My Most Memorable Meal - To date

A topical challenge vs Mountaintops & A Blog

I don't have any pictures of the meal. But it happened 7 years ago and only a few months after this photo was taken. Which you'll likely find chucklesome. :P


When it comes to memorable meals there are a number of candidates. But the most memorable? It perches above the rest and was mostly cooked by me, with some (a lot of) help from Mr.Dookoo.

Ok, Paul (Mr.Dookoo), did the meal planning and walked me through the actual cooking.

It was part of a cooking contest versus my co-worker James partnered with Tracy, the Dookoo's daughter. We were in charge of dinner and they were in charge of dessert. The judges were made up of Mrs.Dookoo (Viola) and my two other co-workers Charlotte and Marleen. And with James and I being fairly culinarily inept mid-twenties bachelors, the playing field was level for this epic battle pitting father vs daughter, co-worker vs co-worker, and establish bragging rights to be blogged about over 7 years later.

A flash more backstory while I prepare the ingredients. I was in South Africa working for Canadian Mennonite University as a team leader. My 3 co-workers and I were in charge of the oversight of 30+ university students as we travelled all over South Africa. During this particular week we were billeted out in the town of Strandfontein where we were partnering with a range of different community organizations and a local Methodist church. My group, known as Team ADD, worked at Camp Joy, an orphanage for boys. We did yard work, helped with one on one English lessons, and played indoor cricket as only awkward Canadians more familiar with hockey can.

Ok, the ingredients for the meal... well.. I can only break it down so much as I was just told to add things, stir, etc.. but the whole meal was cooked outside over a wood fire! South African braai-style goodness! The meat was a fish called Cape Snoek. A barracuda-like fish indigenous to the Cape area of South Africa. We accentuated with a lovely mix lemon pepper spicing and grilled it up moist, flakey, and oh so nummy. Partnered alongside this was a stir fry. Now... this may not seem too fancy.. but the fact that we were cooking it on a wok over an outside fire was so utterly cool and as most everyone knows, things cooked outside over a fire just taste better ;) A stir-fry!! A Stir-fry of awesomeness! :D

So much savouring during the meal left my team feeling pretty confident. That was until our noble opponents pulled out their creation. A multi-layer chocolate cake with jam filling between the layers! The thrown gauntlet of dinner had been met with an equally salacious match.

The judgement would go down to the wire.

After much deliberation.....

Team Dookoo/Oram emerged victorious!

(actually I kinda think we all won.. mmmmmmmm )

As is the case with most memorable and awesome meals it wasn't just the food but the context, the creation, and the people involved that ranked this as my #1 most memorable meal (to date).

And now I leave you with a new and unrelated Maplemusketeery video..