Ten foodie reasons to visit the Seychelles

We recently visited friends in the exotic Seychelles were I discovered Creole cuisine - a mixture of Indian, Chinese, African and French tastes. They make curries that are surprisingly mild; coconut milk feature as expected in most dishes; and mango chutney and basmati rice are standard accompaniments to most dishes. Everything has a distinctive sweet and sour taste.

The food fare is surprisingly varied for such a small island, but here are ten specialities typical of the Seychelles I most enjoyed.

1. Fruit bat curry

Bat curry? Yup, you heard right. On the Air Seychelles flight over a friendly air hostess recommended this strange dish when I asked her about typical Seychelles food. According to her and the equally amiable Seychelles women sitting in the row next to me, fruit bat curry and fish curries are as truly Seychelles as you can get.

Apparently the Seychellois breed fruit bats for this delicacy.

Unfortunately, (or should I rather say fortunately?) we couldn't find any bat curry, as everyone were saving their bats for curries that would be served at the annual Creole Festival that was due to start the week after we left.

2. Fish on the coals at the street market

We visited the Wednesday evening market at the beautiful Beau Vallon beach on Mahé, the main island of the 155 islands that make up the Seychelles. It's a small street market with a selection of local foods and drinks on offer at very reasonable prices for an island that is generally very expensive.

Beau Vallon beach on Mahé

Fruit Stall at the street market

As we wandered among the food stalls we could smell the mouthwatering aromas of barbecued Mackerel and Tuna kebabs. I was disappointed I wasn't hungry enough to have both, so I only tried the Tuna kebab. It was deliciously well done and marinated with tangy Creole sauce, definitely not your average half-raw Michelin star restaurant tuna. The smoky barbecue taste made it the best tuna I have ever tasted. At 25 Rupees, or about R20 per kebab I couldn't complain.

Barbecued Mackerel

Barbecued fish at the street market

3. Palm wine or Calou

The Seychellois make a palm wine from sap collected from a coconut tree. We bought a cup of this potent wine from a seller that looked like he had already tried to much of his own supply. It tasted similar to pineapple beer but with a scarily strong alcohol kick. We all took a sip and decided to pour the rest out as we feared instant and permanent brain damage.

Palm wine sellers

4. Home made juice

At one of the stands selling fresh home made juices I bought a bottle of the most wonderful guava juice I've ever tasted. It was as pure as you can ever imagine fruit juice from a tropical island can be, with none of stuff that gives one that annoying scratchy throat sensation you get from factory-made and preservative-laden juices.

I also tried Soursop juice, made from the Soursop fruit.

Soursop fruit

It had a unique refreshing fruit salad taste that I found delicious. It tasted like a mix of litchi, pineapple, banana and strawberry flavours combined in one sip. It is packed with vitamin C and B and are believed to be cancer preventing as well.

5. Shark ice cream

Shark is the unlikely name of a popular local ice cream found in most of the small, intriguing little grocery shops that dot the island. One of the not-to-be-missed flavours they make is coconut - creamy with real pieces of coconut flesh. It made my own home-made coconut ice cream taste bland in comparison.

The best coconut ice cream

6. Coconut water

Of course we had the obligatory coconut water drink, straight from a fresh, brightly orange coloured coconut. What's an tropical island holiday without it?

Charl , drinking coconut water - from the nature's cup

It's a treat to watch the coconut seller skillfully and with a certain flamboyant flair prepare the coconut. He even jazzed it up with a hibiscus flower. 'For the ladies,' he said when handing them to us with a smile.

It was an interesting taste, not at all what I expected, since it doesn't taste like coconut at all. I found it quite watery with a slight fermented sting on the tongue. There was more of it inside than I imagined - about 300ml in the immature coconut - and is packed with electrolytes, vitamins and antioxidants. The immature flesh inside the coconut is a yucky jelly mass that doesn't look or taste appetising at all. It also felt like a shame to discard the coconut when the drink was finished!

With most things one buys in the Seychelles, a price has to be negotiated beforehand. The price changed from 50 Rupees per coconut to 40 for three on production of my friend Karin's resident card, quite a nice discount!

7. Mature coconut

At home I use desiccated coconut in the dished I prepare. During our Seychelles visit I had coconut flesh straight from a de-husked, mature coconut for the first time ever. The coconut looks like a small, hairy brown wooden ball that is broken into pieces to reveal the white copra or flesh inside. There is a tasty bit of juice inside the coconut that tastes yummy - exactly as I expected coconut water to be.

We polished a coconut between three of us in a few minutes. It's rich and tasty, and again, truly a tropical island sort of thing.

Coconuts

Me, drinking coconut water from a mature coconut

8. Fish in banana leaf

Baked fish in banana leaf is as tropical island as you can get. The fish steak is covered with a Creole sauce made of tomato, onion and spices and then wrapped in a banana leaf before baking. It steams in this leafy "pocket" leaving a tasty, flaky, soft fish as the result.

It is served with basmati rice and a yummy mango chutney made from finely chopped green mangoes.

Fish in Banana leaf

9. Red snapper

The Seychellois live of the sea, and it is truly heart-warming to see their relationship and respect for the sea.

