Read these first:-
- Delicious Food in Cape Verde – Part 1 (Breakfast)
- Delicious Food in Cape Verde – Part 2 (Lunch)
- Delicious Food in Cape Verde – Part 3 (Gravy)
When in Cape Verde, I rarely take my dinner mainly because it will be too late at night to order something from the hotel kitchen (I don’t want them to scrap the leftovers). Further I would be very sleepy by the time I reach the hotel room so it has been easy for me to take the shower and hit the bed than walk down to the hotel restaurant.
But nonetheless, there are times when I would be very hungry and it just happens that we are back from office early, so instead of having something light in the hotel room (namely instant noodles or biscuits). Maggi instant noodles far away from home and at cold nights is simply heaven sent – any Malaysians will confirm that.
For dinner, we usually opt to take our dinner at the hotel restaurant – the same place we take our morning breakfast but with a difference – there is fewer crowds at night. Since the restaurant also has a good bar (more importantly a good friendly bartender), it was a splendid place to get our beers & liquors (the usual order is Gin Tonic).
The above is what my team member ordered at Avis Restaurant and it is a mouthful – a good sized fries, chicken (or fish, I can’t recall) and vegetables. It is well made and the place is clean as well. If I am not mistaken, this cost about CVE1800 – CVE1900 (Euro 18 -19).
For the fries, they do provide some kind of chilly sauce but it is not the same Maggi chilly sauce (the correct sauce for fries) that you get in Malaysia. The vegetables in Cape Verde are often served raw or boiled without any taste.
This is my personal favourite for it’s gravy – Seafood Rice which was spiced with tomato sauce with multiple types of seafood items – bits of crab, prawns and clams and a good portion of rice as well. This is also from Avis Restaurant and it cost CVE1500 (Euro 15).
The rice is not fried but when taken with the gravy, the taste of the rice is very similar to a fried rice taste. The only problem that I noticed here is on the clams – not all are properly opened, so it is a mess when I tried to open it.
Frankly I doubt the freshness of the seafood but so far I did not any upset stomach eating this dish.
Couscous or kus-kus made from corn (if not mistaken) which was a welcomed change for dinner instead of the usual bread or rice. Couple that with a simple but compact vegetable stew and a good size chunk of tuna.
This one we ordered in another restaurant not far from the hotel (all the places are within walking distance). They did not have much choice for dinner – their menu was rather simple and short. For this reason alone, we did not visit this place again for dinner.
The standard dish – a very balanced meal – tuna with olive oil , vegetables (steamed unfortunately with no taste whatsoever), rice is the side dish and to make things easy to swallow, we have the kidney beans stew.
They also have chicken in gravy or fried fish dish for similar price. If one is not keen on steamed / boiled vegetables and want something less healthy, you can replace it with fries.
The other usual place that we go is the neighbouring Avis Restaurant which has a good spread of dishes on the menu BUT they are quite expensive so we only come here occasionally. The other areas are the various restaurants dotted along the plateau but within walking from the hotel.