The Pearl of Africa

Dinner at The Pearl of Africa

Without recommendations or actually confirming it, I'm relatively sure that The Pearl of Africa is one of the top restaurants in Uganda. Luckily, it's in my hotel and an easy commute.

Pearl of Africa is a modern looking restaurant with some African cultural references, but mostly modern in decor. The dining room is large and expansive, even in this large and expansive hotel. The layout is serious fine dining. The captains are in suits and the servers are in proper uniforms and it's easy to see you're in one of the most serious dining rooms in the nation.


Clearing the table.

I'm seated right away and it's pretty light in the dining room on this Wednesday night. The staff is attentive and asks if I'd like some passion fruit juice to start. Soon they've whisked the non-essential tableware away and leave the table open and spacious for my dining experience.

One of the most wonderful things about Kampala is that the people are so darn nice and friendly. Everywhere I go, people say hello, greet you, ask you how you are doing and welcome you to their nation. Everyone at Pearl is wonderfully nice and very accommodating.


They know how to entertain solo diners.

One of the trickier parts of dining alone is what to do with yourself. Here I am, sitting in a fine dining restaurant, the other occupied tables are filled with couples, lovers or friends while I'm at a four top with my little camera and iPhone to keep me company. For most restaurants, this could be tricky waters, not so for these guys - they've got a selection of reading materials to offer me. I pick a recent copy of Time Magazine.



Amuse Bouche: Chicken Mousseline.

Soon, the food starts coming. First up is an amuse bouche of Chicken Mousseline. It's a simple chicken mousse that's not bad served on pickled vegetables with a sweet sauce that's reminiscent of that Chinese style duck sauce - but not that sweet.

I decided to pass on the Ksh75,000 prix fix meal and go with the a la carte selections. Wasn't sure what to try but my Captain steered me towards some selections that sounded interesting: Spinach Soup then a Rack of Lamb.


White and Garlic breads.

While I really would like to rave about how amazing the food was at Pearl of Africa and that it's one of the most delicate and incredible meals I've had of late, I can't. The food is good. It's nicely prepared and done with care but it just doesn't blow me away.

The technique is grounded in French and cooking is solid. This is good and decent cooking. I've yet to find any meal at the Kampala Serena Hotel to be unenjoyable and this food doesn't disappoint in that way. Where it does let me down is that it doesn't taste that much elevated from the rest of the hotel's restaurant operations. And that's a little bit disappointing.


Soft butter.

To be honest, it really pains me to write that. The Kampala Serena Hotel has literally been my host in Kampala and the people who work here have been incredibly friendly and welcoming and I feel terrible that I can't rave incessantly about the meal. The staff was great, the welcome warm and sincere, but was the meal that different than the other restaurants? Sadly, no.

But let me temper that thought. My meal here was nice. Nicely prepared and nicely cooked. It cost me USh70,500 - which, by the hotel's conversion rate of USh2,000 to one dollar means that my meal cost me US$35.25 - and absolute steal considering the food, the quality, the service and the restaurant environment.



Cream of Spinach Soup.

In fact the meal isn't that much more costly than eating at the other restaurants in the hotel. For thirty-five dollars, I've eaten in a restaurant with lovely decor, a live pianist (who's excellent, by the way), with Michelin 3star style service in an environment that anywhere else in the world would cost hundreds of dollars to eat alone in - and I got some reading material to boot.

Taken that way, it's really one helluva deal.



Rack of Lamb - vegetables and mushroom rice.




Cheese Plate - gouda, brie & bleu.




The Bill: about US$35.




A throne.

Judges Training: Kampala

Morning Breakfast: muesli, papaya, egg white omelette, sausage, chicken, crumpet and paneer something.

Every morning starts in relatively the same manner: I wake up late because I'm sleeping at 3-4am and then rush to breakfast and then my driver meets me in the lobby before taking me through the streets of Kampala to classes at the Uganda Coffee Development Authority complex.

The weather here is interesting. Overall, it's quite nice. The mornings start out warn and slightly humid, building to hot and a little more humid by early afternoon. A couple hours later, it starts to cool down with breezes, then by night, the temperature drops to cool and low humidity. I would have thought that life this close to the Equator would be hot, hot, hot - but so far, so good. It's a balance of sweating and not sweating.


A morning cappuccino.

