So last weekend we got a special delivery here at Kuti. Some friends of Kuti Wildlife Reserve rescued a baby donkey from a village which was being chased. They were throwing stones at him and his mum was nowhere to be seen, so the couple rescued the young donkey and put him in their car. They were however off to holiday on an island on Lake Malawi so on their way they swung by Kuti to drop him here. The kind of stuff you get when you have wildlife researchers and a vet all living together! He is super cute and right now we just hope we can keep getting him to drink milk, as he is very young.

In other news, I got asked to be a judge for a cooking competition at Kuti Wildlife Reserve which is awesome and something I have not done before, for their new Potjie Pot Competition. A potjie is a traditional steel pot used in South Africa for cooking on a fire. Lots of people arrived on the Friday night and we started our evening down at Sunset Deck. The views here are spectacular and watching the sunset over the water with a beer is always gorgeous setting, especially with all the wildlife around.

 

After a heavy Friday night, we start Saturday off with mimosas and the Teams get their fires going. As we ran out of beer at the bar, I head to down to do a restock for them in town! Bit of a diversion, but once I get back the competition is in full swing and I start off judging by visiting the tables to see how they are getting on. As I have worked as a chef before, I am going to be a bit tough with regards to their station being clean and organised! We are judging on a variety of angles, including tidiness of prep station, food taste and presentation. Some of the dishes are looking great.

Once most pots are on the fire we take a break in the hillbilly pool, which is much needed in this heat! It is currently over 35’C most days. We fill up the back of one of the pick up trucks with water with a liner and then proceed to jump in for a pool break with more drinks. A hard life being a judge. I enjoyed tasting all the wonderful potjies as their was so much variety and creativity involved.. the winners made a delicious Indian curry and even did naan breads in their potjie too! I think though next time I want to be entering instead of judging, show them what I can do 😉