Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Focus on food at Umngazi
A family holiday at this resort revolves around the fabulous fare countrybreaks
IT’S 7AM on a Friday, and I’m at the airport nibbling warm carrot, apple and cinnamon muffins and sipping delicious hot coffee while I wait for my flight to Umngazi River Bungalows on the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast.
It’s fitting to start this story about Umngazi with talk of food, because a holiday at this great family getaway will revolve around the most fabulous, wholesome meals and excellent wines – the kind of holiday most of us love.
When you wake up in the morning at Umngazi, it will be to the most beautiful wild views of sea, beach, lagoon and natural gardens – and excellent locally blended Transkei Gold coffee and rusks.
With your appetite sharpened, breakfast is guaranteed to delight– it’s a buffet with every kind of freshness.
Later you can spend your morning on the beach, paddling on the lagoon, walking, hiking, sandboarding, visiting the local villages and before you know it, it’s lunchtime.
Again, it’s a buffet with a delicious assortment of soup, patés, salads – you have to try the Caesar salad – veggies and fish or meat for mains, and desserts which usually include ice cream with a choice of chocolate sauce or the famous house butterscotch sauce.
Then it’s time for a nap or lounging around the pool and, just as you’re wondering if you should take in a stroll, it’s afternoon tea-time with tea, cappuccinos, home-made cakes or biscuits or some other kind of yumminess.
You need a walk after that, or you could try a spot of lagoon fishing, and then take a shower because it’s sundowner time with snacks and then dinner – again a delicious buffet.
Umngazi is considered an iconic holiday destination with about 90 percent of their guests being South African, and a large percentage booking a year ahead for their annual family break, usually with other families and friends who are regulars.
As testimony to the great food, service and beautiful natural environment overlooking a gorgeous lagoon, pristine white beach, natural grasslands and forests, many guests return annually with their children, who first came to Umngazi as toddlers themselves and continue the tradition once they have families of their own.
Feeding such a diversity of age groups and tastes is not always easy, but somehow, Umngazi manages to get it just right.
Executive chef JJ Pretorius chuckles as he explains that his instructions from owners Pat and Karen Goss, is to provide fresh, healthy, nutritious and delicious food – but nothing pretentious.
And that is exactly what you will find on Umngazi’s buffet tables. Or, in your beach picnic basket. Or, for your green-door cellar dinner for 12. Or, on your over-the-river-gazebo breakfast. Or, for your private, romantic honeymoon surprise meal. Or, your sunset cruise.
Even the bar snacks are worth mentioning. Pretorius also makes delicious items for sale in the deli at Umngazi’s shop. These range from home-made lemon curd, to Umngazi’s famous muesli, which is packaged for guests who can’t wait for their next visit.
Fitting with their support of local producers, Umngazi River Bungalows predominantly carries local wines and has an impressive cellar – although the exception is perhaps the Pongrácz bubbly awaiting one on arrival at the Port St Johns airfield.
Pretorius prepares three meals and teatimes for about 130 people a day. During high season, that goes up to as many as 160 people a day. But, he and his staff of 46 take it in their stride.
They have been doing it for years. Perhaps 30 of the meals they prepare are for kiddies who have their own, custom-built dining room, complete with nannies.
He sources most of his meat from Kokstad and East Griqualand. His fish is from the South Coast and his veggies and fresh produce come from Mthata as well as three nearby local villages.
Locals supply most of the spinach and herbs such as fennel, mint, parsley and basil. As part of Umngazi’s community outreach programme, fruit such as granadillas, pawpaws, lemons and avos are also sourced from local villages.
In true Wild Coast hotel style, Saturday nights are centred on seafood buffets – and they are not to be missed.
On Sundays, in true South African style, guests can enjoy a fabulous braai on the deck around the pool.
A big hit is always the Pondo Stuffed Pumpkin, the recipe for which is really in demand. Other specialities are the crayfish braais and their delicious oxtail.
● To book, call 031 701 6881/2, 047 564 1115/6, e-mail stay@umngazi.co.za or see their website www.umngazi.co.za.