Mixed experience at dazzling Amanzi

 This truly scary statistic from a 2003 Unifem Report is indicative of a global epidemic of violence against women, a silent war against half the population of the planet. One in three adds up to an astounding one billion women and today, February  14, 2013, marks V Day for One Billion Rising – a global campaign to end violence against women. Currently almost 200 countries have signed up and women are getting together with their men to dance to demand an end to this violence.
It’s a call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape culture ends – and a refusal to accept violence against women and girls as a given.  Zimbabweans will join in the dancing at different venues around the city. Check out www.facebook.com/OBRZimbabwe for more information.
In the spirit of love and sisterhood took a girlfriend to lunch at beautiful Amanzi on Enterprise Road. Europeans are always blown away by the gorgeous tropical garden – featuring green lawns, bamboo, bright bromeliads, ferns, palms, delicious monsters and lilies surrounding the soothing water feature and my friend was no exception. I was struck by the glossy pot plants and the almost black anthirriums on the verandah. We chose to sit outside on the spacious verandah as it wasn’t actually raining.
Tables are inviting, draped with full length white linen, fresh yellow chrysanthemums and comfy green canvas chairs and service is impeccable.
Amanzi advertises itself as fusion food and the menu is certainly tempting and designed to sample different dishes tapas style with small portion starters.
Starters range from US$8 for chicken liver pate, mushroom risotto or feta and coriander to US$12 for a sushi satisfied ourselves with a selection of starters. Camembert wrapped in parma ham and filo pastry served with cranberry sauce (US$10) was delicious – hard to beat softly melting piquant cheese. We also had grilled haloumi (strangely more expensive for a simpler dish at US$12) but didn’t like the caperberry sauce that accompanied it and I have had much better quality haloumi elsewhere. The feta and coriander samoosas were a great combination served with a sweet chillie dipping sauce.
Springbok carpaccio was high quality meat but didn’t quite satisfy in terms of seasoning.  My visitor – who has lived for years in Italy – wanted authentic parmesan and could have done with a sprinkling of pepper, a drizzle of olive oil -something piquant.  The caperberries actually went better with the carpaccio than with the haloumi.
The spinach kofta (US$8)in turmeric sauce looked gorgeous – green and yellow – but were overly pungent with raw garlic. Sticky soy spare ribs (US$8) were no better than from most fast food joints though they looked much better. Presentation is very pretty on different shaped white plates.
Mains – all around US$25 – offer interesting combinations : pork chops with pear, five spice oxtail with horseradish mash, tamarind fish, slow cooked lamp shanks with coriander, ostrich with kahlua. But we didn’t try any for lunch.
We found the desserts (US$7) disappointing. The strawberry and lemon curd roulade – described as a meringue version of a swiss roll – was teeth achingly sweet, tasting like kids’ spun sugar candyfloss. I wasn’t sure if the lemon curd filling was meant to be frozen and the strawberry flavour was completely overpowered by sugar. And strawberry crème brulee didn’t work for us. The custard tasted a bit cheesy and once again it was just too sweet and without the classic creamy consistency of a brulee.
– g.jeke@yahoo.com