#SearchForLesothosBestBurger

#SearchForLesothosBestBurger

Lehaha Grill

Somebody asked me what the search for the best burger was in aid of. I responded that Basotho deserved to know where there was a great burger. I added that there seemed to be a vacuum in the food/restaurant review business, so I was taking up the space as the Lingua Franca goes nowadays. The truth is, I also want a tourism angle on this series. I would like readers of this blog-wherever they may be-to be aware of the great offerings the Mountain Kingdom has.

With all of that said, last night we hit Lesotho Avanii's Lehaha grill. I was featuring my cousin Mphoto or “Beef” as he’s known in the streets, and my mate Khabele “Smokes” to his homies. They are two friends, but also, two brilliant minds. Entrepreneurs who are both involved in enterprises that ought to change the trajectory of the country... I digress. They two are burger lovers, and they were excited to extend the search for Lesotho best burger.

The Lehaha grill offers three different burgers. A beef burger, a chicken burger and a vegetarian burger (unbeknownst to us). We decided we would order all three burgers and share between the three of us. A solid plan I thought, but Beef wasn’t sold. He didn’t want his dining experience spoiled by something below par. So, Smokes and I ordered tow different things, the Maluti mountain Beef, and the holy cow burgers respectively. Beef ordered the same as me. The Maluti mountain Beef boasts a patty, cheese, bacon avocado (urgh!) Lettuce tomato and a sweet chilli sauce. While the Holy cow is made up of Halloumi cheese, butternut, mushroom, avocado (sies) and onion. The third burger option is chicken and has a name that involves chicken. All three names seemed to imply the contents of the burger. Imagine our surprise when the holy cow had no cow?! Oh, so holy cow, as in sacred cow?! Wow! Okay...

The Maluti mountain Beef was ordered sans avocado. I love myself too much to be eating a burger, or anything for that matter, with that mush! Anyhow, it was quite tasty. Any burger with cheese and bacon is going to be! The sweet chilli sauce let it down though. Between that and how easily the burger broke up I was left a little underwhelmed. The trusted side piece Corona was cold and paired wonderfully with the burger, as ever!

I shared a quarter of my burger with Smokes and he did the same. O thought the vegetarian option was quite good. I don’t care much for butternut, don’t like mushrooms and as previously expressed hold no affinity for mushroom yet as a combination held together by Halloumi, it seemed to work. Vegetarians like Bella ought to go check that option out.
I’m having so much fun penning this series.

A good burger is actually such a great centre piece to a good night. Last night’s conversation was enlightening, entertaining and full of life. The burger, however, didn’t live up to its promise I’m afraid. I’m going to score the Maluti mountain Beef burger a seven out of ten. That sweet chilli sauce should be scrapped and those buns could do with a little toasting...

#SearchForLeaothosBestBurger

CLX reloaded

HiI have been quite pleasantly surprised by the reaction the search for Lesothos best burger has garnered. First, big ups those of you who read and appreciated the first installment of this series. Second, shout out to the five or six of you who went to try out the Cater City burger owing to the review I did. I hope it was as enjoyable as mine. I don’t know if I made it clear that my palette is quite basic. I like what I like, and it’s not based on intricate flavour combinations or the like. Just what works for me.

Somebody suggested I should try to build some type of criterion in to how I rate the burgers. I think I’ll try and do that. Systems and processes are the key to any sustainable entity aren’t they, Why not for this review series too? First, will be the quality (freshness/taste) of the bun. Then will be the kind of relish and/or sauces used, how do they combine, and how does that affect the flavour or more importantly the taste in my mouth. Then the finishes. Gherkin and tomato, or lettuce. Do they work in there, or not. Finally, the extras. Do cheese and bacon come as standard in the burger? Is there something I might not have thought of in there that makes the whole thing come together?

