FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD

"Food is the most primitive form of comfort." 

-Sheilah Graham 

One of the first questions I am asked upon our return from Africa is, "How was the food?"  Of course, everyone expects me to describe all sorts of unusual meals, incorporating local ingredients and native delicacies, to which my reply is simply, "It was good." Allow me to elaborate.

All the food served at all the lodges and camps was flavorful, filling, and plentiful. Period. It was not a foodie paradise or a gourmet's delight. Rather, to my tastes and culinary skills, it was solid comfort food with added local flavors cooked to feed hungry and often weary  travelers. And as a self-proclaimed non-foodie, it satisfied me as well as my partner just fine.  

In re-reading the OAT Travel Handbook, I think it describes the food quite accurately. The fact is, the lodges and the tented camps we stayed in attract visitors from all over the world. As a result, the chefs have been well-trained to cook in what I would call a Western or European style using locally sourced fresh vegetables, fresh fruits whenever possible, and fresh or frozen meats. All foods are washed and prepared using bottled water so they are safe for Western digestive systems. I even ate the leafy green salads offered at two of the hotel/lodges with no ill-effects, which can't always be said right here in the U.S.

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Breakfasts were most always served buffet-style with the usual choices of American and European fare including eggs (cooked-to-order), breads (fresh or toasted), fruit (fresh and canned), sausage or bacon, assorted cheeses and cold cuts, plus cold and hot cereal, yogurt, and fruit juices.

The morning sunrise warms the breakfast table at Lake Burunge Tented Lodge

The breakfast buffet is ready at our OAT tented camp in the Serengeti.

A variety of sweet potatoes, fresh fruit and toast are among the choices at
House of West Kili on the pre-trip excursion.

This breakfast buffet at Moivaro Arusha Lodge has enough selections to satisfy even the
 pickiest eater--from continental style fruit, cheese and breads in the foreground
to a variety of hot breakfast selections in the back, including made-to-order eggs.

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Similarly dinners were also buffet-style and always started with hot soup (some variation of a vegetable-based soup) and bread. The main courses included a variety of meat and or vegetable stews, curries, or braised meat dishes with some sort of sauce. Starches included polenta, rice, potatoes (boiled, roasted or mashed), and pasta along with a plentiful array of cooked vegetable dishes and raw vegetable salads. 

Our first dinner of soup and bread was served upon our late-night arrival
in Tanzania at the House of West Kili Hotel on the pre-trip excursion. 

Karibu means 'welcome.'  In this case welcome to the soup station at the start of the dinner service
 and later to the custom stir-fry station to the left.

Despite all the soups being similarly green in color, they all tasted slightly
different depending upon the vegetables and other ingredients.

Dinners by candlelight was always the custom since we usually didn't eat before 7-7:30 after a full day of touring or late-in-the-afternoon game drives followed by showers and a social hour. Depending upon the individual lodge or tented camp, beer, wine and mixed drinks were either complimentary or available at a no-host bar. 

Candlelight and beaded Masai collars used as place mats set a welcoming table
at our first dinner at the House of west Kili.

Candlelight softens the overhead glare of the few electric lights in the
open-air dining lodge at Kambi Ya Tembo camp.

Our candlelit deck table at Lake Burunge Tented Camp beckons us to relax
and enjoy dinner and conversation after a busy day. 

Using only a solar powered generator, electricity was at a premium at our OAT camp
in the Serengeti where candlelight softens the glare of a single bare bulb.

With so many choices offered, it was very easy to fill one's plate.

Food was both attractive and plentiful, hence the full plates at dinner. 
And I must confess, I usually ate everything on my plate.

However, as the trip progressed I became more careful about filling my plate. For one reason, the food all began to taste the same to me. It's not a complaint but a reality I have experienced when traveling in a group where meals are served buffet style. Plus, some evenings I just wasn't so hungry. That's when a salad of green leafy lettuce, onions, tomatoes and avocados sounded good. And because we had been assured that all the vegetables had been washed with bottled water, I had no qualms about eating the fresh green salads. 

