Feasting in the Bush FYI (Maasai and Masai are both correct spellings with Maasai preferred for naming the people.)

Delicious Safari Dining--Pampering in the Bush

By Sarah Jane English

January 2007

“A first course was accompanied by fleet impala and jaunty gazelles leaping across the red-oat grasslands of the Serengeti plains.

Another course was enjoyed as a herd of elephants ambled assuredly among a tangle of trees in the marshland of the Masai Mara, Kenya.

For a third course, eager zebras whinnied and trotted across Ngorongoro Crater in a black and white line of synchronization.

Dessert was a faint shimmering of pink flamingoes as they took staccato steps at the edge of Lake Manyara, Tanzania.” SJE

“Warning! Don’t eat the lettuce,” cautioned a previous safari traveler,” or anything you can’t peel.” Such well-intentioned advice, however, was totally unnecessary. The places I stayed in Kenya and Tanzania were owned by Conservation Corporation Africa (CC Africa) and were among the most posh one could hope to experience. The food especially was delicious and immaculately prepared. Chef George Musembi of Bateleur Camp even washed the produce with bottled water!

CC Africa Operations Director Gary Lotter explains, “Our company is committed to care for the land, wildlife and people, while we offer guests exposure to wild spaces in extraordinary locations with exclusive lodges and fine cuisine.”

Gary’s words are modest. No words, however, could have prepared me for such a pampered adventure. The staff at each facility greeted us with freshly chilled moist towels and a local beverage made from the fruit of the tamarind or baobab tree, prevalent in much of East Africa, or a spicy hibiscus tea.

A little insight and geography are helpful, indeed necessary, to understand my safari.

Kenya and Tanzania are located near the equator in East Africa. The Ministry of National Resources manages National Parks and Game Reserves and permits concessions like those of CC Africa on controlled lands. All the properties are concerned about preserving the ecosystem.

Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya is the northern extension of the vast Serengeti ecosystem and home to the greatest concentration of large mammals on earth. Here is located CC Africa’s Kichwa Tembo Camp and its nearby luxury facility named Bateleur Camp. Envision your most idealized image of accommodations in the bush and quadruple it to approximate what CC Africa offers tourists, beginning with Bateleur Camp in Kenya.

In adjacent Tanzania, in the western corridor of Serengeti National Park at an oxbox pan formed by river overflows, is Grumeti River Camp. There’s a huge lily-covered pond some distance in front of the hospitality unit where guests can watch the hippos loll in the water. At night, the hippos come on land to graze and guests remain inside the sturdy, sophisticated tents (with wooden floors) so hippos may graze among them. I felt perfectly safe when I heard their happy grunting and munching just the other side of my tent window.

Klein’s Camp, also in Tanzania, straddles the Kuka Hills along the northeastern border of the Serengeti. The large, well-appointed, white stucco and thatched rounded rooms reminded me of coconut puff balls topped with a coulee hat. The individual cottages form an inviting line of peaked roofs along the ridge with an unparalleled view. Hospitality at Klein’s Camp is unmatched and the gracious manager kept the evening lively with his entertaining manner at a delicious and elaborate dinner set in the bush. Huge metal cauldrons were filled with logs to light the night with orange fire while the chefs offered an array of grilled meats and roasted vegetables.

Lake Manyara Tree Lodge, in Lake Manyara National Park, is on the eastern arm of the Great Rift Valley, formed 30 million years ago after colliding tectonic plates diverged. The system stretches from the Red Sea to Mozambique. The rock escarpment drops 500 metres down to the glassy lake surface, and the Lodge is sequestered within an evergreen forest.

Stairs take guests up into the branches of each Lake Manyara “tree-house,” which is safely sequestered among the majestic mahoganies. Truly unique, excessively large, handsomely decorated and appointed, the comfortable quarters include a picturesque window setting for the bath tub as well as an outdoor, walled shower that opens to the sky. Baboons fussed in the trees above my shampooed head one morning, but were considerate enough not to join me in the shower. For breakfast I enjoyed some of the best yeast bread I have ever eaten anywhere and it was made in outdoor handmade ovens heated by logs.