This week, my search finds me along the hustle and bustle of Kingsway. The main road in Maseru. Cuban Linx is the name of the establishment. I had no idea they even served burgers. I suppose this has come with the new facelift. A sort of, “new year, new me”. It’s strange eating a burger at a place where I used to eat good times and groove! However, as the old adage goes, “needs must”.

I’d like to build in a new segment to this burger review titled the “Corona test” and no that’s not administered with a thermometer (too soon?) Rather it is a check of how far I’ve gulped down my beer by the time my food arrives. This test might prejudice other establishments though, so perhaps we’ll leave it out for now.

I've come with a considerable hunger, and am ready to wash this burger down with my favourite Corona... Looking at the menu, this particular burger promises a lot.
One change from the previous review is that I’m writing this in the present tense. I’m reviewing this burger as I enjoy it... And it’s good. But it isn’t “Oh Gotts! Is like a tremm!” Good. Toasted bun, crunchy gherkin (mmm) fresh lettuce and tomato, melted cheese, feta cheese, a battered onion ring all SO good but the patty... The patty let’s the whole effort down because it doesn’t hit the spot. It’s missing that- French for- I don’t know what...

I’ve wolfed it down in double quick time owing to hunger, and am satisfied even if I’m not mindblown. Honourable mention must go to the chips which were really quite good!
I’m going to go ahead and score this burger a quite good seven-and-a-half.
Big ups to CLX reloaded...

#SearchForLesothosBestBurger

I love a good burger. I really do. In fact I love all “junk food” but the burger supersedes all of them. In my youth I was a grab it with both hands and get stuck in kind of guy, but of late, the knife and fork have become part of my eating lexicon. Either way, wolfing it down, with some chips and an ice cold beer are always premium enjoyment for me!

I have undertaken an almighty task! I will find the best burger made in the Kingdom of Lesotho. This is a task I take seriously! There will be no half assing. There will be no district spared. No kitchen too small, no chef too unskilled.

To this end, yesterday Monday 17 February I began this epic journey in the capital city, Maseru. Cater City with the honour of opening my search! I spoke to the owner of the establishment after placing my order and told her I’d heard good things about her burger. I hoped the legend would ring true.

The food arrived in due time. Home made bun, patty, gherkin, tomato, cheese and a sauce of sorts... Woah, quite pleasing on the eye. I took a man sized bite in to it. Yuup! “That’s a good burger!” I told my girlfriend, she nodded as she took a much smaller, more cultured bite of her burger. I had added some Tabasco sauce to mine, but honestly the burger would’ve been just fine without. For about twelve minutes I was silent as I savoured every morsel of my burger. Between bites, I gulped away at my ice cold Corona beer. A sort of sensory overload ensued. Beautiful, I thought to myself. And for once, I didn’t mean the looker sat across from me.

As I took the last bite of my Cater City delight, I thought to myself “woah, the rest of these burgers have a lot to live up to”. Few better ways to end a Monday!

My rating, a resounding 8.5 out 10 high praise from someone who’s only qualification on the matter years of burger munching!

On Showboating & Pitso

I’m laughing and indeed scolding myself as I write this. Ostensibly because I’m in disbelief that a post match interview should bring such a reaction from me. Let me start by saying, I barely watch South African football anymore. As I said in a tweet, I find the game quite boring. Very few goals, nondescript tactics and players I’ve never heard of. Juxtapose that against the heady days of Doctor Khumalo, Tebogo Moloi, Albert Mahlangu, Harold Lekgodi etc. Ball jugglers who played in teams that scored many goals.

At that time, European coaches who landed on these shores adapted their game plan to what they found, rather than asking institutions that existed before them to adapt to their style. Jeff Butler and his Ilk produced fine teams that played with flair and finesse. In the 90s when I first started watching football, a three nil lead almost invariably led to ten minutes of “Hollywood” at the end of the game. Hollywood! Show time. Time to express one’s self. Break whatever shackles may have existed during the normal course of the game. My dad used to call it “ho bapalla basali” literally translated that means “playing for the women”. A form of peacocking I suppose. It was legendary.

