to Southern Africa I got to try Nile crocodile in a number of different ways and it was just as good as its cousins. 

Nile crocodile in the Okavango Delta. 

Our first crocodile was in Cape Town at Karibu. We had three types of carpaccio, which is thinly sliced or pounded raw meat. The three types were ostrich, crocodile and springbok. Surprisingly, the crocodile was by far the best. Very flavorful. 

Carpaccio at Karibu. The crocodile is in the center (white). Ostrich is to the left and springbok to the right. 

Tagine is a method of slow cooking developed in Morocco. At Arnolds in Cape Town I tried crocodile cooked in a tagine, which I read good things about in advance. However, I found it very disappointing. It was very moist, but almost too moist, limp, and flavorless. Tofu anyone. 

Crocodile tagine.

The best crocodile, interestingly enough, was cooked as kabobs over a little charcoal grill on our Zambezi canoe trip near Victoria Falls. It was succulent, moist, yet firm, and loaded with flavor. I would love to know the marinade. I had three of them. It was some of the best meat we had in Africa. 

Crocodile kabobs.

A close second was the roasted crocodile tail we had at The Boma in Lake Victoria. It was a thin-slice of tail meat seasoned and cooked perfectly. Wow. 

The crocodile is at the back of the plate. Roasted impala is at the front. 

Finally, we had crocodile at Carnivore Restaurant outside Johannesburg and it was horrible. It was overcooked and bony with very little meat on it. I thought it was a bony fish, such as carp, and had to ask the waiter what it was. I don't have a picture of it, which is just as well. 

Warthog Meat: Ribs, Kabobs and Steak

I was excited to try some wild game on our trip to Southern Africa and the meat I think I was most excited to try was warthog. Why? Well, wild pig in the U.S. is fantastic and the warthog is just a variation of wild pig. 

A warthog in Hwange NP in Zimbabwe.

I got to try warthog on three different occasions, three ways. 

My first warthog meat was at Mama Africa in Cape Town. I got three skewers of meat cooked with green and red pepper with it. I didn't notice a gamey taste, but did notice a huge difference in the taste and tenderness, depending on how well cooked it was. The less-cooked, the better. It was more tender and more flavorful, a stronger version of pork. The more cooked it was, the chewier it got.  

Warthog kabobs at Mama Africa.

Next I tried smoked warthog ribs at Arnolds in Cape Town. The ribs were large and meaty, but the smoked taste made itself very apparent. I've had a smoked wild boar from Texas and the smoked taste, which is quite strong, permeates it. It also makes it less tender.  The smoked flavor in the warthog was not as strong as the smoked wild boar I had, which made it better, but I would have preferred the ribs without the smoking. I would love to try the ribs un-smoked. 

Smoked warthog ribs at Arnolds.

Finally, at The Boma in Lake Victoria, Zimbabwe, they had marinated warthog steaks waiting to be cooked-to-order. I made sure to ask for it rare. The finished product was wonderfully succulent, tender and flavorful. 

Raw warthog steak at The Boma.

Cooked warthog steak.

Warthogs may be ugly, but they taste great, as any lion will attest.   

Kudu Meat: Biltong, Drywors, Boerewors, Pate, Meatballs, Stew & Steak

Kudu are hunted in South Africa for their meat. The meat is very lean and can have a livery, gamey flavor. It needs to be cooked carefully to avoid drying it out and making it difficult and unpleasant to eat. 

These kudu (male and female) were photographed in Etosha NP in Namibia.

From what I can find, kudu are not farmed in the traditional sense, like cattle, but are raised on private ranches, eating off the land as they would in a national park. Ranchers make money by allowing hunters to come on to their land and hunt them and the meat is made available to the food market as an additional income source.

Kudu was the most common game meat we encountered in Southern Africa and we had it in many forms. This post describes our experience in eating it.  

