Dining in Lusaka, Zambia

Zambia was the 7th African country I've visited, assuming you count South Africa (#5) where I have spent the night at a Johannesburg airport hotel on two separate occasions and have spent a ton of money on souvenirs at the airport, but have never actually been outside of the airport property.  Obviously, Africa is a huge continent and each country is different, but there are certain aspects of Africa travel that are inherent to the experience, so I was both surprised and skeptical when person after person told me how easy it is to travel in Zambia.  Easy just isn't the word I'd usually use to describe Africa travel.  All in all, and excepting a rather amusing bus ride to Victoria Falls, everyone was right--travel in Zambia was decidedly straightforward.  Even the airport was calm and hassle free.  Lusaka was far and away the most bucolic African city I've been in, and although perhaps not a culinary destination, there were enough good restaurants to keep me occupied for a week and a half trip.  Here are some of my favorites.

Marlin
Located inside the Lusaka Club (where there is apparently also a bowling alley), Marlin is some sort of club as well as a restaurant.  Not to be confused with the [Blue] Dolphin Restaurant, the Marlin is best known for their steak.  My coworkers had eaten at the Marlin before, and remembered that one of the cuts of steak was particularly good, but couldn't remember which one, so I ordered the filet (pronounced fil-let in Zambia) and they had the rump steak.  We all ordered our steak in pepper sauce, the house specialty.  The steaks came with chips, as does practically everything in Zambia.  All of it was good, not overwhelmingly, must-have-this-again wonderful, but a very nice steak.  Apparently the Marlin also serves Chinese food, but I did not try this, next time perhaps.

Cedars of Lebanon
The person who recommended Cedars of Lebanon told us that the portions were so enormous that we should only order a couple of things to share, which is exactly what we did.  Well, the portions were a far cry from enormous, but two shared appetizers (hummus with beef, chicken wings) and one shared entree (lamb kebabs, served with chips, see above) later we were sated, and deliciously so.  I could have eaten endless plates of the hummus, and the lamb was incredible.  The dessert menu was the only disappointment of the meal--we ordered baklava, which apparently hadn't yet arrived from Lebanon (!), and for some inexplicable reason there were no other desserts available.  One bizarre conversation with a rotund elderly gentleman who might have been the owner later made us think that perhaps the restaurant had just changed owners, but it was rather unclear.  This was a great meal, and the popularity of this place among expats was clear as evidenced by the large table of 20 Peace Corps volunteers dining adjacent to us, and because we ran into someone we'd just met earlier that day having dinner with her family.


Portico
You know that either 1)  you have good taste in picking restaurants, or 2) there are only a handful of good restaurants in Lusaka when you run into the same person two nights in a row, at two different places (see Cedars of Lebanon, above).  I'm thinking the latter, but for argument's sake, let's pretend the former.  That said, our meal at Portico was arguably the best meal of the trip.  First of all, the ambiance was fantastic--we sat outdoors on the patio, the stars were amazingly bright and we pretended to know the constellations, and when it became too cold (yes, cold), a little charcoal fire was brought over and placed next to the table.  Most importantly, the food was authentic Italian.  We started with a meat and cheese plate, with wonderful imported salamis and cheeses and olives.  For my main course I had pork-stuffed ravioli in tomato sauce; simple, elegant, and delicious.  The best dish, however, was the stuffed calamari that a coworker ordered off of the April specials menu (yes, it was May but even as of May 8 they hadn't yet made the May specials menu).  I wish I could remember exactly what was in the calamari, and can't, but remember a succulent mix of spicy peppers and other vegetables.  Fabulous.