Spear Fisherman looking for the catch of the day

One of the common fishes in Seychelles is Red Snapper. While staying at the pretty island of La Dique I had a baked, whole filleted Red Snapper with a tomato "ragu" or sauce. The fish was fresh and tasted of the sea, and the ragu was the perfect accompaniment.

10. Fruits and jam

The Seychellois love their mangos to be unripened and green. It must be an island thing, since we found it to be the same in Zanzibar when we visited there a few years ago. At the hotel we stayed over in we had a breakfast starter of cut unripe fruit in the morning. I liked it, but sour fruit is not for everyone's palate.

Fruit starter for breakfast 

Not being a sweet tooth I'm not a big jam fan, but I can definitely recommend the local Starfruit and Belimbi jams. Both of these locally produced and rather sour fruits make excellent jams. The Belimbi tree is also called a Cucumber tree, as its fruit look like cucumbers that grow directly from the trunk of the tree.

Jams for breakfast

I wished I could stay longer to explore more of the Seychelles cuisine and try my hand at cooking with the local produce. Perhaps next time...

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Bite size treats

A few wees ago I wrote about the The Grazing Room, the restaurant that won, for us, the prize for the most tasty bite sized sample at the Taste of Jo'burg. I was therefore excited when my family, who are my blog's greatest fans, decided to take me to The Grazing Room for my birthday. And oh boy, was it a treat to write home about!

The Grazing room is a tapas restaurant. Tapas, a Spanish tradition, is a series of appetizers one typically has before dinner. Dinner-time in Spain is 9pm or later, and tapas are eaten earlier, while bar hopping to carry you through to dinner.

An interesting legend about the origin of Tapas has it that it started when  the eighteenth-century King Alfonso XIII once ordered wine in a tavern in the windy city of Cadiz, and the waiter covered his wine glass with a piece of cured ham to protect it from sand carried by the wind. 'Tapas' refers to this edible lid that covered his glass.

Tapas is about, sharing, tasting, discussing and enjoying food and it was exactly what we did. It was a taste celebration, no bite went unsavoured!

The tapas that came out of Chef de Cuisine Damian Pentelo's kitchen were all artworks - every dish was presented with care. All the plates carrying the tapas looked different, accentuating the different taste experience awaiting you.

The overall number one favourite of the eight dishes we 'grazed' through was the prawn and risotto balls, coloured black with squid ink. It melted my mouth and the accompanying lemon aioli worked well with it. I felt though that they'd forgotten to add something green, perhaps a few  micro-herbs would have rounded off the taste and look.

Number two was the the marinated veg tapas  - charred brinjal, baby marrow, red pepper, confit cherry tomatoes and artichoke hearts. The taste transported me to the mediterranean and was yummy, with just the right amount of lemon. The artichokes was surprisingly soft but still al dente.

Number three, the paella with the surprise of the small squares of lemon jelly. It tasted fine, but lacked something to make it outstanding.

Number four - Smoked olives. I could smell the smokey olives on their way to the table. It was soft and tasty.

Number five was the duck liver patè, with a green fig jelly and green figs poached in rooibos and vanilla with mini melba toast. The figs and jelly were the highlight of the dish, but it unfortunately overpowered the patè, even though the latter had a lovely smoothness. This plate was visually the most attractive of all the dishes.

The other dishes that we had was bbq pork, fish tacos and mushroom on toast - a truly varied meal! 

The ambiance was very relaxing even though the restaurant was full. The service was excellent and I felt spoilt.

The wine list is good but a but pricey, starting at R150 per bottle. We had the Waterford Pecan Stream Chenin Blanc that worked well with the tapas. 

The prices for the tapas courses were very reasonable for the quality and serving sizes. Our total bill was R170 per person for the eight tapas plates, a bottle of wine and four soft drinks. 

Everyone around the table agreed without hesitation that they will come back again. Our overall score for food and ambiance was 7.5/10.

The Grazing Room is a tapas bar at the award winning DW eleven -13 restaurant in the Dunkeld West Shopping Centre, c/o Jan Smuts & Bompas street, Dunkeld west, Johannesburg.

To 'graze' book at (011) 341 0663 or email: info@dw11-13.co.za.

Website: www.dw11-13.co.za

Taste of Joburg Festival - Part two

By now we'd tasted samples from three restaurants, and two out of three were winners. Our R100 tasting budget was running out fast, but we still had a few coupons left for a titbit or two.

We continued on, wandering among the many stands and looking at the samples on offer.The restaurant that attracted the most attention - especially among females - was Beefcakes...probably because of the beefcakes working there. It's amazing how naked flesh sells anything, even food.

The beefcake hunks

We almost hugged the lady at the Coach House Nougat stand when we walked past it. The luxury Coach House hotel, set high up in the Magoebaskloof mountains near Tzaneen used to be our favourite country hotel getaway but unfortunately the owner passed away a few years ago, and with him went the personalised service and care that made the hotel special. A side business of the hotel was a nougat factory that makes the most amazing macadamia and honey nougat. We thought they'd stopped making nougat, so were delighted to see they are still in business. It's a bit sad that the recognisable, classic branding had changed  from the gold coach and horses to something a little more modern, but the taste is still unmistakably Coach House. I highly recommend their nougat - you'll find it at most Spar and Dischem outlets.