Ngorongoro Crater Lodge is in the Ngorongogo Conservation Area (NCA). Once a gigantic volcano at the eastern arm of the Rift Valley, the entire Ngorongoro cone collapsed to form a caldera (a craterlike basin)—one of the most perfectly formed on the planet—a bowl of some 250km ringed by an amphitheatre of 500-meter high walls. My impeccably decorated lodgings—more like an apartment—offered expansive caldera views from the bathtub. It was centered in a large room with a brass accessory holding my terrycloth robe and slippers beside a table supporting a glass and chilled champagne in a wine cooler. Multiple ceiling-to-floor glass windows offered panoramic views. Massive African buffalo grazed freely among the Lodge units at dusk, unperturbed by the electric carts that guides used to whisk guests around the property. Guards accompany guests to their quarters after dark at each facility so the animals and the guests will not be disturbed. Twenty-four chefs work in eight-hour shifts in Ngorongoro Lodge kitchen to serve the guests every food they desire. A marvelous brown sugar and maple fudge assures sweet dreams.

Bateleur Camp at Kichwa Tembo, Grumeti River Camp, Klein’s Camp, Lake Manyara Tree Lodge and Ngorongoro Crater Lodge are singularly distinctive in style and size--some grandiose haute fashion, others haute tents. Many are members of Small Luxury Hotels and all are superb.

The degree of sophistication is especially conspicuous because the camps are amidst total wilderness, kilometers and kilometers from any civilization, yet they have every amenity. There is no network of roads; actually, the main road to Nairobi is a rough, single lane, uneven dirt path with jutting rocks, and potholes. So, each camp generates its own electricity and water supply and gracious hospitality. Indeed, one’s personal butler arrives each morning at the appointed hour with freshly baked cookies and brewed coffee.

Each of these ultra deluxe camps has other impressive constants—good-natured attention, unobtrusive service and deliciously fresh foods well presented with phenomenally good bread. Two of the mentioned places have vegetable gardens. All have fresh foods flown in daily. Because the bread at each facility was so extraordinarily good, I asked if it could be the local flour or some other ingredient. The CC Africa training chef, Cate Davis, felt there was an additional touch.

“Our chefs are well-trained bakers who are taught to ‘feel’ the dough for correct texture while kneading,” she explains. “This makes the biggest difference in the final product.”

Still, there’s a special flavor and texture that could come from the indigenous dark-brown sugar or slightly higher-gluten local flour. Assuredly, the chefs are dedicated, but I wondered if African ingredients could make the food taste different?

“The ingredients here in East Africa, as in any other part of the world, give the same recipe a unique flavor,” Chef Davis says. “Soil content, minerals, water supply and compost all lend parts to the whole. The composition of each country is slightly different thereby giving a soupcon of regional flavor to anything growing in the soil or waters.”

Colonial influences on cuisine came from the Italians, Indians, Germans and British. Their spices and techniques traveled with them and chefs incorporated the ingredients and techniques.

Chef George Musembi at Bateleur Camp definitely sets a high standard and speaks for all the chefs as the foods are similar at CC Africa properties. He attended cooking school in Nairobi after completing his “O” level of Ordinary School (four years).

“I studied cooking at Kenya Utalii College (Artisan College) for three years,” he says. “The program consisted of Hygiene, Equipment, Nutrition, Food Preparation and Presentation. I trained on the whole preparation: sauces, soups, salads, main courses and so forth, but I liked sauces the best, especially using vegetables. My mother cooked traditional foods like muthoko, a mixture of maize cooked with red kidney beans and squash, and irio—a mixture of other types of beans, potatoes and corn and squash leaves (blossoms). It is not manly for African men to cook, so I was not taught at home, but I watched my mother.”

Chef’s garden at Kichwa Tembo has spinach, cabbage, beans, carrots, radishes, potatoes, bananas, onions, lettuce, tomato, corn, taro, beetroot, parsley and herbs among his staples.

“Gardens contribute to the quality of our dining experience,” Chef Musembi says. “We rely on our own vegetables as much as possible—blanched quickly to retain color or raw for fresh salads.”

