Sundowner

A Most Wonderful Meal

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DonQui decides to try out the highly recommended Tea House Restaurant on the rooftop of the Emerson Spice hotel for dinner.

Emerson Spice

Being tucked down the back streets of Stone Town the Emerson Spice is a bit tricky to find.  Although he has a fairly good nose for direction DonQui eventually has to admit defeat and ask for directions — something he absolutely hates doing.

donqui spice

Up several flights of wooden stairs of the beautifully restored merchant’s house  and DonQui finds himself on the rooftop terrace. Dinner, a five course seafood tasting menu, starts at 7 and he was advised to arrive an hour earlier to watch the sunset over the town,

sunset

He is glad he did.

The restaurant is quite small, taking a maximum of 30 diners so booking is essential. They take a deposit on booking. Tonight there are about a dozen people dining and quite a few others come up for a drink to watch the sunset.

pinot noir

DonQui selects a South African pinot noir to drink. It is a light red, served chilled like the Alsacian pinot noir wines it reminds him of. He was quite glad of his choice as it went perfectly well with the citrus flavours of many of the dishes.

The fist course consists of three small dishes:

first courseSembe cake with fish paté. The fish is shredded rather than compressed in a paté. It is served under a parsley salad and on top of a small sembe cake, which reminds DobQui of a soft biscuit. The flavours are delicate, and deliciously enhanced with a light citrus dressing.

Chaza tomato. A luscious deep red ripe tomato stuffed with a mildly spiced mixture of rice and mince.

Passion fruit ceviche. A small thin fillet of white fish served on a shell with the most gorgeous, intense passion fruit. Marinade. The flavours all work beautifully together, leaving an exquisite lingering aftertaste in DonQui’s mouth from the spices in the tomato playing with the tartness of the ceviche.

tuna

Tuna timbale is the next course, served on a bed of parsley with garlic nyanya chungu (or African eggplant) and sautéed cherry tomatoes. The whole dish is infused with light citrus flavours and the tuna wrapped with fine slices of cucumber which gives a nice fresh counterpoint. Nyanya chungu is something new for DonQui. Seeming like a cross between a fruit and a vegetable, it is rather good.

lobster

Then comes lobster on a skewer, cooked with a hint of chilli and served with vanilla sauce on the side. It is accompanied by lightly roasted potatoes with fennel, and an aubergine salad. Now DonQui is not a great fan of fennel so he is pleased to find it a very subtle flavouring and actually rather good. He can say this for all the dishes. The spices and flavours blend together beautifully to create a balanced taste without any one ingredient overpowering. The lobster is succulent and the vanilla sauce an unusual addition which goes very well with it.

kingfish

King fish with ukwaju sauce, green beans and mbirimbi pickle is the next dish for DonQui to sample. He likes the meatiness of the fish and the ukwaju sauce (made from tamarind) is simply divine. Mbirimbi pickle from the cucumber tree (averhhoa bilimbi) is quite a taste sensation with an intense salty-sour-citrus taste which makes it a rather good accompaniment to the fish. DonQui’s only criticism of the entire meal is of the green beens. They were cold and crunchy and while DonQui hates overcooked vegetables the beans still had a green, raw taste that a couple more minutes of cooking could have improved.

desert

Desert was a trio of dishes like the first course:

Staffeli Saffron Givré which DonQui can only describe as similar to a sorbet but slightly different. The saffron flavouring was again very subtle and it was served in a lemon shell.

Mtoto wa Jang’ombe — a coconut/chocolate creation wrapped in a thin pancake; and

Peanut Kashata — a very fine peanut brittle

chef

Chef Suliman Sadallia (right of photo) describes himself as a ‘creative chef’ and DonQui thinks this is a very apt description. His dishes are all creations in which the flavours come together to become something new and delicious. He uses fresh, local ingredients and draws on Zanzibar’s multi-ethnic heritage to create food which is traditional and very modern at the same time.

As for the cost? Well it is not cheap, but $40 for five delightful and imaginative courses in a wonderful setting seems to DonQui to be very reasonable indeed.

A Nice Quiet Beach

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Feeling in need of a little R&R by the sea, DonQui makes his way to La Azohía, not too far from Cartagena on what is called the Costa Cálida or ‘Warm Coast’. By now it is late September and the air temperature is still hitting the high 20s – low 30s although the water seems a bit colder than it was in Tarragona a week or so earlier.

Azohia beach

DonQui was hoping for a quiet place to relax without horrid high-rises, garish attractions or too many humans.

Azohia3

He had found it. La Azohía is about as laid back as even a sleepy donkey could hope for. There is only one tiny shop, a few restaurants and a couple of beach bars.

Azohia5

With the season coming to an end, the coast is pretty free of humans and many of the restaurants and bars are closed. The best, however, are still open.

Azohia sunset

Although it is on the east coast, the south-west facing curve of the beach means that there are some fabulous sunsets to watch while sipping a drink and having a meal at the Restaurante Bodega Molina.

Azohia fish

Here DonQui enjoys some very nice freshly caught fish grilled with garlic, olive oil and chillies.

Azohia sunset

An even better sundowner is to be had at the Rockola Summer Club – a tiny beach bar.

Azohia bar

Here all drinks are €1.50 and they have a great play list of rock, blues and jazz.

Azohia7

All in all DonQui thinks La Azohía is a pretty good place to stay for a few days of blissful peace and quiet. There are no hotels here but if you fancy a stay there are plenty of holiday apartments to rent. DonQui found a very nice one right on the beach through Airbnb.

Drinks and Tapas

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One of the best things about Granada is that whenever DonQui goes for a drink in the evening he is offered free tapas. His favourite haunt is Torcuato at the top of Cale Pagés in Albayzín which seems to be primarily frequented by locals.

Torcuato

From 9pm onwards the atmosphere is buzzing and DonQui spends several happy evenings here whiling away the hours sipping wine, savouring the free tapas, and occasionally ordering a dish or two off the menu. It is the sort of casual place DonQui likes — good food and drink without any pretension or fuss. It would probably not appeal to those who want slick service or an orderly meal.

tapas

The tapas varied each evening – DonQui’s favourite was a plate of grilled squid on  crispy cabbage salad bed.

beer

Further down Cale Pagés there is a small square (Plaza Aliatar) where the bars start up a bit earlier. The tapas there is not as good but DonQui rather liked the ice cold beer served in a clay beaker at El Panero. So a beer there first and then up to Torcuato for wine and food.

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The Mirador San Nicolás is the place to go for a sundowner with unbeatable views of the Alhambra as the setting sun catches the walls.

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Many people simply gather on the wall of the square…

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…but DonQui prefers to have a drink at either El Balcón de San Nicolás or the El Huerto Juan Ranas next door. Neither of these places have free tapas but they have great views of the Alhambra and comfortable seats.

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In the square a number of artisans set up stalls to sell their wares to the tourists. It is all quite atmospheric.