top chef challenge in etosha

After a long day of driving and viewing the animals we pulled into our accommodations at Halial Rest Camp in Etosha National Park.  Although it was a long dusty day of driving we saw many game animals (see my related post) on the drive so it was well worth it.

We had made the decision in the morning to have a Braai for supper tonight, so we bought steaks and pasta and some supplies for making sauce at the Pic-N-Pay in Oshikati.  Based on the descriptions of our Bush Chalets we knew that we had an outdoor grilling area (the Braai) along with cooking supplies and utensils in the room.  The Bush Chalets are just fantastic, ours was two bedroom, with a living area and separate toilet and shower areas.   All of which looked quite new.  The only problem was that the cooking supplies were missing!  We all had some plates and bowls and silverware, but no pots or pans suitable for cooking.

COOL!!  This is like a Quick Fire challenge on Top Chef.  We got some firewood and kindling from the gift shop and talked Joey out of his lighter for five minutes to get the fire going.  We slit open the steaks and added some namibian barbecue dry rub to them along with a little salt and pepper, let them site for a while and the steaks are taken care of.

But how do you cook pasta and pasta sauce with no pots and pans.  Well, we all had hot pots in our room for boiling water to make coffee or tea.  If you can boil water you can cook noodles.  To make the sauce we just opened the cans (thank God for swiss army knives) and set them next to the fire.  Add a helping of noodles to the bowl, spoon out some tomatoes and some pureed tomatoes and a few mushrooms from their respective cans and viola you have a nice sauce for your noodles.

Add in some raw veggies, and some grilled red and yellow peppers and you have a regular feast.  Of course a couple of glasses of wine at happy hour probably helped make it all taste better than it was but it will definitely go down as one of the more memorable meals of the trip.  After supper we continued to sit around the fire and talk and share great memories with each other.  It was a great night, thanks friends.