Our first luncheon at Bateleur Camp was served on the lawn beneath the ever-present acacia trees, overlooking the savanna where zebra and impala grazed leisurely. Service began with a delicious chilled red bell pepper cream soup--cold soups are favorites at all sites. Chef Musembi uses fresh coconut milk, which gives an assertive touch of richness. There was a selection of salads: mixed greens from the garden; chickpea, potato and celery in cream dressing, and a cold slaw salad. Also served was a platter of cheeses, crackers and cold sausages. Chef prepared the main course of chicken or beef in a wok tossed with fresh vegetables selected by the guest. Dessert was a refreshing mango ice cream with cookies.

Dinners feature soups as well—cold soups for luncheon and hot soups for dinner, weather appropriate. One dinner included warm asparagus soup; a salad of mixed garden greens, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers; tilapia (a type of bream) wrapped in banana leaves with caramelized onions, and a chocolate dessert with berries.

Another time I enjoyed the excellent fresh-off-the-cob corn soup. The soup and bread were good enough to make a meal in themselves, but I couldn’t resist the fresh garden lettuces; roasted julienne of fresh vegetables; chicken curry with cous cous and a dessert of orange slices in cinnamon, cloves and sugar.

Fresh fruits are used in various ways for desserts.

“Mama roasted bananas on a grill and we took them with tea,” Chef Musembi says. “My tribe is Kamba and it was a very good dessert for us—even today. So here at Bateleur I had to improve on it and now I add caramelized sugar and toasted macadamia and cashew nuts, and add some cream and it is well received.”

Fish was an important food in Chef Musembi’s home. As he told me, certain qualities are associated with certain foods.

“We ate a lot of fish as children to brighten our minds,” he said. “Our grandfather was a hunter and he searched for deer as it was thought to give us strong bones. We never ate squirrel, however, because it is believed to weaken the mind.”

Chef Musembi is conscientious about every aspect of food preparation and the cleanliness of the kitchen, monitoring each detail closely.

“I check everything very carefully,” he explains. “I’m concerned about hygiene and the good health of our guests, so much so that I wash the vegetables in bottled water. The last thing I want is for someone to become ill. I like to wear my chef’s uniform and toque because I feel more professional—like a doctor wears his uniform. I am a food doctor,” Chef Musembi smiles.”

Breakfasts vary from place to place and offer a range of fresh fruits like pineapple, papaya, bananas, oranges, passion fruit, guava, dried fruits, and coconuts and nuts.

At Bateleur there were sugar-glazed, swirled sweet rolls and African beigniers called mandazi (small balls dusted with powdered sugar). African pancakes (more like crepes) are made from whole wheat flour and, additionally, granola clusters with cashews, coconut and macadamia nuts; fresh fruits like papaya, honeydew, pineapple; Maasai honey—thick and unrefined; eggs prepared variously and served with bacon or sausage.

Sundowners are a popular evening activity after the game drive and before dinner. Sundowners offer guests yet other examples of foods in still another exotic setting. They take place in the bush at a remote vantage point vast in its vista and amid the calm beauty of a setting sun. Evenings can be quite cool; consequently, logs are placed in a safe pit to crackle fire sparks into the evening sky and warm the air. The culinary staff prepares an array of hors d’oeuvres, like grilled meat-and-vegetable kabobs, samoosa (paper-thin triangle pastry stuffed with vegetables) and toasted spicy cashews. In anticipation of the delicious dinner ahead, it is necessary to exercise great control with these Sundowner snacks.

One bush dinner was near the river with animal sounds faint and near. There’s nothing quite like the distant roar of a lion while tasting tomato soup, or the electric shimmer of green eyes from a tree while biting into balsamic green bean and pasta salad. The grilled impala was domestic and skewered like the other domestics--chicken and lamb. Chocolate mouse terrine was a lovely finish.

All sorts of varieties of alcohol are available and the wines are from South Africa. Nonetheless, many prefer water and the local juice of the tamarind tree and other refreshing beverages since malaria pills are advised and prescribe no alcohol while taking them. The preference of the Maasai tribe is a drink mixture called osargae made with cow blood and milk or with honey beer made from the fruit of the sausage tree. The fruit ferments in water and sugar. It is covered and placed close to but not on a fire and after four nights it is ready. This specialty is not offered to guests.

