Nyoni’s Kraal….

We had dinner tonight at Nyoni’s Kraal, which is a beautiful restaurant and shabeen “bar” that serves traditional African food. The restaurant had soapstone floors and wooden pillars designed like trees spread throughout the restaurant. The centerpiece of the room was a stunning large stone fireplace. Determined to try something new, Marcus ordered Mopane Worms Salad. These worms are found on the underside of tree stumps and logs. And yes, he was thinking of Timon & Pumba when he ordered them. Not to be left out I tasted the Mopane Worms, which were small, grubby worms with short legs and fat black heads. The salad was covered with these crispy whole worms. Texturally, the worms were crunchy on the outside and tough, chewy on the inside (a little like overcooked meat.) They had a strange aftertaste, not particularly bad, but not particularly tasty either. I order the game special, which happened to be Condu, which is similar to a spring bok or an antelope. It was very tasty and reminded me of venison. We also had Samps (beans similar to black eyed peas), Mealie Pap (similar to bland congealed grits), creamed spinach, butternut squash, and an EXCELLENT chicken stew. Every bite of the chicken stew was like a flavor explosion. Hands down it was my favorite dish of the evening. We ended our meal with a special dessert, Malvale, which was a chocolate sponge cake with ice cream and coffee. The entire meal was delicious, and despite the restaurant gift shop, the atmosphere managed feel authentic rather than theme parkish.