On Wednesday evening Mamelodi Sundowns coached by the indomitable Pitso Mosimane, himself a former crowd favourite took on Soweto giants Orlando Pirates. The game was billed as a potential humdinger. Indeed this game has in the past produced drama, intrigue, goals, suspensions and more. Sundowns are perennial title chasers, and indeed winners. In fact since Pitso began his stewardship of the “Brazilians” they’ve not finished outside of the top two positions. That’s no mean feat! “Jingles” as he is known watched his team succumb to a lacklustre Pirates in what was a game that failed to come to life. There were one or two moments that caused excitement but on the whole it left a lot to be desired. With that said,  his team leading one nil, Fortune Makaringa decided it was the right time for a spot of “Hollywood”. One piece of trickery led to Pitso reacting immediately and I assume impulsively. On his feet in the demarcated area gesticulating like a mad person. Always one to speak his mind in the post match interview Mosimane bemoaned the “showboating” and commended Orlando Pirates assistant coach Fadlu David’s for his apology for the misdemeanor. What nonsense I thought to myself. This smacks of nothing but hubris. Look, no one has earned the right to act like that more than Pitso, but it still leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Pitso is entitled to his opinion, but it’s just that, an opinion. How players (opposition players specifically) choose to express themselves should have nothing to do with him. If his players minds are weak enough to be affected by a spot of tricks & flicks then that’s a chink in the armour that should be exploited to no end!

My strong held view is that if South African football stops the tricks and flicks they’ll have lost one more supporter decisively and for good.

Year in review

The year in review. What a year it’s been. Every year is filled with highs and lows. The best years are the ones where the highs outnumber the lows. Some years feel like they’ve dragged on forever, others feel as though they’ve flown by. This is the latter! It feels like just yesterday my girlfriend & I were sharing our first Christmas together. It is true what they say. So much can happen in a year!

You can find yourself as part of the best drive time radio show in the mountain Kingdom, on the first online station  said Kingdom has ever had, all the while as part of a management team trying to ensure the highest definition of radio. You can find yourself as a growing concern in a brand new industry with exciting developments every so often! The Sky Alpha HD experience is one for the books. It really deserves a whole book! In one of the chapters one would have to lament the lack of support for startups in the Kingdom, but would also have to acknowledge the belief shown by many corporate players who just need help connecting the dots that show the picture of the great marketing tool that is Sky Alpha... In this year we’ve managed to go from an idea, to a station making radio, to a station making good radio, to experts in outside broadcasts, on to an entity that can assist in bringing renowned house music deejay Alton Miller! If that isn’t growth, I don’t know what is.

I have said on more than one occasion, that I remember a time when I wished for what I have now. A healthy strong relationship with a woman who is out of my league. I read a quote once that went something like “when you meet a woman out of your league, marry her”... Many older brethren have warned me that I cannot be happy forever, at some point I will have to get married. They are right, I do have to get married..

My personal development and growth this year has been awesome to experience. It’s strange writing about my own development and growth, but in the age of social media, narcissism is the order of the day! Every day I’m surprised by my own reaction to things that would have set me off some time back, but now are water off a ducks back. I’ll often have a self debrief at the end of the day and wonder to myself whether that was right or wrong, but then I’ll quickly move passed it acknowledging that there’s nothing I can do about something in my past. I must control the controllable a and leaving everything else to the universe in a manner of speaking.

We keep making quips about Vision 2020. It is many things to many people 2020. I’m looking forward to it more than anybody will ever know. I really feel like there are BIG THINGS coming...

Take your time...

Bella & Maps, the Big times finest commented the other day that I needed to revive my blog. This came after my girlfriend had asked more than once why I wasn’t writing anymore. I have seriously neglected that poor blog, and I’ve got to do right by it. I have made a vow to myself to write every day in the holidays. From about the 22nd December till January 3rd I’ll post something on the blog every day.

