Good Food

Getting used to inexpensive classiness.
Here in Namibia, there are a couple really classy eatining establishments that, compared to the U.S., are very inexpensive. The first on the list is NICE, which stands for the Namibian Institute of Culinary Education. It is a school/restaurant, and we have gotten to know a couple of the people that work there. The downstairs is a very fancy eating area with the most extensive bar I have seen in this town. The establishment is quite new, as it just opened within the last couple years. So far I have ordered the fish and chips and the NICE chicken wings. While the chicken wings were ok, the fish and chips was the best I have had since I arrived in Africa (and I order it a lot). The sauce that came with it was delicious. It was a lemon and vinegar mayonase mix and it was awesome. Upstairs from the bar is a deck that reminds me quite a bit of Stellas back home, and that contains a wine and sushi bar. Although I am not a big sushi eater back home, the sushi here is good. We ordered tuna and cajuin smoked salmon California rolls, both of which were really good. I tried sake for the first time while I was there, and I think it is a taste that is to be aquired after some time. We will see. The best thing about all of this is that between all this food plus drinks (jack and coke for me, reminds me of home) our group of 8 spent about five hundred dollars Namibian, which is about sixty USD. Not expensive at all for the quality of everything at NICE.
The other place I need to mention is a place we kind of stumbled upon. We were trying to go to this seafood resturant for dinner, but it was closed when we got there. So we decided to walk around to see if we could find something else. We had only walked a few feet and we noticed this resturant called the Gourmet tucked away behind the mall. We looked over the menu and decided it looked good enough. The place was very quiet as noone does anything in this city on Saturday. Not even exagerating, as everything closes by 3 pm and the normally busy city resembles a ghost town. Back to the restaurant, the Gourmet has a very extensive menu, so deciding on what to order was somewhat difficult. For the past few days I had been telling people that I wanted a steak as big as my face, so I went with the T-bone and chips (fries). Best decision ever. The steak was really as big as my face and was almost two inches thick. It was covered in fried onions (which I took off) and butter. Of course I ordered it cooked medium, so it was dripping with delicious goodness. It came with grilled squash green beans (which I did eat, mom) and fries, all of which were delicious. Everything about the meal and the restaurant was great, but to top it off my steak dinner and my friends calamari dinner ended up costing about N$ 210, or just over $30 USD. Craziness.
I am already getting used to this inexpensive classiness, and I better get over it before I get home, because the classiness here is a fraction of the price that it is back home for similar things.