Coach House Nougat 

Fry's new curry offering

Fry's, the popular vegetarian frozen food range also had a stand.  We are big fans of Fry's time-saving and tasty schnitzels and pepper steak pies, and here they were, introducing a new Durban range of curries (Durban, really?), and we tried their new 'mutton' curry (why do manufacturer's insist on imitating meat??) served in a bunny chow. It tasted good - not as good as Fordsburg curry, but quite fine for a quick meal.

Fry's Mutton Curry Bunny Chow

The Taste of Joburg outing was a fun way to spend the day, and it was good to see so many people that love and appreciate good food. 

Yummy Things At The Taste Of  Joburg

However, I still find the prices hard to swallow. Entry cost R80  per person, or R40 if you have a Pick n Pay shopper card.  And then there were the aforementioned per-tasting prices, which were quite steep I thought. I feel the restaurants have an opportunity to advertise here, and that the tasters should cost either very little or be free. It felt like I was paying a lot of money for a branded T-shirt, when they should be paying me instead for wearing the T shirt.

More Yummy Things

Tips for next time

Will I go again? O yes! But for the next Taste of Joburg I will go better prepared. Firstly, I will take a hat and lots of sunblock since the festival is held outdoors. I will allow the whole day to explore - don't think you can taste everything on offer in an hour or two. Importantly, I will book the food preparation workshops in advance - they were all sold out. And lastly, before spending anything I'll take a walk around and look for specials. For instance,I could have subscribed to Pick n Pay's Fresh Living Magazine and received one hundred Rand's worth of vouchers thrown into the deal! 

Taste of Joburg Festival Part One - tasty, but pricey

The Taste of Joburg Festival is a foodie event that has been held here for the past seven years. Exhibitors include local restaurants, wineries, beer makers and food producers. The main purpose of the festival is to introduce Johannesburg restaurants to the public by offering them a sampling from their menus, thus the 'taste' in the name. And if you like what you taste, you follow it up with a meal at the restaurant. You get the idea.

We attended the very first Taste of Joburg Festival years ago at Wanderers. At the time we found it to be crowded and expensive, and more importantly, didn't find a single restaurant that grabbed our attention. But we did see one of those classic Stella Artois advertisement videos that convinced us to taste it - our first time ever - and today it's still our preferred beer. 

So, unimpressed at the time, we gave Taste of Joburg a miss for the next six years. But last Sunday we decided to give the Taste of Joburg another chance.

There were  a good selection of restaurants represented at the festival, varying from hotel restaurants, bistros, tapas bars, Indian, Thai and gourmet burgers. Each restaurant had three taste options - a starter, a main course and a dessert. Each portion is the size of about two to three bites, really small. 

We worked out that at the prices the tasters were going for - anything between R15 and R40 - there were enough tasting choices to set us back just under a R1000! That was way above our budget, so we decided that the tasters that we'd try must be from restaurants we haven't eaten at before, it must be a food combination that was new to us, and it should all fit into oursmall R100 tasting budget. 

On top of that we still wanted to go visit the Joburg Art Fair at Sandton in the afternoon, we set off to explore right away.

Lacuna

Our first taster was from Lacuna, a bistro at the new Maslow hotel in Sandton. It was a starter of roasted baby beetroot, ash goat's cheese brûlée and walnut pesto served with micro herbs. Sure, beetroot and goat's cheese is old news but combined with the walnut pesto it was a taste sensation that worked, it was well balanced and refreshing. I didn't quite understand the 'brulee' part of the goat's cheese though. It was delicious enough to make a date to eat at Lacuna in the near future and try more of Chef Dallas Orr's creations. 

Roasted baby beetroot,
ash goat's cheese brûlée and walnut pesto

The Grazing Room

Our next tasting was at The Grazing Room, a tapas bar located at the DW eleven-13 restaurant in Dunkeld West. And it won the day for us! We tasted the prawn risotto balls served with a lemon aioli, a combination that was a tastebud treat. The risotto was black, coloured by squid ink and just the right consistency. It almost melts away in your mouth. 

I'm a big tapas fan. I love the small portions packed with flavour. I struggle to make choices when it comes to restaurant menus, so tapas work for me - I can have a little bit of this and a little bit of that all in one sitting. So the Grazing Room was a winner - In fact I think that this is the restaurant we'll go eat at weekend.

Prawn risotto balls

Vivace

Our taster from Vivace, the restaurant at the Raddison Blu in Sandton was a dessert. Chef Jaques Venter created a Hugenot baked cheese tart with jasmine syrup, micro herbs and a passion fruit gel on the side. According to him Hugenot is a South African award winning cheese and taste like a strong cheddar. 

The tart was surprisingly not too sweet,  I didn't taste any jasmine syrup but the passion fruit gel worked well. 

Hugenot baked cheese tart 

Would we visit Vivace for a meal? Hmm… not sure. The dessert was good, but not outstanding.

Next time: our Taste of Joburg adventure continues!