Queen's Calabash excellent service

[Maxwell]

Dear Zambia,

I wish to highly recommend Queen's Calabash for those of you that want to eat real food in Lusaka, not those chicken and chips nonsense snacks. They serve hefty portions of quite a variety of foods from iciloli (braiied fish), pork chops, T-bone, mbuzi, knuku yaku munzi, etc. Good range of vegetables (cimpapila, lumanda, cibwabwa, umulembwe, etc.).

Be careful to avoid eating too much nshima as the relish is quite sizable and you won't be able to finish all the food. Pricing is 26 pin. They are in Enock Kavu Road in Rhodes park off Addis Ababa. I used to go to their other equally excellent branch in Thornpark near the railway line (not sure if they are still there).

The only other place I have been to that is comparable is NASDEC at the sports clubs at the back of Arcades but QC still wins. The best part about them for me is that they have maintained their standards in the last 3 years I have been going there.

Bon appétit.

[Mabwe]

Maxwell

Does the Queen's Calabash have my favorite dish of skin-on steamed mice? It's absolutely crucial to leave the skin on because all the flavor hides in the mice hair. I would move heaven and earth to get my hands on this delicacy. We call it mbeba ya chauta. The mice dish the gods dine on.

Oh excuse me please. Saliva is dripping all over my key board now.

[Maxwell]

Mabwe, very funny. I am afraid I have not seen the delicacy you refer to anywhere so far. It is many years since I had mbeba (we used to hunt them as kids at grandfather's farm). I am not too sure about the mouse hair thing and I hope you don't eat the hair. BTW, most of the nshima places are now charging around 30 pin.

[Mailon]

And exactly where is Queen's Calabash am tired of the queues at Twa Pandula.

[Guest]

Queens Calabash is in Road off Addis Ababa drive. As you come down from Manda Hill turn left at the new mosque. Drive down and look out for a big white building on the left. Next door you will see a lot of cars parked outside a modest house. That is queens calabash. great traditional food and the munkoyo is fabulous.

[Mailon]

Thanks Guest i will definetly sample it soon.

[Pig]

I see too many bachelors up in here who are allergic to cooking

[Kuzepuka]

I'm on a bicycle myself. Are there any short cuts to this Queen's calabash?

I'm coming from Kanyama. If I cut through Chibolya and zip past Misisi, is there a short cut there to avoid Chilimbulu road? There is a vicious dog in that area. I don't want to have to face it again. It chased me on my bicycle one day.



Guest wrote :
> Queens Calabash is in Road off Addis Ababa drive. As you come down from
> Manda Hill turn left at the new mosque. Drive down and look out for a big
> white building on the left. Next door you will see a lot of cars parked
> outside a modest house. That is queens calabash. great traditional food and
> the munkoyo is fabulous.

[TechMan]

The calabash place is here (green arrow).

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=-15.40931 ... 5&t=h&z=16

[Kuzepuka]

TechMan,

this is beautiful, man. Thank you! I already mapped out my bicycle route. I can totally avoid that dog on Chilimbulu road now.

[Kuzepuka]

by the way, do they serve any veggies with groundnut sauce at the Calabash of the Queen? Ndiwo za nthwilo, we call it. If they do, I hope they do not mind customers licking their bowls clean with their tongues because that is exactly what I plan to do after that meal of nsima na ndiwo za nthwilo. I cannot afford to waste a drop of ndiwo za nthwilo.

[A Mwanza]

Its nice to see people recommending places. It is so rare to find businesses in Zambia getting a thumbs up. Ba Maxwell, does this place you recommended serve game meat as well? Give us the juicy details, quite literally :-)

[Kuzepuka]

You know what aMwanza? People on DZ have been raving about this Queen's Calabash. Even on other threads. I have already planned a bicycle trip this weekend, to check this place out.

I hope I will not be huffing and puffing on my bicycle all the way from Kanyama, for nothing. I hope the Queen can make my bike ride worth it. Especially given the fact that I will have to navigate some very hostile territories on my bicycle.

[Guest]

How do we know you are not the owner of the same queen calabash place tooting your own horn. DZ should have a mystery shopper or some sort of michellin star list for impartial reviews

[Kuzepuka]

Guest,
just wait for my reviews on Monday. I will tell you if the hype matches the food at this place.

Although to be honest, don't rely too much on my word. I will eat a meal at Queen's calabash after my long bicycle ride from Kanyama compound. By then I wll be starving like a hyena. You know when you are starving everything tastes delicious.

[Maxwell]

Mr Kuzepuka,

I am eagerly awaiting your review of the Calabash. I have had ifisashi there several times and its all good. I believe this is the same thing you referred to as "Ndiwo za nthwilo" right? You better pace yourself when you are doing justice to the ka pap and ndiyo as you may be too full to cycle back to Kanyama!

Mr Guest,

Take a trip to QC to see for yourself whether the hype matches reality. They are good enough to attract whites, Indians and Chinese people as I have personally witnessed. It was so refreshing to see two Indian ladies taking apart a large bream with their bare hands and downing the aka bwali as if there was no tomorrow.

By the way, my only small complaint is that their waiters are sometimes a little sloppy. I have experienced them taking long just to bring drinks or give me a bevra. I have had to ask a second waiter which is annoying. Get the drinks when ordering the food to reduce on this.

[Maxwell]

A Mwanza, iliko nyama yamu sanga pangono pangono. I have had fresh impala and lechwe before, though it is not always available every day. It is more expensive generally (over 30 pin if I am not mistaken). I am still waiting to eat ci kapoli as they have not had it whenever I have been there.

[Girl]

Maxwell, lol! I eat there too :-). Have you tried Twapandula just in the next road? Though I keep my loyalties at Queen's. The Twapandula used to work at Queens and stole the idea.

Queen's, any time! The variety of veg...fisashi... the game meat, the grilled fish! Babikapo na munkoyo, damn! But too much for over eating. Men have grown tuma pot bellys.

I only don't like the part where they open on Saturday. Men have to learn to eat their wive's dishes at home, shaa!

[Kuzepuka]

yo Mr. Maxwell,

I just saw my girl Girl and I don't want to get busted, so I will stop telling my lies now:)) I'm nowhere near the Queen's Calabash. Although I have made a serious mental note of this establishment. It's on my hit list now. When I'm in the area, I will storm the place with my hungry belly.

[Girl]

Kuzepuka'

My darling my darling..... remember you have too many places to visit ka? Going back two years ago we said you'ld have to visit this and that place, and then that other place, and eat this and that, and then sample that, hehehe! I hope you will have enough time and a big enough belly, yeah?

Remember Pepe and Cindy on that Buzz cafe thread? Hehe! I think that was your first date :-). There have been many others since, brace :-)