Today is the one and only day for Judges Training. Tomorrow competition begins and I'm tasked with making sure that the judges are up to speed on the latest rule changes and judging techniques. It's not monumentally difficult, just a bit tasking since I'm the only one here to train, certify and act as head judge for the championship. In other words, I'm here all by my lonesome.

Straightaway, we go at it. After introductions, I send the group to the tasting table where there are four sets of three coffee samples: Triangulation Time. For those unfamiliar, Triangulation is when you are presented with a set of three coffees. Two of them are the same, one is odd - your task is to identify the odd coffee in the set.


Boda boda operators ply their trade.

I prefer to keep the anonymity of the sets intact and have left the actual setup and brewing of the coffees to Clare - only she knows the key for the test. In an ideal world, we would do eight sets but today we're a bit limited on both time and coffee, and leave it at four sets. Four sets makes for harsher scores (one miss and you're already at 75%) but I'm looking to see how they perform and not necessarily setting up criteria with Triangulation for elimination.

From there, we discuss rule changes and go over the scoresheets, criteria by criteria. Definitions and examples are discussed. Potential problems and issues are brought up. Practical applications are demonstrated and then we show them actual samples to grade and discuss.


Judge trainees doing coffee triangulations.

After lunch, it's time for mock demonstrations. Mark Okuta, 2009 UNBC 4th Place and 2010 competitor, is invited to come and demonstrate for the judges. He does mock rounds of espresso and cappuccino for rotating teams of judges.

Towards the end of the day, I sit them down for the written examination. Sixty-nine questions totaling 167 points of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks and true/false questions challenge the judges. I read over the test and find a few conflicts and questions with multiple possible answers. I wonder to myself: Who wrote this thing? and make a point not to penalize for certain answers. I also make a mental note to make corrections to the test for future trainings.


Which coffee is the odd coffee of the three?

Everyone is finished and it's time to hit the road. The day is over. Trainings are complete. Time for competition.

We pile into Edmunds SUV and head to the Sheraton to load in the equipment and start setting up. While the crew installs and builds, I work on the schedules. This is my first outing as Head Judge and I'm now seeing the administrative work that I've left up to Rouki, Scott or Brent over the years. Part of me secretly likes being the junior judge.

A couple hours later, the sun has set and they drop me off at my hotel. Time to freshen up and get ready for competition tomorrow.


Thanks to barismo for sponsoring our training coffees!




Judges sit down for a little lunch.




My lunch of beef, rice and veggie.




Mark Okuta gets some experience as our demonstration competitor.




And faces a stringent panel of judges.




Brenda sits for her written examination.




Intently answering questions worth up to 167 points.




Museveni watches us everywhere we go.




Unloading a refrigerator.




The espresso machines arrive at the venue.

Koffee Kampala, Part Two

Rachel, Clare and Peter ride.

After a day of working with baristas, tasting, cupping, drinking, sampling and scoring coffees, I'm pretty much through with coffee. I can barely drink another cup. It's disgusting me right now.

But our agenda calls for visiting a few more of Kampala's coffee shops and we're off in the little Toyota Corolla in search of something coffee.

I'll let the photos do the talking but we did toss in a meal at Faze 2 and Clare decidedly told me not to go to a place called Speke Hotel (where some Australian dudes told me to check out) because there's lots of "girls" there. Evidently, easy girls or girls "of the night."

So much for that noise.



Good African Coffee - the cafe.




Peter at the Good African Coffee bar.




Rachel "uh huh"!




Good African Coffee Macchiato




Peter and his smoothie.




Sunset over Kampala.




Getting screened at Cafe Pap's first location.




The Bar at Cafe Pap.




Clear Chicken and Corn Soup. A bit salty.




Bancafe Coffee's original location.




Espresso.




Fresh Watermelon Juice.




Our hostess: Percy and the FB-80.




Arriving Faze 2.




Butter Chicken.




Our Crew: Clare, Rachel, Myself and Peter.


< Grade AB Ugandan Arabica Coffee.




Salim shows his stash of competition coffees for blending.

Kampala Barista, Day Two

Morning rush hour.

Morning finds its way into my room as the sunlight streams through the open patio doorway and I'm rousted from not so very deep sleep. The clock reads "8:00" and at least I'm not late. After a quick breakfast of yogurt and muesli, my driver is waiting in the lobby and we're off onto the streets of Kampala for the morning commute.

