#48: Syrah from South Africa

Since we were eating a dinner filled with recipes from my favorite African cookbook, The Soul of a New Cuisine by Marcus Samuelsson, I figured it would be a good time to try #48 on Food and Wine's 100 Tastes to try for 2007: Syrah from South Africa.

I could not find one of the five suggested wines, but I was able to find 2005 Porcupine Ridge Syrah from Cape of Good Hope South Africa.

We all really enjoyed this wine. It was nice and light, but it did leave a little bit of a deep taste lingering. Wine.com lists the winemaker notes for 2005 Porcupine Ridge Syrah as:

A rich warm ruby colour with generous viscosity combines with our typical spicy, aromatic profile. This wine is dominated by spicey tones yet supported by dark fruit flavours. The palate is generous and extends to a lengthy finish with the focus being on fruit profile as opposed to oaking detail. Drink now or enjoy over next 3 – 5 years.

I did enjoy it and I wish I ordered a few more bottles!

Where's Anthony Bourdain? In Namibia.

"You'll never get the truly good meals in life
if you don't open yourself out to the bad ones."
I suppose it's pretty pathetic that I have only heard of this country because it is where Angelina Jolie decided to give birth to her child. Thankfully though Anthony Bourdain has decided to explore Namibia on camera to show the wonderful country to us all.

This episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations begins on a boat in Walvis Bay with an oyster farmer. Back on land, they watched as the oysters were processed in the hatchery and Tony commented that they are some of the best oysters he has tried in the entire world. Tony then "rode the dunes" in the exact opposite type of environment - the desert. A snowboard on sand. Wow. It looks hot but thrilling. Tony did a pretty good job and made it all the way down without eating sand.

But the best part was when Tony had breakfast with the bushmen. They made him an ostrich-egg omelette in this neat pit in the ground. The egg is poured right onto the hot sand. Wood is placed to surround the outside and then additional wood is placed on top. The end result is a whole bunch of ash and dirt baked onto of the hardened egg. It looked horrible but it was seen as a special dish to the bushmen because it is not often that they get their hands on some ostrich eggs. I don't see it becoming popular over here in the United States any time soon.

Of course Tony had some of the nasty bits as well. He tried different parts of a warthog including the rectum and brains which he called the worst meal of his life. The bushmen also served him tree beatles which are only found in one certain type of bush. The tribe makes an event of their gathering. Tony had several of them and claimed that they were the single best thing he had eaten all day.

In the city, one of Tony's friend took him to the market. They had all this meat cooking up on a HUGE grill and it looked so tasty. With some other friends while out on a huntin, Tony tried some Namibian truffles. These are not the chocolate truffles, they are from the white truffles that grow wild in the desert. There were no communication problems at this market like he had in Ghana because the national language of Namibia is English.

It was interesting to see Namibia from Tony's perspective. It is a filled with cultures that I can only try to understand. The people are strong survivors and live in the purest sense by living off of the land.

Next Week: Tony visits Russia.

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations visits Ghana

Now this is the Anthony Bourdain I know. The one who will eat all the crazy food. He ate a barracuda for crying out loud. And raved about it!

In tonight's episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Tony is visiting The Republic of Ghana in West Africa. This is the type of place I will probably never actually go to. But the secret backpacking wanderer inside me knows this is the type of place I would really love. Wide open markets with people selling their wares. Lots of wonderful colors. Lots of SPICY food.

Honestly, I love watching it all on TV, but I'd be kind of scared to go there. But with the language barrier and the Ghana markets being so crowded, fast-paced and confusing, I'd just get frustrated. And with my red hair I'd stick out like a sore thumb which is as good as having the word 'sucker' written on my forehead. At least that is the problem I always ran into when visiting the Caribbean or Eastern Europe. They see "rich female American" and I always get scammed. But in my dreams I wander around markets like Tony does, touching all the fabrics, watching the local people, listening to the music, smelling the foods cooking and stopping to taste a few different treats.

Once he got out of the city, he went to one of the most amazing places in the world: Ghana's Mole National Park. Over 800 elephants live there and they are just beautiful. Tony's sacrine dialogue voiced over all of this wonderful nature and it was quite funny as he was describing a New Yorker's uncomfortableness around wild animals. He even let his viewers know that "you do not want to be anywhere near a farting elephant."

Ghana is a beautiful country and we got to see it all through Tony's eyes. River villages, national parks, uniformed school children, wild marketplaces, beachside communities, and of course a lot of interesting cultural food.

Next week Tony comes back to the States: Portland, OR in the Pacific Northwest.