This lettuce salad along with the house-made honey mustard dressing satiated me
when I grew tired of the soups, stews and marinated vegetable salads.
Sometimes less is definitely more.

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Lunches varied the most depending upon if it was a picnic lunch, which we hand-packed ourselves in the morning from a buffet of lunch foods and ate at a rest stop along the way, or if we ate in a restaurant at a hotel/lodge along our day's route. But the variety and amount was always more than adequate. Again, no one went hungry. 

In Arusha, we ate lunch at the Asili Resort where beer and wine was included.

In the photos below, the chef at the Asili Resort describes each of the foods he has prepared for our lunch. Along with the grilled meats, Chapatti (flat bread) and several potato varieties, there is an assortment of cooked vegetables and stews including Wali wa Nazi (rice in coconut milk), Ugali (cornmeal grits), cooked plantains, and spinach. 

A little of this, some of that makes for a filled plate.

This sit-down lunch at Lake Burunge Tented Lodge offers a variety of cooked
vegetable salads along with a chicken or beef entree.  

In addition, there were the impromptu, food-on-the-hood snacks, organized by Lenny,
our Trip Leader, when it had been a long day and he knew we needed a little sustenance.

Then there was brunch, especially on the early morning game drives during the pre-trip excursion. Typically we'd awaken at sunrise and have coffee and a cookie or bread before heading out to see the animals. Then about 10:30 we'd return to the tented camp for brunch. Brunch looked very similar to the dinners except that in addition, you could order eggs cooked any way you wanted. Did I already mention no one ever went hungry? 

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Desserts were also plentiful and included cakes, tortes and custards, but as a sweet lover myself, I found the baked goods often disappointingly dry and lacking in sweetness as my American taste is accustomed. But that was the only disappointment in the otherwise excellent fare. 

Rice pudding before anyone touched it with a spoon.

And as far as I know, no one became ill as a result of eating the food. Yes, there were a few cases of traveler's you-know-what, but they seemed to be short-lived and relieved within 24 hours with Immodium or Pepto-Bismal. 

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But what was most incredible and memorable were the kitchens in which our meals were prepared, specifically at the two tented camps which were miles from Arusha or any big city. How the chefs, who always wore white chef coats and tall white chef hats, created their magic meal after meal was phenomenal and worth mentioning.

This screened in room (below) is the kitchen at Kambi Ya Tembo Camp on the pre-trip excursion. It is located 500 feet downhill from the main lodge where we ate. This is where all the food was prepared and then transported in a cart up to the dining room to a small serving kitchen which set up the mealtime service. 

Everything in the kitchen was spic and span when we visited. The roof is corrugated metal with a deep thatched overhang.
 The sides are half metal and half screen. Notice the two, two-burner propane cook-tops
 which amazingly produced all of the cooked food we ate. 

This is one of several vegetable storage bins which store the fresh vegetables that are delivered from Arusha
by truck once a week. Having traveled from Arusha to the camp ourselves, it is not an easy 2-hour trip (one-way)
because there is much road construction as well as bumpy, dirt roads. Notice the egg crates on top. 

As evidenced by the empty bins, our OAT trip had all but depleted the vegetable stores.

One of the three camp chefs stands next to a wood or charcoal fired grill.
Look closely to see that it is re-purposed from an automobile wheel. 

This is the pot washing station.

This is the pot drying station.

The camp director and the camp chef.

This is the tented kitchen at the OAT movable tent camp in the Serengeti where we stayed for four nights. 

The heavy metal screen is designed to keep out the large animals that may roam the camp at night.

The camp chef utilizes basic cooking methods that don't require electricity or fancy gadgets. 

Unlike the kitchen at the previous tented camp, this kitchen has a five-burner,
one-oven propane stove.

Obviously, the oven is used to produce beautifully browned rolls such as these.

The produce bins while not as depleted as in the previous camp, they will be used up soon as this camp will be moved
in the weeks following our trip. All OAT tented camps are required to be moved seasonally to protect the fragile environment.

The wash station is located behind the kitchen under the shade of its own tent and a nearby tree.

NOTE: For more information about any of the tented camps and lodges mentioned, please follow the links embedded within the text.