‘Chattering’ about food at Cresta Lodge

Wining & Dining
I was very impressed with Cresta Sprayview (long ago Peter’s Motel) at Victoria Falls, even more so with Cresta Mowani, an hour away at Kasane in Botswana.

I was very impressed with Cresta Sprayview (long ago Peter’s Motel) at Victoria Falls, even more so with Cresta Mowani, an hour away at Kasane in Botswana, where travellers will see many of that country’s estimated 50 000 elephant on a half-day’s game-spotting cruise or drive.

Eating Out with Dusty Miller

After yet another Zesa-less night (they pulled the plug at 8:20pm, still off after 12 noon next day!) I needed an early hot breakfast somewhere fairly close to my Eastlea home.

If the right-hand turning at the robots near Rhodesville Police Station was clear I’d go that way and eat at Mukuvisi Woodlands Coffee Shop, of which I’m very fond, surrounded by prolific birdlife and game; if the left hand slip road was empty it would be foot down to Lewisam/Chisipite to break my fast in the pleasant gardens at “167” (Enterprise Road: also known as Theo’s House of Coffees or The Stables.)

But the lights actually worked!

The intersection wasn’t jammed solid with selfish, sometimes suicidal, combi drivers. I had a clear run to Cresta Lodge, that sprawling green oasis on the edge of the gritty, dusty Msasa Industrial Site, where factories are closing by the day as our liquidity crunch bites deeper!

It was heigh-ho to the rather tweely-named Chatters Restaurant at Cresta Lodge, for a breakfast I was ready for, having only had a light, cold supper thanks to Mr Zesa (again!)

Cresta Lodge has virtually had a re-birth since Glenn Stutchbury was appointed chief executive officer of Cresta Hospitality a couple of years ago. It always struck me as odd that Cresta Lodge, Gaborone, Botswana, was a destination of choice for people who live in that city where things actually work well; whereas the branch in Ha-ha-ha-rare (Africa’s fun capital), where — these days — almost nothing ever works, including 90% of the workforce! was until recently very much an afterthought in eating out.

Well those days have gone. I hear excellent things about a new businessmen’s lunch (two-courses for just US$10.)  I’ll be taking the luncheon club there soon. They’ll also like the “buckets” of local beer at US$10 for five bottles or cans. Now that’s what I call marketing!

I was joined for breakfast by the hotel’s amiable roly-poly general manager Crispen Chimuvuri, who I’m always tempted to call Chipembere, except he’d be a very placid, smiling, rhinoceros.

Cresta Churchill I first met him when he was gm at Cresta Churchill, Bulawayo, in 2007, relatively cheerfully facing many complicated additional duties as virtually clerk-of-works of a multi-million dollar refurbishment and extension there.

He’s just gone through a similar experience at Cresta Lodge, where the group spent US$6m “sprucing up” the place and building a conference centre which is already in heavy demand.

Crispen (46) won his hospitality spurs at Harare Polytechnic qualifying with City & Guilds diplomas and did a year-long attachment cooking at the Radisson Hotel in Central London. He’s first and foremost a chef (and looks it!) and a full member of the Zimbabwe Chefs’ Association, but for many years has focused on hotel management. By an odd coincidence his daughter, Cynthia, was beginning her studies at Bulawayo Hotel School just as we chose cereal from the buffet. Big tick that they had Weetbix available, many, usually more expensive, hotels don’t. (Why not?)

After fresh fruit, fruit juice and yoghurt, Chef Alex Danda (also a product of the Bulawayo Hotel School) cooked me a very fine fluffy two-egg Spanish omelette with which I speared a few sautéed potatoes, grilled tomato and soupçon of baked beans. Crispen ate mainly bacon and sausage.

He drank rooibos tea; I had good, strong coffee. We were served by very efficient waitrons, Philomena and Sampson.

On my previous visit I had lunch overlooking the swimming pool with the group CEO and tried Glenn Stutchbury’s choice: a deceptively simply named chicken bowl: wok-fried strips of corn-fed chicken breasts, simmered in a coconut and Cajun cream sauce, served with al dente garlic sautéed egg noodles, a chiffonade (finely cut or shredded) of root vegetables and fresh coriander pesto. The combinations of colours, textures and flavour were stupendous … and cost? … just US$8.

My own choice, which Glenn — a top chef before entering hotel management — also tried with justified oohs and aahs, was pan-seared crispy-skinned Kariba bream fillets on a cushion of fennel-scented potato mash, topped with tossed runner beans and a fennel-citrus soubise (Béchamel-type sauce.)

And that was US$12 worth of heaven! It would have been very easy to overdo the two fennel components, ending with something tasting heavily of liquorice/aniseed/ouzo, but group executive chef, Brian Ndlovu, was the light-handed soul of culinary discretion!

Other items include oven-baked gingered sticky pork BBQ spare ribs with hand-battered onion rings, hand-cut potato fries and a side salad of fresh market greens (also US$12) and a scrumptious-sounding sharing snack platter at US$15.

Turmeric-accented Salads (US$5!) include assorted leaves, vine-ripened tomatoes and cucumbers topped with, among other things: smoked chicken breast and apricots, drizzled with a turmeric-accented mayonnaise; grilled feta cheese and Calamata olives  with sweet ravigote (lightly-acidic French sauce served cold or warm) and red wine-poached pears, grilled bacon lardons and roasted local “ndzungu” nuts, topped with a creamy dressing.

Sandwiches, plain or toasted in a variety of white, brown of whole-seed breads, are also a fiver and feature lemon chicken and mayo, bacon, egg and tomato, rare roast beef with mustard, tuna and green pepper, cheese and tomato and cucumber with natural yoghurt.

Steak roll: pan-grilled beef fillet mignons in sesame-seeded roll topped with French-fried onion rings, served with a centre salad of fresh market greens and hand cut chips is US$8; a duo of oven-fresh steak and vegetable pies with centre salad of mixed lettuce leaves, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers with chips are US$6 and Continental Bar open burger: char-grilled hand-pound patty, topped with grilled bacon rasher, a slice of buffalo mozzarella  with tomato and onion-pineapple salsa, served with wide-cut potato fries and a side salad is US$8.

Puddings include marbled cheese cake topped with caramelised popcorn and “dolloped” (with a sherry-infused plum coulis or chocolate mousse cake with mixed nut brittle (both US$4) or the colourful fresh fruit skewers served with a ginger syrup I plumped for (US$3.)

Many of these last mentioned dished were created by the Cresta executive chef, Ndlovu, when he was based at Cresta Lodge.  He’s working his way around the group’s properties getting cooking teams up to snuff and was at Cresta Oasis in Harare at the time I was having breakfast at his former “possie”.

Much awarded and rewarded Ndlovu was head-hunted from Victoria Falls Safari Lodge where, under his regime, the outlet’s eateries won The Standard’s Restaurant of the Year two consecutive years.

Glenn Stutchbury was raised in the bush and has a wide knowledge of Zimbabwe’s flora and fauna. He organised the publication and printing of a well-illustrated glossy check list of birds frequently seen in the verdant rolling vlei surrounding the hotel and in its manicured gardens, but as the place lies almost equidistant between Mukuvisi Woodlands and the massive Cleveland Dam, I got the impression the compilers had probably missed many species!

Back to breakfast: I was pleasantly replete and had to get to work, so declined toast and preserves or savoury spreads, cold meats, cheese and pastries and a third cup of coffee, but the meal I did enjoy was substantial and priced at US$15, whereas many  non-Cresta hotels in Harare charge US$25-US$27 for a  similar spread. Caveat emptor!

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