We had a dining experience at Meza Malonga gifted to us. It began with a boat tour on a traditional fishing vessel and a tour of the facility. When you add the food we seriously enjoyed out four hour dining experience.
Meza Malonga, formerly a popular restaurant in Kagali, now offers a dining experience at their recently opened farm-to-table restaurant / culinary school. Access is a combined short drive and boat ride from the Volcanos NP. There are a range of experiences on offer. We had the "8 course" dining experience, with small plates and paired drinks arriving for each course. By our count, it was10 courses! Toward the end we resorted to tiny tastings of the official tastings. We simply couldn't eat it all.
Our tour not only showed off the kitchen and classroom it introduced a small portion of the 400 spices they have available. … and that the students must familiarize themselves with!
Our first course was offered as part of the tour. Pineapple juice with mint accompanied 2 small crispy cups, one with veggies including fresh peas, the other one with meat tartar and carrot purée. All were good but the juice combo was the star.
We moved on to our table for course two::
- A new potato and moringa salad (the pod of the moringa tree is consider to have many healthy effects) with a cucumber masquerading as fettuccine.
- Lemon "waffles", but I'd say they were fried lemon rosettes.
- Gazpacho cucumber, a little sweet
- Sorghum bread with sun dried tomato
- Cassava chips with sesame seeds
- Wine: Vergelegen Chardonnay 2023 (S Africa)
- Shrimp with carrot noodle (noodle marinated in a citrus juice, I think) plus the shrimp are stuffed or rolled in a dark meal giving the very cooked shrimp a meaty appearance.
- Bread topped with lake cod fish with harissa sauce
- Fermented mango with moringa
- Wine: Mooiplass Sauvignon Blanc 2023 (S Africa)
- Minced beet in beet foam which was slightly picante
- Beet butter with a beet bun. It had slightly citrus notes.
- Wine: Soul of the Mountain Red Blend from Olifantsberg
- Aubergine soup with Pepe, a flavoring from Uganda (one of several garlic like spices)
- Caramelized slivers of aubergine & champignons in a small amount of thick tomato soup
- Bread with aubergine
- Wine: Moorplaas Sauvignon Blanc 2023 (S Africa)
Course 6:
- Cauliflower purée, roasted cauliflower and shredded dried egg yolk
- With: Apple Ginger Kombucha
Course 7:
- Tree tomato Sorbet with Egyptian black (dried) Lemon with ground pepper and more subtle spices
- With: Fermented mixed berry drink
Course 8:
- Meat filet with Nigerian spices and tree tomato sauce
- Veggies (chayote, butternut, onion, carrot…)
- Brioche
- Wine: Mooiplaas Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 (S Africa)
Course 9:
- Mango purée,pineapple
- Banana ginger drink
- Butter cake (tiny bundts)
Course 10:
- Caramel ice cream
- Coffee cream
- Honey comb cake
- Chocolate trio
- With: coffee & tea
And then we said good-bye to Chef Malonga.
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