The name biltong comes from the Dutch words "bil" (meaning buttock) and tong (meaning strip or tongue). Travelbite states that "What prosciutto is to Italy, biltong is to South Africa." Comparing it to game jerky, she says biltong is better. It is "softer to chew...and more flavorful...[L]ike having a juicy steak in your back pocket ready for consumption." According to 1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die (page 592) biltong was developed by the Boer pioneers in the 1830s when they had to trek from the Cape of Good Hope into the interior during their Great Trek. Biltong can be made from beef, but also wild game such as antelope, ostrich, giraffe and zebra. The meat is rubbed with a mixture of salt, "crushed coriander seeds, vinegar, and sugar, often along with saltpeter (potassium nitrate). It is hung in a draft to air-dry. Once dry, it is rubbed again, then returned to dry more. Good quality biltong should be dark and dry on the outside, but translucently red on the inside when cut into thin slivers. If kept dry, it will remain good for months without losing its flavor." There are three ways that biltong differs from jerky. First, the meat used in biltong can be thicker because of the slower drying time in dry air. Second, jerky is dried with salt, but no vinegar. Biltong has added vinegar and spices, in addition to salt, and together with the drying time, cures the meat and adds texture and flavor. Third, jerky is often smoked and biltong is never smoked. We had lots of nibbles of biltong. It was everywhere. But none of the biltong we tasted fit the descriptions above, in terms of moistness and softness. I'm sure with biltong, like with jerky, it is all over the board in terms of quality, as I've had jerky that could fit the descriptions. I was unimpressed with my experiences of biltong. It was much like American jerky. 

This is actually gemsbok biltong, but the tastes were similar. 

Boerewors is a sausage that originated in South Africa (boer is farmer and wors is sausage in Afrikaans/Dutch) and must contain at least 90% meat with a fat content of no more than 30%. It is preserved with salt and vinegar and put into a sausage casing. It is usually grilled over charcoal (braaied). We had antelope boerewors at Karibu in Cape Town which means it has different kinds of antelope in it. Because we had kudu, springbok and impala steaks that night on our safari platter, I'm guessing that there was at least some kudu in the boerewors as kudu was the antelope meat most available in restaurants. The boerewors were moist and tasty. 

The antelope boerwors are the smaller sausages on top in the center of this safari  platter at Karibu in Cape Town. 

Drywors or droewors (in Afrikaans, meaning dry sausage) is a sausage made with meat with no more than a 5% fat content. It is dried slowly in warm and dry conditions and is much thinner than boerewors to enable it to dry quicker and avoid spoiling. However, European dried sausages, such as salami, are dried even slower in colder and/or more humid conditions and contain a curing agent, whereas drywors have no curing agent. Drywors is spiced similarly to boerewors, with coriander seed, but can keep longer (as long as kept dry) than boerewors that must be refrigerated. We purchased kudu drywors at a market in downtown Cape Town at the recommendation of our guide. I ate it back at our hotel and, after the description above, unsurprisingly found it very dry with little moisture. It also had a weird, almost freeze-dried texture to it. I was not particularly fond of it and would probably not eat it if I lived in South Africa. 

This drywors is out of the package with a piece cut in two. 

Pate is a paste, at least in this instance, consisting of forcemeat that includes liver. Forcemeat is lean meat mixed with fat by grinding, sieving or pureeing it. I purchased a small can of kudu pate. It was very moist, had a slight liver taste and was extremely good. I regret not getting some pate for several other game animals that were available.

We visited Carnivore Restaurant in Muldersdrift, outside Johannesburg. Kudu was served to us in the form of meatballs. I have no idea what the added ingredients were, but they were moist and tasty. 

Kudu meatballs are to the right side of the plate. 

At the Boma Restaurant in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, they served a kudu stew with big chunks of moist kudu in a gravy. The kudu was not very distinguishable from normal beef stewmeat. 

The chunks of kudu are to the left. Guinea fowl is to the right. 

