Birthday Bazinga at The Carnivore
It was my dad’s birthday. He was turning 58 years old. I made him a chocolate and raspberry pie because he is in love with a piece of computer equipment called a Raspberry Pi. It is not same sort of pie as my chocolate and raspberry pie. He loves the Pi so much he would die for it.
Pi not pie
In order to make the pie crust I crushed shortbread biscuits until they were like dust then I added melted butter and vanilla essence. I sprayed a pie tin with Spray and Cook and put the biscuit and butter mixture into the tin in a thin layer all round and up the sides then I baked it in the oven at 180C for 20 minutes and voila! Pie crust! For the filling I melted together chocolate, cream and Nutella.
Pie making in progress
I put some raspberries at the bottom and then the filling into the cooked and cooled pie crust. Then I put more raspberries and put it all in the fridge to set. I did it the night before so mine had had over night to set into a firm chocolate pie.
Num Num Num! Pie not pi
Raspberry Pie (not Pi) recipe is:
Crust: 2 cups crushed biscuits, 6 Tablespoons melted butter, vanilla essence to taste.
Filling: 125g chocolate (chopped), 175g cream, 125g Nutella, 50g raspberries
Then it was time to make my dad a birthday treasure hunt. It had clues which led to a treat. Each treat was the amount of 58 – like his age. He got 58 cashew nuts, 58 olives, 58 Smarties, a jelly tot in the shape of a 5 and an 8 and finally as his big present he got 58 rotis. In case you don’t know these are very special Indian breads and he likes them a lot. He was very excited. It took him quite a while he was quite bad at finding stuff. The first clue was put on the kettle and he had to find it but it took him like 10 minutes.
Kettle clue!
Eventually he found it and that clue led him to the bathroom where he found his jelly tots.
What age are you again?
His second clue which led him to the fruit bowl which had a jar hidden in it full of 58 Smarties.
“mine!!!”
From there he was sent to the cupboard full of plates where he found 58 cashew nuts.
“Still mine!”
Then back to the bathroom where he found olives in the drawer with the towels. That clue finally led him to the fridge where he found a huge pile of 58 rotis. He was so happy. He kept 1 packet of 10 out and put the rest in the freezer.
Rotiliceous
That night we took my dad for a birthday treat at the Carnivore.
“We’re here!” YAY!
This is a restaurant that serves wild meat. I love it a lot. I hadn’t been in 3 years. The first time I went I was a young’un about 6 and I was told that I had to “put on something appropriate” and boy did I. That week I had been in a school play about African animals and let’s just say my mum was surprised when I came out of my room dressed as a leopard!
This leopard sustained an injury to it’s right paw
The menu changes depending on what the hunters have caught but this time the menu included zebra, eland, warthog, crocodile, venison sausages, venison samosas and venison biryani. They cook the meat on big fires and then waiters walk around with a very long knife with meat on it and a machete to carve it.
Lethal weapon!
They also bring you a whole lot of different sauces. My favourite was the warthog but the zebra was really good too. The venison samosas were good. It is quite noisy and there is drumming and somehow the waiters didn’t hear me well because quite often they would say “would you like some zebra?” and I would say “yes please” and then they would just go away thinking I had said no and my mum would have to call them back but it was still very good. As you can see from the pictures I had more than enough to eat.
YES PLEASE!
After our meat we had malva pudding I was surprised because it came with custard everywhere and I am not such a custard fan. I wished that they had asked me if I wanted custard because I would have said no. Anyway, it was okay because I just scraped it off.
On the way out I played around with the statues that are at the entrance to the Carnivore. They are statues of a whole lot of South African leaders; King Moshoeshoe from Lesotho, President Mandela,
Call to action!
King Shaka from KZN and a whole lot of others.
“He went that way!”
Then I sat on a giant wooden hippo. And put my head in his mouth. See screams below…
Please let me out, I’m sorry I ate your cousin!
But I survived the wooden hippo attack and lived to tell the tale in this blog. I would recommend the Carnivore to anyone who hasn’t been killed by a hippo and loves life.
www.carnivore.co.za
15 comments to “Birthday Bazinga at The Carnivore”
What a great birthday you organized for your dad, Josiah! I hope my children get close to that when I celebrate my 60th birthday in July. Your dad must’ve been exhausted from searching for all those clues. That Raspberry Pie looked delicious too.
thank you. Love Josiah
Great 3 piece story!
Computer thingy I had to Google! And now I want one too!
Lots of sweets and clues and Rotis!
Carnivore is amazing I know!
Have not been for a long time and had not seen the statues yet.
Glad everyone had fun!
I forgot to ask where one can get the clear sellotape with cm or inches printed on!
we bought it at the CHinese shop in Hartbeespoort.
I’m so impressed with what a great birthday you
created for your dad! He’s a lucky man!
Great job!👍🏻
Love
Your cousin from Boston
Thank you. It was a nice birthday for me too. Love Josiah
If only grown-ups could write posts as interesting as yours. I’m going to make the raspberry pie not pi it looks damn good
Thank you. It is tasty. Love Josiah
What a lovely birthday treat! That pie of yours looks heavenly….!
Happy b-day, Richard!
it is a very tasty pie indeed. Love Josiah
As Andrea said, your posts are so interesting, more so than many adults’ writings!
yay! that is exactly what I was going for. Love Josiah
what a lovely birthday.
Love your writing Josiah, felt like I celebrated with you! Happy birthday to your very lucky dad.