Safari dining
mistakes

candid safari tips

 

Expecting gourmet
food at a safari
lodge or camp

Not high-end gourmet

Luxury safari kitchens are not gastronomic temples, nor do they try to be one. You are in a remote natural environment and the focus is on the wildlife, not wild thyme. Still, the food is admirable - and clearly superior to what is prepared at sub-luxury safari lodges and camps.

Handicaps

It's important to recognize that safari chefs (including those in luxury venues) face some culinary handicaps that few restaurants suffer. Your lodge or camp is in the middle of nowhere, distant from the nearest town. All the food has to be trucked in through the wilderness over rough dirt roads.

For practicality's sake...

Much of the food shipped to the lodges and camps has to be frozen and stockpiled in bulk in freezers (just in case the dirt roads become muddy and impassable for days).

Expecting a
wide variety of
menu choices

Repeat performances

Don't be surprised if today's dish (with minor modification in name and flavoring agent) appears on tomorrow's menu in a sub-luxury lodge.

Game meat

Don't count on an extensive variety of game meat. Some animals are protected by law (unless the meat is available from a game farm or was legally hunted to cull a herd, it won't be on the menu).

Dining with
the same people
every night

Expand your experience

Occasionally ask the staff to sit you at a table with strangers. It's a good way to get to know other safari-goers - and to hear new safari stories.

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