Thank you for your kind words everyone!
For our dinner that night, I had scheduled our first signature ever, Jiko. We had a sprinkling of pixie dust with transportation, since when the last bus for Animal kingdom pulled up at AOA, we were the only ones in line and the driver asked us where we were heading and actually dropped us off directly at the Lodge.
We arrived a good hour before our ADR but we wanted to explore the resort a bit. It is gorgeous. We visited many resorts on this trip and this was hands-down our favorite.
Jiko's current menu.
We checked in and the place was rally busy, so they told us they could not promise us to be seated early, but we didn't mind waiting at the bar. I had a nice little cocktail.
This is the Harmattan Cooler - Van-Der-Hum tangerine liqueur, cherry brandy and Nobo whole fruit tisane. It had a nice fruity and light taste, not too sweet but a little kick.
We were then seated and started to peruse the menu. At that point, for some reason, I was really cold, so I order the pressed pot of coffee.
What can I say? This was by far the best coffee of the trip. Good, smooth dark and lovely. It hit the spot. By the way, I don't really talk about DH's beverages, because he usually guzzles iced water but samples my cocktails and drinks. He rarely orders anything special to drink.
This was the best bread and butter of the trip. Honestly, nothing measured up to it, not even Kona's. The curry and cinnamon butter was so unique, and paired so well with the breads. The breads were light, fluffy and spiced. I was so sad that I couldn't eat more.

However, DH polished off the basket.
We settled on three appetizers to share.
This is one of the newer flatbreads, I think, the Realan's Duck Confit with goat cheese, berbere-spiced oranges and balsamic reduction. This was delicious. The flavors went so well together, the crust was thin and crisp (I'm thinking they use corn meal for it to be crisp like that, but I might be mistaken?). There were actually plenty of nice orange supremes under the greens and a nice quantity of duck. It was not overloaded with goat cheese, which was a good thing, since it could have overpowered the other flavors.
This is the grilled wild boar with mealie pap, chakalaka, white truffle oil and micro cilantro. Again, this was awesome. I've never had chakalaka before, but it was so flavorful and paired really well with the pap. The boar was a perfect rare, and we literally fought for it! lol!
Finally, the crispy beef "bobotie" roll with cucumber raita, green mango atjar and roasted groundnuts. We were happy to eat this last, because it was much more spicy than the two other dishes so we had time to enjoy the delicate flavors of the previous dishes before waking up our taste buds with some hotness. We loved the mix of spices in this one, and the contrast with the raita, the mango and the subtle cilantro taste. It was an explosion in our mouth - in a really good way, if that makes sense. Also, the rolls are fried but were not greasy at all, which I appreciated greatly.
We decided to share a dessert and a nice glass of dessert wine to go with it.
The dessert wine from South Africa: Fairview La Beryl Rouge. I appreciated this wine so much that I asked the server for the name (I had forgotten to snap a pic of the desert menu) and she brought me the label.
The wine paired nicely with the dessert.
This is the Chocolate and Tea Safari - Vanilla rooibos tanzanian chocolate cake with free form kit kat and green tea ice cream. I loved the tea and chocolate combo in this dessert. The mousse on top of the cake was light and airy while the cake was fudgey without being to sweet or heavy. The green tea was tart and refreshing and paired really well with the kit kat that was crunchy.
In conclusion, this was, without a doubt, the best meal of our trip. The spices, the ambiance, the pace of the meal, everything was perfect. We left the place in bliss. We will certainly be back.
After Jiko, we headed to MK for EMH and before leaving, we had a little snack... our favorite in MK (wow, lots of favorites in this post!

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Our first of many Dole Whip pineapple floats! Because it's not made with cream, it's one of the rare frozen concoctions that I can actually eat more than a tablespoon of without upsetting my little tummy, which is awesome.

It was as delicious as we remembered!
