Even if I hadn't lived off veggie dogs all week, I would still have been looking forward to tonight all week. Our good friends Jason & Anna invited Dan & I, along with another food lovin' couple, over to their place for African food. Little specifics were given up front, other than we should just bring wine - Jason would be providing all the food.
It turns out Anna bought Jason an African cookbook, and it inspired him to try out a bunch of recipes. And who better to try out new recipes on than friends who love to talk about food, and are generally willing to try anything?
Jason organizes a now annual 'Wild Game Night', which is where I met the other couple (Gerald and Jacqui) two years ago. If my memory serves me, they brought a variety of delicious game meat tacos. And Gerald and Jason were the brave souls who ate live crickets with me, while I was battering and frying them to use as croutons.
Nothing on tonight's menu was quite so out there, though it was all delicious. We started off with Piri Piri Shrimp (which I forgot to photograph). They were HUGE prawns, marinated in a delicious sauce, cooked to perfection, and served in endive boats alongside more sauce. These were the appetizers, but could've been a meal in themselves.
After much conversation about real Italian guidos, wedding planning, and pork butt, we retired to the living room for the main course... or should I say courses? Jason created a wet chicken stew, featuring 2 hard boiled eggs, mango cous cous, and a delicious side dish of okra, red onion, and tomatoes. Everything was seasoned with all sorts of great spices, and served (as it should be) on a big piece of injera bread.
Besides great food, the conversation was wonderful. It was the kind of night where people who don't really know each other much at the beginning of the night, and are talking about more dinner parties and hugging by the end of the night. A fair amount of wine helped in that regard, but the connection was undoubtedly there.
And lest I not forget, we finished the night off with a tapioca, raspberry and mango dessert - though Otis chose to go with some cookie dough ice cream, instead.
1 comment:
We had a great time with you guys! And yes, we'll absolutely stay true to our promise of Pork :-)
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