Impala

One of the nice things about living in the Middle East is that it is close to so many other places. India, Europe, Africa are all "relatively" close by and so you have an opportunity to try all sorts of exotic foods and cuisines.

Last night a friend invited a bunch of us to his majlis for dinner. When we arrived we sat around chatting while our host went to his kitchen to get the food: lamb kebabs, some steak and, most importantly, some fresh impala meat!

Where the heck did that come from? A friend of his was in South Africa on a hunting vacation and brought back some impala. Easy enough to do I suppose when Qatar Airways has direct flights to South Africa (heck, they have direct flights to almost everywhere) but I'm still surprised he brought it to Qatar. I am now so used to flight and customs restrictions that it would have never dawned on me to even attempt to bring meat with me on a flight. I guess Qatar Customs has no issue with fresh impala.

Needless to say I had never tasted any type of antelope before. It did taste somewhat like venison though the taste was not as strong (gamy?) as deer. Some of the guys found the meat tough to chew due to sinew but I guess the pieces I had were free of sinew as I didn't find it hard to chew at all.

Nice meal, glad to have had an opportunity to try it.