The main reason behind my silence is busyness. I saw a little twitter clip where Bill Gates laments “busy” as the new stupid. He and Warren Buffet are very clear that time is the most precious of commodities. These two super wealthy dudes say you have got to manage your time precisely and intentionally. I was then reminded of my brother’s PA at the red bank. She used to schedule an hour ever day in his calendar called “TWS” or time with self. Apparently it popped up as a meeting request.  A meeting with himself. I really love that! I can’t wait to be able to afford a PA like that. Right now it feels like I’m running around like a headless chicken. I never ever complete the tasks that I start in a week. If I showed the number of half baked, incomplete proposals (of really good ideas) that I have, or that I’m working on, you’d be amazed. I dare say, I’d be branded lazy or unable to complete tasks. That’s mainly down to time management. I just don’t seem to have enough hours in a day.

I never ever thought this would be me. I never envisaged myself as a guy who would go from one meeting to another and then not find time to do some writing-in whatever capacity. Never! As head of operations at Lesothos first online radio station I’m finding that is increasingly my plight. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do. I love what this station is, and what it’s becoming. I really dig getting to know all of our personalities. And, more and more I’m loving being on the radio working with storied professionals like Maps (a radio legend & creative par excellence) Bella (a creative & sartorial genius) and Mattie (undoubtedly the best music compiler/producer the Kingdom will ever know). Our melting pot of a show is exactly the kind of radio I would tune in to back in my day. Bertram’s YFM, that’s my main inspiration!

Between doing the show and trying to successfully run the station and having a balanced life outside of that, I’ve found zero time for pet projects like writing a blog. Even scribbling this down took a concerted effort. I’ve forced myself to shut off from the world for a little bit so I can pen these musings. Naturally I’ve enjoyed writing this. I love the solitude that comes with writing. There’s a self connection that happens when I write that I’ve only found in writing and therapy.

Anyhow, Ke Dezemba Boss! And it’s time to shine! Let’s all be safe, let’s all enjoy the festivities, and let’s be less busy next year and more aware of how we spend our time...

Ode to love

The most magical experience I have ever had. That is the only way to characterise the last six and a half odd months of my life. I wrote a piece a while ago, a sort of letter to love, wondering out loud why it had forsaken me. Hoping against hope that one day I would be able to exclaim, my love is no longer waiting. I said it more in hope then genuine belief. In that moment, as I wrote that letter, I could not see where love would come from. I did not believe I would find anyone I could truly call a lover.

It's funny how someone you didn’t know even eighteen months ago can strut into your life and become the most important part therein. I have been constantly amazed by my girlfriend and her ability to fit seamlessly in to my life. How could anyone have known that there is a Nyaki sized hole that can only be fitted by that specific human? When Savage Garden gave us the hit classic “I knew I loved you before I met you” they had to have been lyricising this exact event...

Sometimes when I’m with my girlfriend I find myself gawking at her, unable to believe that someone could be so beautiful. I can’t get used to it. It is really true what they say about beauty being in the eye of the beholder! Those striking features, her confident demeanour and her dazzling smile add up to a masterpiece. She smiles with her whole face and I personally can’t help but be completely sucked in to her aura when that happens.

I have only known her ten or eleven months, but the connection we have seems like those of lifelong buddies. I tell her way more than I should, and she in turn does the same. We share everything from the mundane to the earth shattering. We laugh a lot, like a lot a lot because both of us have ridiculous anecdotes for just about every life situation. Well, me more than her because I’ve been alive a little longer. Often when I’m telling an inappropriate story, she'll be chuckling along, fully invested in my story without worrying about what kind of a halfwit she’s got involved with. There is nothing that I appreciate more than that!

I have always loved life. I really have. My sunny disposition has made it so, and since she’s been a part of my life the sun seems to shine even brighter. Even the dark days seem to be more dark grey than black. It has been the most exhilarating ride of my entire thirty odd years of life and I cant wait to experience more of it!