A Taste of Africa at S.A.L.T. Kitchen

S.A.L.T. Kitchen aboard Silversea’s Silver Muse brings the places we visit to the dinner table. The name stands for Sea and Land Taste, and the idea is to explore the food, traditions, and culture of the regions we sail through. It invites us to understand a destination through its cooking, with a menu that gives us something to discover along the way.

On this voyage down the coast of Africa, Chef Joycely has done a masterful job of bringing those culinary traditions aboard the Muse. There is such thoughtfulness behind the menu, and I wanted to give it the attention it deserved.

So I decided to do a tasting. Four starters and four main courses.

Because why not?

For me, food is one of the pleasures of traveling. And when someone has taken this much care to introduce you to the cooking of a place, it seems a shame to order only what you already know.

First came Fataya and Kani, a golden fried pastry filled with aromatic chicken, served with kani chilli sauce. It’s an approachable place to begin if you’re a little hesitant about unfamiliar dishes. A filled pastry, a sauce to explore, and suddenly you’re trying something new.

Salade Bassamoise introduced a dish from the Ivory Coast: cassava couscous with crunchy vegetables, fresh herbs, and spices, resting on butter lettuce and topped with crispy fried onions. Even the couscous offers something to discover here, made from cassava rather than the wheat many of us associate with it.

Then came Boulettes de Poisson, Senegalese hake fish balls served with a West African tomato sauce. Another reminder that an ingredient you know can become an entirely different dish in someone else’s kitchen.

Akara with Oxtail Pâté paired black-eyed bean fritters with oxtail and rof green sauce. This is why I wanted a tasting. How could I pass up the opportunity to explore a combination like that?

And then we moved on to the main courses. I was committed at this point.

Maafe brought root vegetables together in a peanut and tomato sauce. I liked seeing a vegetable dish given its own place in the tasting, with just as much attention to the sauce and preparation.

Thieboudienne, described on the menu as arguably Senegal’s national dish, combined grouper, vegetables, and rice with a spiced tomato sauce. This is the sort of dish I want to try when I travel: something that has a connection to the place we’re visiting and gives me a reason to learn more.

The Jollof Rice and Efo Riro was a colorful plate of tomato-and-spice rice, fried plantains, and stewed collard greens. Rice, greens, and plantains, each with a role on the plate. A good reminder to read beyond the main ingredient when choosing dinner.

Then there was Moambe Chicken, caramelised chicken prepared in Chef Joycely’s cayenne-spiced peanut butter sauce, accompanied by rice and fried plantains. If your eye goes straight to chicken because it feels familiar, this preparation gives you a chance to venture a little further.

Alongside all of this was a special cocktail made just for me by the mixologist from the S.A.L.T. Bar. Coral-colored, with a dried pineapple slice and a dark cherry, it deserved its own photograph. I loved the thoughtfulness of someone creating something especially for me.

And yes, there was dessert.

Pavé de Ginguba, the iconic Angolan peanut cake, arrived with layers of sponge and peanut filling, finished with chopped peanuts. After tasting my way through the menu, I certainly wasn’t going to leave the cake unexplored.

I’m not suggesting you need to order four starters and four main courses on your next trip. I may have been particularly enthusiastic.

But try one thing you wouldn’t normally order. Ask about an ingredient you don’t recognize. Let the chef or your server tell you a little about the dish. You don’t have to love everything you try, but you might discover something you would never have known to look for.

That is what made this evening at S.A.L.T. Kitchen worth sharing. Chef Joycely gave us an invitation to explore the food of the coast we’re sailing, with care and thought behind every plate.

I was very happy to accept.

What is a dish you discovered while traveling that you still think about?