Unlike Chef Musembi, Grumeti Camp Chef Masalu Kuzenza is self-taught and trained by the CC Africa director at the camp.

“My mother was not a good cook,” he smiles. “Additionally, African men don’t cook—it is not manly—so I never learned. I began as a dishwasher and then started to cook. When I first chopped onions, I didn’t know they made you cry, so I was surprised and embarrassed when that happened to me. I persevered, however, and had to learn all the stations at once. Sometimes it was confusing and overwhelming, but I could always ask the chef for help and an explanation. Now I prefer preparing meats and vegetables, mainly because I like to eat them.”

“My tribe is Sukuma and at home, we ate ugali—a kind of porridge made like grits, and with fish or cow or goat and sweet potatoes.”

Chef Masalu has been at Grumeti for ten years. At first the requests for Moroccan dishes or specialties from Italians who wanted lasagna or pizza were difficult for him, but now he cooks everything equally well. Help has come from watching food preparation on BBC and other television cooking shows. Since the staff lives on the property, television is a form of relaxation.

Water, of course, is a necessary precious commodity everywhere. Klein’s Camp Director Faustine Kobero explained his system: “We have a borehole 70 metres deep next to Grumeti River, two km from the lodge, with two water tanks--one near the borehole and another at the lodge. They both have a capacity of 100,000 litres. Two pumps help the water, one at the borehole pumps water to the camp or into the bottom tank. Chlorine can be put at either of these tanks.”

Morning coffee on the front porch of a Klein’s pristine white, rounded, individual stucco dwelling is enhanced by watching the glories of the Serengeti unfold. A myriad collection of colorful birds flited in and out of the surrounding shrubs with their tilted heads and eyes watching my freshly baked cookies hopefully.

Often early morning game drives include baskets packed and taken along to enjoy breakfast in the bush. For such wilderness dining, a colorful cloth covers the front of the Land Rover and a table extends from the bumper to hold tins filled with hard-boiled eggs, banana chips, fresh watermelon and pineapple, muffins, and so froth. The ranger and driver cook on a the portable stove to toast the irresistible bread, fry bacon and cook other things while the coffee brews.

Meanwhile, back at Klein’s Camp, Chef Elias Ketuta and Faustine’s wife May busily cook lunch. May is a professional chef, but she manages and oversees the entire property with her husband, so can’t devote herself to the kitchen exclusively. Still, cooking is her favorite activity. She checks the dishes by tasting them. A favorite is to marinate meats in a variety of garden herbs; such as, parsley, marjoram, coriander, basil, mint, fennel, and dill, and than add something different for a final touch. The baking oven construction is based on an Italian pizza oven, where the heat is trapped and absorbed by the round ceiling, and the smoke permeates the food and then is allowed to escape. The high heat generated sears the food on the outside, and allows the inside to cook with its own juices. The chef determines the temperature by his experience with different woods used in the cooking. All foods depend on what is available fresh for the season.

Their fresh cream of sweet corn soup was served with poppy seed bread, and followed by tandoori chicken and onion in yogurt and Biryani sauce. The sauce combines garlic and onions sautéed in olive oil and mixed with beef broth and cooked meat that has been ground and strained. The chicken dish is served with mango chutney and mango pickles, eggplant and green pepper skewers, coconut and raisin Basmati rice, and a dessert of pineapple ring in rum sauce.

“Every guest wants the recipes for our soups; carrot and orange, pumpkin and coconut, sweet potato, leek and potato,” Chef Ketuta says. “They rave about our cakes and breads, too. I make them all--loaves, rolls, pizza dough, flat bread—in our outdoor beehive-shaped pizza oven. I have to judge the temperature because there are no gauges. Sometimes I’ll put herbs or seeds in the breads and rolls—marjoram or parsley or poppy seeds,” he adds. “For our Zanzibar Chicken I roast the pieces; add sautéed onions and garlic and top with a sauce made with cloves, turmeric, cardamom, cumin, ginger, clove and cinnamon in a sauce. Most of our dishes are straight-forward preparations to suit the broad tastes of guests from around the world. Our pan-African cuisine is defined as a collection of herbs and spices from Africa; yet the food should taste familiar—not too exotic. The diet should suit the activities and climate. Chilled soups and other cold dishes: calzone, local fish like tilapia that is dipped in egg, crusted with toasted bread crumbs and fried in olive oil to make fish sticks for luncheon.”

