Butternut and Bobotie

Terry update: 8.2 today and getting MUCH springier. If that little hopper bounces any higher, I'll be peeling those toes off my nose!

We had our second African Night at Mulberrys, another delight of unusual foods. For starters, we enjoyed a carrot and pineapple jelly, and butternut and sweet potato soup.

Now, I've had butternut soup before, just once, and I vividly remember although the cook was supposed to be the box deluxe - I will have to be honest and say that it was like lumpy warm sick in not just texture, but in colour and flavour too. Garth's butternut though - that's the reason I try things twice. Oh what a rapture of sunshine yellow! I went back this evening to buy some cold - we've enjoyed it for tea with some fresh bread.

Bobotie is another delicious dish served to us, although many choices were on the menu, we found the name captivating and far less embarrassing sounding than "Chakalaka". That made me cringe, the Eddie Muphy-esque sound, although I know it to be a vegetable stirfry. Anyway. Bobotie is a spiced meat dish - fruity with curry essences, a layer of egg on the top and served with spiced rice.

Pudding was an interesting infusion for both of us, His Lordship taking on ginger icecream with pumpkin pie and mine a "Peppermint Crisp". He says "I've never had an icecream so hot!" and I will agree with him, a bold, clean flavour. The peppermint crisp was surprisingly delicate in flavour, pleasingly so, although I still can't quite define the textures. I had been expecting something akin to a cheesecake, but this was entirely different. It wasn't quite a cream and not as stiff as, say, Angel Delight, but it had yummy crunchy biscuits in and sponge chunks. Not sure about the sponge (but I am not a sponge lover) but the cream and biscuit combination was a sure thing for me!