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RESTAURANT REVIEW
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“It's Divine, But Don't Mind the Flies!” |
This is a wonderful food and local interaction experience I will never forget. As I've mentioned, Mozambique cuisine is known for the portuguese influences and abundance of fresh seafood from the Indian Ocean. On a daily basis, the fisherman bring in the fresh catch to the local fish market, open to the public from 5 to 6 PM. You can go there, pick out your seafood from one of the vendors, then take the food to an attached restaurant for cleaning and preparation.
We were told that we should work with a local to ensure we get the best selection and best prices. Charlotte scouted the scene earlier in the day and met "Fred" who would become our guy for the evening. Fred met us outside and explained how things worked. We were to go through the market, eyeball what we liked, then report back to him to do the rest.
The market is a series of rambling wooden stands and tables covered with fresh seafood...not much on ice mind you. I just kept reminding myself how fresh it was. The vendors are mostly women or "mamas" who handle the seafood and ask you to busy from them for the best price (said in portuguese). There were a couple of stands that stood out with the best selections, and I had my eye on king prawns and another shellfish that looked like lobster but is called cray fish. This is not for the faint at heart or weak in the stomach. There are flies all around, and the mamas just shew them away as they hold out the food for inspection.
We worked our way to the eating are and met Fred at Avu Blue. There are about 8 small restaurants that are all adjoining one another and open to a center square outdoor eating area. Being low season, there were just a few other people there. We gave Fred our orders and he went to work.
First, he brought us back samples of what we asked for on a big tray. He wanted to make sure he understood our order. We decided to do a family style selection of prawns, crayfish, and stone fish (local delicious fish).
He went back to his kitchen and got to work on the seafood for our dinner. When he had everything cleaned and on the hot coals, he invited us 2 by 2 to come check out the food in progress. The kitchen was bare, dark, dirt floors, and consisted of 6 small grills. Our food was cooking away on the grills, and he grinned as he told us that he was getting ready to start basting with the butter and garlic. It smelled divine in the kitchen. I was quickly able to get over the thought of the "conditions" of the kitchen and look forward to the meal.
The food came out on a big platter. Our eyes all bulged out our heads, and silence came over us as we dug in. Each bite was better than the last. The flavors of the piri-piri, herbs, and garlic mixed with the wood charcoal were out of this world. We had plenty of bread to soak up the garlic and butter drippings.
For drinks, we all had the local 2M (dos M) beer. Very nice too. By the end of the evening, I believe we had each spent under $10 for this amazing feast.
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