Maasai tribesmen from Arusha sell cattle raised for the market and keep their special cows for their families—a sign of their wealth. Tanzania also has a small production of cheeses under the Serengeti label—mozzarella and gouder.

Co-director with her husband Francis, Nagira Majambele oversees the kitchen at the delightful and fanciful Lake Mayara Tree House Lodge (LMHL).

“Our oil is olive oil—used sparsely,” she says. “Meats and vegetables are grilled and we buy our produce, supplied by local small growers, from a nearby town. Products are not mass-produced. Our food is fresh daily and it’s wholesome, not spicy hot but flavored from adding rosemary, sage, basil, parsley, coriander and such. We’re very flexible about our meals. Guests may be served in their rooms or in the dining area at times of their choice. Items that they request are provided when they’re available. Our specialty for breakfast is French toast—stuffed variously with apples or berries and made with cinnamon, vanilla brandy ice cream.”

Metal drums have been made for Lake Manyara Tree House Lodge into tandoori ovens. They are layered with a ceramic interior that acts like pizza oven material to absorb and radiate intense heat back onto the food. The food is marinated to tenderize it before hanging it in the heat of the tandoori oven.

There’s a nice selection of local fruits. The papaya is a large variety and served ripened to perfection, highlighted by a slice of lime. Watermelons are comparably small and not quite as flavorful as the larger ones tasted in other parts of the world. Grapefruit are small too, more the size of an orange, and they have a lime-green peel. Oranges from Kenya have mottled green and yellow peel and are tart and full of seeds. The oranges I ate in Tanzania were orange colored with fewer seeds but lacked juiciness and full flavor. When passion fruit is served for breakfast, the pulp is scooped from the fruit and served soup-like with the many seeds.

Lake Manyara Lodge guest quarters include soapstone jars filled with several snacks: fresh coconut flakes with cranberries, dried peaches, unsalted almonds and a variety of small peanut (not much flavor) along with a cold box covered with khaki canvas that held cold drinks and water.

Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest intact caldera (collapsed volcano cone). The Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, built on the rim of the physical wonder, is furnished resplendently. The dining room has ornately carved ceilings embellished with white and gold medallions. The Italianate tables have high-backed chairs upholstered in champagne-colored brocade. Indian raw-silk draperies flow amply in billowy extravagance along the parquet or terracotta floors, and iridescent prisms of amethyst-colored beads adorn the chandeliers. A most unexpected setting for dining in the bush and the culinary efforts equal the scene.

Chef Esther Mashina has 23 chefs who work in shifts. The bakers begin around 4:00am so the breads are freshly warm for breakfast.

“We’re doing a lot of African traditional foods and using things like pumpkin and sweet potato in our breads,” Chef Mashina says. “We use meats without many spices to preserve the integrity of the product.”

Fruits, vegetables and herbs are purchased at a nearby farm owned by a German family. Chicken and duck come from another farm run by Catholic nuns—the Daughters of Mary. Another farm provides other things: bananas, custard-apple, rice, guava, passion fruit and special items. The cheeses and beef come from Nairobi.

An array of beverages was available at all the safari properties. Wines from South Africa’s Stellebosch region with labels especially designed for CC Africa were offered at luncheon and dinner, usually a Cabernet-Merlot blend or a Chardonnay. Often guests were thirsty for water after several hours on game drives and bottled water was always plentiful.

Also plentiful are Africa’s ebullient wildlife, shimmering shades and tones, the sounds of quietude and sights completely unimpeded by ongoing modern intrusions. The infinite stretches of the Serengeti and variety of animal mutterings--including silence, are complemented by the food and tastes of this very special place.

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