Kampala's traffic is interesting. It's not the urban commuting hell of Manila in the 1990s and it's nowhere near as bad as modern-day Washington D.C., which means it's not that bad overall. The notable thing about Kampala as we careen through its streets with the windows down is the light acridity in the air. It's the same acridity I've smelled around the world in developing nations, in the provinces and in many places I've visited. It's so familiar that I'm nearly comforted by the smell.


Ladies with fruit.

When we arrive at the offices, only a couple of baristas are waiting. In Africa, like many places around the world, "on time" means a little late!

As everyone flows in, things pick up from yesterday. A question and answer session followed by practical demonstrations on how to improve the workflow on the station and a quick course in espresso extraction.

From there, it's open session where everyone starts pulling shots and making cappuccinos. I'm there to simply taste, answer questions, guide and give scores.


Grading coffee at the office.

I'm not really big on simply telling the baristas their scores. I want them to understand the scores. As a competitor, I always was mystified by the scores. Why this score instead of a better score? We discuss and review each shot or capp. I query the barista about what they would score that drink. I want them to look at their drink as they hand it to their judges and know what their score should be. There should be no surprises. None of this "that's a four" when it really is a two.

They ask questions, they make drinks, they ask more questions and they make more drinks. One of the best and toughest questions asked was if the judges would understand the references in their presentations, like would the judge understand what "blackberry" meant? It reminded me of the times when I truly felt that the judges I presented to in the USBC and its regionals were simply incompetent. Okay, perhaps not incompetent, but certainly lacking in the expertise, skill and experience in coffee and cuisine to properly assess my beverages.

Secretly, I worried that I might certify a judge not equipped to properly judge these baristas.



Roasting green.

Some of the baristas started demo-ing their signature drinks. Listening to signature drinks is a fascinating experience for me because it kind of details the experience level of the barista. Less experienced baristas take certain routes, while more experienced baristas take different routes and experiment with different ingredients. I gently try to encourage the baristas to consider their ingredients and perhaps consider if there is something from their culture they can incorporate into their presentation.

All sorts of questions about flavors, coffees, blends, mixing and more arrives on my desk. Like any barista, they want answers. Yet the only real answer still lies within them. How do you describe the coffee? Describe it as it is. At times, I realize that I'm offering non-answers - the exact answers the baristas don't want to hear. Some simply want to be told that they're offering me a five or six. I ask them for their score assessment and simply confirm whether or not I would allow that score as a Head Judge. Some I ask to defend.


The baristas admire Ugandan coffee from the States.

In many ways, what I've been teaching them over these past two days is a modified Judges Certification Course - without all the sensory and written tests. We talk about scoresheets and their values. We talk about dropping certain scores in favor of others. I remind them that World Barista Champion Mike Phillips only received 3.5 for his espressos and he still won the title (meaning that their 2.5 isn't that bad).

Is the capp hot enough? Too cold? Is this one sweeter than that one? What score should that have? Why? Sometimes I even tell them "No." No way in hell is that espresso a four...

We talk about what makes a zero, what makes a one and the difficulty between 5.5 and 6.0. I remind some that there is no "0.5" score, it's Zero or One.



Thank you to coffee sponsors Woody and One Village Coffee!!!

Some make the most of their time while others bide their time. With some, I think to myself: You've got the opportunity to ask questions and work with someone who's been on both sides of this table. The same person who will be your head judge in a couple of days. Ask me anything and everything about the competition and I will tell you. Don't pass up this opportunity. Some do, others don't.

One girl spent most of the afternoon pulling shots but never bringing them to me to evaluate together. Too embarrassed? Another refused to taste the drinks she prepared. I finally told her that I would not taste any drink she wouldn't drink herself.

Mark spent most of the day picking my brains and asking me questions on how to develop his competition blend. Hell bent on using three beans, we cupped the coffees, blended the coffees, pulled shots with the coffees until he arrived at something he liked and thinks can work. Last year, he placed 4th. He's dedicated, passionate and exploited my time for all its worth. I'm happy to be exploited in that way.



The girls lounging about.

Regardless on how he finishes this weekend, Mark has made a very positive impression and I expect that he will do pretty well. Lots of passion and dedication goes a long way.

Tomorrow is judges training and then the 4th Ugandan Barista Championship begins on Thursday, November 25th at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala at 9am. Or maybe ten...


Mark cupping coffees for his competition blend.




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Lunch at Little Ritz In Africa.




We left Mark pondering cappuccinos.