Dinner, The Lawns, Kololo, Kampala

This week was already a bloody expensive one with three evenings out already. Friday night and it was time for something special, one of the premier restaurants in Kampala. The place had been ‘bigged’ up by several former hostel-ites in the past and so I had high expectations for this meal. For me the most important aspect about The Lawns was that it served a reasonable section of game meat, which I adore.

The Lawns is a large establishment in upmarket Kololo just down the road from Nanjing. There is a large restaurant area and a small bar area slightly away from it. All of this is set in fairly extensive lawns. Never would have expected that. Tonight the lawns of The Lawns were occupied by some sort of function that had the usual people getting up and talking for ages. Like at Nanjing I was most of my meal before my fellow diners turned up.

The menu is a meat lover’s paradise, hardly anything for the veggies. All sorts of steaks, chicken, mixed grills, the lot. Since I was hankering for some game meat I went for the Game Meat Platter. We ordered another one of those and Crocodile in Garlic Wine Sauce after quickly establishing that ostrich was off the menu. I also decided to properly splash out and have a glass of red wine with my meal. Sadly my first choice was also off the menu.

My food came much better presented than this

A reasonable amount of time later and our food arrived. We were then informed that there was no Impala available either (It would have been easier to ask what they did have), so a total of 10 oz. of meat came in 4 small steaks of Crocodile, Springbok, Blesbok and Kudu. Nothing new for me, but a long time since I’d had some. The platter was accompanied by a wave of potato wedges, some side salad and two sauce boats, one with a peppercorn sauce and one with a tamarind sauce. The Croc dish came with rice and salad.

Blesbok

The wedges were OK, slightly undercooked, but very good when dipped in the superb tamarind sauce. Salad, meh. On to the meat. I went with the crocodile first as I’ve never been a massive fan of croc, comparing it to fatty, fishy chicken. Plus the last time I had it in Cambodia it was truly awful and gristly. I am pleased to write that this was far, far better and pretty damn good and tasty. I still find the texture a bit funny at times, but I was pleasantly surprised. Croc dispatched it was time to try a bit of the three remaining meats.

Kudu

Kudu are massive antelope, they can weigh up to 300 kg. Their meat is very similar to venison as you’d expect. The steak I had was good and not overcooked, thoroughly enjoyed it, especially with the very moreish tamarind sauce. Blesbok are smaller, males are generally about 70 kg. Again the meat is like venison, but my steak may have been a bit overdone as it was quite tough and bland, tamarind sauce to the rescue. Finally it was on to the smallest antelope on my plate, Springbok. Max weight of males only 44 kg. This was cooked better and probably my favourite, again like venison, but a bit more delicate and subtle. In order of preference I’d go Springbok, Kudu, Crocodile, Blesbok. It was nice to wash this meat feast down with a robust red, my first glass of red wine since I moved to Uganda.

Springbok

Not finished two of us decided to splurge on a dessert and had the same, Chocolate Brownie with Vanilla Ice Cream. It was average, but then I’m not much of sweet fan. All in for a couple beers, game meat, dessert and a glass of wine I spent close to 100,000 UGX (£25) although the majority of it was the imported game meat at 60,000 UGX (£15). I may go back to either try one of their own burgers or if I’m lucky and they have them in, the Ostrich burger. 3 out of 5, was expecting better.

Iguanas

Since this was a farewell evening we headed off to Mish Mash for a few drinks before meeting up with some other people at Iguanas. When I couldn’t manage any more bloaty beer it was on to Redd’s, an alcopop concoction and there might have been some shots of Zappa. Pretty messy. It was very late / quite early when we left Iguanas to the remaining completely wasted hardcore and vulture-like prostitutes who hadn’t managed to tap up any business yet. I hopped on a boda for the very short trip back to my flat whilst severely inebriated.

Thankfully I still had my bike helmet with me, as just by the entrance to my compound there was a small speed crash that seemed fairly innocuous in my alcohol induced haze. I woke up in the afternoon in a whole world of hurt. A horrendous hangover was accompanied by my messed up left wrist which had now swollen to twice its usual size and was hurting like hell. It took a good few weeks for it to get back to normal.