One way of experiencing other cultures from around the world is through food.
In celebration of other cultures and their cuisine Societi Bistro in Gardens, has launched a new menu that promises to take your taste buds on a culinary adventure.
The Bistro's go Global menu will feature bistro cuisine from 21 regions around the world. The menu will change week and will run for four days (Wednesday to Saturday) until September 8.
Each of the traditional meals will be paired with local wines.
Head Chef Robert Giljam says they wanted to represent as many regions.
“We wanted to cover (as many regions) of the world as possible,”he says.
“We didn’t focus on any specific country because there is too much food and we wanted to do eight dishes for every region so we had to boil it down to three.
“So we brought some of them together in order to get more of a feel for the cuisine of the region,” he adds.
Cuban Pollo Asado at Societi Bistro
Giljam says a lot of the planning around each region was “strategic” and tailored around the ingredients that are in season.
“We planned the menus according to the ingredients that are in season when it's time to present that menu,” he says.
“So guests will notice the food will change with the season.
“We used to just do Italian and French (food) and now the definition of what a bistro is has evolved, so changing up the menu makes it nice and interesting,” he says.
Guests also have the option of changing the menu to their preference if they don’t want to do the full three course.
The Caribbean was the first region that was launched on March 28 and we were lucky enough to try it out.
For starters there was Jamaican hake fritters with pineapple and cabbage coleslaw and lemon.
The main was a spicy Cuban Pollo Asado which comes with pulled roasted chicken, citrus, mini wraps and salsa. The idea of this dish is to create your own wrap.
Dessert was a simple Jamaican coconut ice cream.
Served in true bistro style, each of the dishes reminded me of a simple, home cooked meal. The flavours of each dish worked very well together, although I could have gone without the ice cream.
In the coming weeks guests can expect meals like lamb kofta from North Africa, pork belly teriyaki from Japan, Cambodian lime marinated beef salad and spicy blackened beef salad from Louisiana.
* Check out all the upcoming regions and their wine pairing at societi.co.za/bistros.