Yep I’ve got itchy feet again and 66 days from today will see me land at Heathrow on Ethiopian Airways via Lusaka and Bole, Addis Ababa, on the third day of the Olympics. (Probably to queue for four hours plus at Immigration….sorry “Border Control”)
Sod the Olympics: Main attraction is my magical six-year-old grand-daughter, Siena-Rose, being on school hols from July 23-September 5; an ideal opportunity to spend quality time with her and her 18-month-old brother, Aaron-David. To say nothing of more than a month’s sanity break from constant Zesa outages/outrages, traffic jams from hell and what appears to be the world’s worst, most inconsiderate, driving.*
Wings are nice people and the bottom line for this trip was pleasingly about US$75 cheaper than Laura Evans’ e-mailed quote, meaning I can spend about 50 quid more spoiling the wee’uns!
Gaby’s operates from a courtyard in an old looking building I suspect is quite modern but designed to resemble a local early farmstead.
Eating is indoors or out, but I’ve always sat on the stoep “people watching”; not that there are ever lots of folk to watch at Travel Plaza.
I’ve had great meals at Gaby’s over the years. (It used to be run by the Italian-Ethiopian family which now has Da Eros). I’ve also been served real junk. After my previous visit I rollicked them, both verbally and in a column, from here to Pancake Tuesday about an abysmal minestrone soup.
Bumping into staff at the Restaurant of the Year Awards, they thanked me profusely for showing them where they were going wrong. I felt humbled. (Honestly!)
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I keep half planning to try their breakfasts, which sound superb, comprising two eggs and two rashers of bacon, pork or beef sausage, baked beans, tomatoes, toast and marmalade at US$9; for a buck less, one breakfast stars ox-liver and chips, another steak-egg-and-chips.
I still shudder at the thought of that appalling minestrone (now US$4), so ordered a very fine, pale-hued home-made cream of mushroom, served nice and hot and filled with fragrance and fungi. Topped with toasted golden croutons, it also came with a still warm bap/hamburger bun sprinkled with sesame seeds at US$5.
Other starters include deep-fried mushrooms with bacon and garlic butter sauce, chicken livers or honey chicken, also US$5 and deep-fried haloumi cheese at US$4.I usually have pasta at Gaby’s, possibly because it’s always retained at least a hint of its Italian trattoria past; they are US$8-US$9. I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed their salads; if we have space, you may see a stock picture of a grand Greek specimen eaten some time ago.
But on this occasion I came clean, admitting a slavish addiction to good well-cooked savoury pies which on their own (chicken or beef on the menu) cost US$3 and hit US$4 with chips and salads. My pie filling was actually chicken and mushroom, which wasn’t listed. I subsequently learned the in-house baked goodies are hugely popular. What was supposed to be chicken gravy in a small bowl was remarkably similar to sweet chili sauce!
Chips didn’t look especially great (probably re-heated) but tasted OK. Well certainly four-bucks ok, with quite a nice pie and excellent side salad.
Zimbabwe is beef country (where did I hear something like that before?) and fillet steak with mushroom, garlic or pepper sauce, chips etc, costs US$15. T-bone, rump or beef curry are US$13; the same cost as “tibes”, apparently their trademark dish comprising cubes of steak, fried with fresh tomatoes, green peppers, onion and garlic.
Chicken meals, including tandoori and a Chinese-style dish are US$6 to US$13; pork (chops or ribs) US$10 to US$14; fish US$10-US$13 and vegetarian specialities US$7.Listed puddings are US$3 to US$5. I’m not sure how much the rather lovely “pannycake”! was (pancake drizzled in honey, sprinkled with hundreds and thousands and filled with ice-cream), as when I just checked my bill for expenses purposes, it’s not on.
Bottom line: soup and a roll, pie, chips and salads, sweet and two Castle lagers (one day they’ll order Golden Pilsener!) US$13; presumably US$17 or US$18 with a sweet?Nice music plays on the stoep. I once thought it came from Crocodile Rock, opposite, but that’s now empty, shut and forlorn: Presumably a victim of downloading CDs and DVDs off the web, or cheap pirated discs being flogged on almost every street corner and mall in the country?
Waitress, Tariro Kagoro, was named Service Personality of 2011 by my colleagues Le/La/Les Connoisseur(s) and she certainly is amiable, pleasant and proficient. Even if it was she who served the despicable minestrone, the recipe for which has — hopefully — been chucked firmly in the slop buckets of history.
Gaby’s Restaurant, Travel Plaza, Harare. Tel 700094. Opens Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday 7:30am-6pm; Thursday and Friday 7:30am-10pm. Children and fairly handicapped friendly. Smoking/no smoking. Takeaway service. Pleasant music. Flies can be annoying and the state of the communal toilet in the courtyard is often a cause for concern.
Dusty Miller rating: 3-Stars, May 2012.*Written four hours before a young man who claimed his brakes had failed ploughed through a red robot at 4th/Samora Machel, almost killed me and totalled my car!
Connecting Canada with Zim!From July 16, Ethiopian Airways will operate a twice-weekly flight from Addis to Toronto, meaning Zimbabweans and Zambians can visit Canada, changing planes at Bole, without first flying to Europe or the US.