We had kudu steak several times. Our first kudu steak was at Karibu in Cape Town. We had it along with springbok and impala steaks, both of which were better. The kudu was relatively tough. But at least part of the difference was in cooking time. Both of the springbok and impala meats were rarer. 

Kudu, springbok and impala steaks are to the far left. The kudu was farthest left. This was at Karibu. 

Next we had it at Arnolds in Cape Town. I asked for it rare and it came out cooked medium. We sent it back for rare and the difference was amazing. It was moist and soft and had no gamey taste. It also had a wonderful mushroom gravy on it. This was really excellent. 

The second kudu steak at Arnolds smothered in mushroom gravy. 

Our last kudu steak was at Halili Camp in Etosha NP in Namibia. Raw steaks were next to a grill and it was cooked to order. I ordered mine very rare, basically just the outside browned, similar to seared ahi. It was marvelous, very tender. 

Kudu steaks under plastic wrap waiting to be cooked at Halili Camp. 

My rare kudu at the bottom of the plate.

My experiences confirmed that kudu needs to be cooked very rare and then it is fabulous.  

Kalky's - Kalk Bay, South Africa

Ryan Strauss, our guide in Cape Town, wanted to take us to a fish and chips joint that he went to as a youth. It was right next to the harbor in Kalk Bay, where a few fish vendors were still lined up selling fresh and smoked fish around lunch time. 

Dried snoek.

Drying snoek.

Some of these look like fresh snoek.

We first walked by the fish vendors and I purchased a small piece of dried snoek. Snoek is a long, thin species of snake mackerel found in the southern hemisphere. It is a regional specialty in the southwest coastal areas of South Africa. It is oily and has a very strong and distinctive taste. I am pretty tolerant of strong tastes and this was too much for me. One bite was enough. Smoked snoek is listed as one of 1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die  (page 414). 1001 states, "Smoked snoek is a genuine South African national treasure that should have as much Appellation Controlee street cred as prosciutto."  

I bought a small piece of this dried snoek.

We continued on to Kalky's.  It was very informal. Wood tables covered in red table cloths, flags from different countries hanging from the ceiling, brick tile floors and wood walls. Food came out on metal trays. 

Inside Kalky's.

Our guide, Ryan Strauss, who did a great job. 

We shared several dishes to have a variety. First we had snoek and chips. It was not as strong as the dried snoek I had outside, but it was still the most strong tasting breaded and fried fish I've ever tasted. It was also a little over cooked for my taste. Not my favorite and we did not eat it all. However, a look at fish and chips places in the Cape Town vicinity shows that snoek and hake are the main kinds of fish used in fish and chips. 

Snoek

So naturally, the next dish we ordered was hake and chips. Hake is in the same taxonomic order as cod and haddock. It is mild with a white and flaky texture and also one of the 1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die (page 396). 1001 notes that hake "has few small bones and is easy to prepare" and the "flesh's subtle, delicate flavor makes it a successful substitute for any recipes that specify cod or other white fish." The fried hake was better than the snoek, but I still did not love it. It was not particularly moist. We ate more of this than the snoek, but we still did not eat it all.

Hake and chips

Our third dish was crayfish. Crayfish in South Africa is not the river crayfish that we have in the U.S., but a rock lobster or spiny lobster. I believe the crayfish was grilled, cooked a little bit too much, and it had a bit of an "off" taste. I preferred it over both the hoek and the hake, and we ate it all, but I would take a Maine lobster any day. 

Crayfish or spiny lobster

We also ordered onions, and I'm assuming the picture below is fried onion pieces, but don't remember eating them at all. 

They had pickled octopus on the menu which I wanted to order, but unfortunately, they were out. 

Kalky's gets good ratings (#3 of 26 restaurants in Kalk Bay) and listed on regional lists of fish and chips joints, but I was very disappointed by it. There was nothing we had that I really loved and it was a place I'd really looked forward to eating at.