One hundred and one Swaziland destinations- #7: Esibayeni Lodge and Conference Center

For those who follow this blog and know of my recent my car-cow crash, consider the following subtitle for this post: "Revenge of the bovines."

Esibayeni banner and conference room. (Ours actually had elephants on the wall.)

As suggested by the photo, Esibayeni is a superb place to have a conference. The training there last week (see below) went swimmingly. Many Swazis choose this lodge for weddings, parties, etc, and for good reason.

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Among Esibayeni's many claims to local fame is it's beef tripe.

It has been said that it should not be missed.

Well, when this was said to me, I looked down into the steaming metal pot housing the stuff and trustingly heaped some of the moist, rugae-laden morsels atop my rice.

As I did so, a fellow eater whispered to me, "A true delicacy."

The contents of the steaming pot, some of which was now on my plate, looked more or less like the tripe depicted in the photo above, but more gray in color, with thicker sauce....and thicker rugae.

In any case, I did try it.

Once.

"How did it taste?" you ask?

My answer: "like beef bowel."

Do not misunderstand. I am not saying not to try tripe.

Tripe, while a trifle trying for this trier, is worth a trial try.

All Swazi food is worth a go, for that matter, for it is [almost] all quite excellent.

All I am saying is this: certain delicacies needs to be sampled delicately.