Paheja Siririka
WINDHOEK – Xwama Restaurant – operating in Windhoek for more than a decade – has decided to expand and change its menu by adding some twists.
Traditional dishes are still served there but have been twisted a little bit.
“The chicken is still a marathon one but with flavours now. We introduce the lemon and herb, peri-peri and the sweet-chili chicken,” enticed Allen, who is an in-house chef at Xwama.
He candidly explained the idea behind preparing chicken in three different ways.
“Normally, marathon chicken is not known to be cooked in those flavours, we want to keep it traditional but with a twist,” he said.
Chef Allen said the chicken is grilled. “We marinate it overnight for the flavours to properly fuse in the chicken. If you eat it, you would also like to eat the bones,” whispered Chef Allen.
When Entertainment Now! visited Xwama Restaurant, we stumbled upon some interesting food combinations: Matangara Pizza, Mopani Worms Pizza and Marathon Pizza. “Xwama is about traditional, we don’t want to deviate from the norm yet we want to keep up with the times,” stated the Administrator of Xwama Restaurant, Amelia Fragoso. It was astonishing to notice that the dough of the pizza is made from Omahangu. What’s more mouth-watering is the dessert menu that has Mahangu Muffin served with custard, Mahangu koeksuster served with plain Omaere, unimaginable yet possible.
Fragoso further enlightened that Namibia hosts a lot of other African nationals. “We want to cater to everybody,” she said. Hence, the restaurant will be adding more meals from other African countries.
“This will include the popularly known Jollof Rice from Nigeria, Chin-chin, a fried snack from West Africa. We have decided to add Pepper Soup from Nigeria and Kelewele, a common Ghanaian food made of fried plantains seasoned with spices,” explained Fragoso. “We cannot change this menu without including the ever loved Cassava.”
With Africa and its richness when it comes to food, Xwama had difficulties in choosing those specific dishes. “We initially came up with 66 different dishes and had to cut down. We did a little research and trimmed that list to 50, where we further had to cut it to 30 dishes,” explained Fragoso. She said these are dishes to be served at Xwama Restaurant. “The change came about when customers order food, they usually ask what that meal comes with, so we decided to change the menu and have meals instead of separate food items and that’s the main difference between this menu and the previous one,” elaborated Fragoso.
“We are including modernity in the food yet keeping it traditional,” she said. If you are a frequent goer at Xwama, you would notice that there was an olupale inside the restaurant but now it has been put outside. “When you welcome your guests, they sit and wait outside until you serve them a drink (Oshikundu) and then come inside the restaurant, we want to keep it that way,” said Fragoso.