Flavour's Cafe, British Council, Lilongwe

In the breezy and leafy City Center area of Lilongwe, which is home to banks like NBS, Standard Chartered, Airtel, TAWA and other offices lies tucked away a small cafe called Flavours. Its inside the British Council and is accessible by everyone from morning 7 to 4 in the evening. This quaint cafe servers food under the shade of trees and some garden umbrellas. A small area is designated as smoking but you can smoke anywhere as long as not too many people are around.

The clientele is a majority of expats and locals working in the nearby offices. The cafe serves English Breakfasts in the morning and light eats like Sandwiches, Burgers, Pies (when available), coffee, tea and soft drinks. No Alcohol is served. For lunch it also serves meals of Chicken or Beef Stew and salad with Rice or Nsima(the Maize porridge staple of Malawi, quite like South African Pap).

It is a nice place to have a quiet cup of coffee, (their Cappuccinos are great), grab a nice healthy and quite hygienic meal with decent prices. But mind that Malawi is a country with a lot of shortages, so prices on the menu fluctuate very often. The staff is very friendly and although sometimes the food takes time to come on your table, their genial smile makes up for it. It is also a nice place to meet some new people and sometimes you can get to know about local events happening around the area.

All in all a nice place in the heart of Lilongwe City Centre. As the area lacks any decent eating places even though so many offices abound, it is sometimes the only saving grace for breakfast or lunch.

I have tried their coffees, burgers and wraps. All of them were good and amply generous in portions.

I should have written this review on Trip-advisor but somehow trip-advisor does not let me submit reviews, even though I am registered to it. Because of the slow internet speed am  unable to post any pictures of it right now, but trust me its green, clean and chilled.

Address: Flavours Cafe, British Council, City Center, Lilongwe
Average cost of Food: Around USD 2 for a coffee to around USD 10 - 15 for a meal.
Ambiance: Excellent
Staff: Friendly.

Flash Rains on an African Afternoon

Ok this incident happened 2 months back, to be precise on 27th December 2011. It usually is a very lazy time of the year with Christmas and Boxing day gone, all the gifts opened, parties enjoyed, people met, turkey eaten blah blah blah and just waiting for New Years Eve. So anyways getting back to the topic.

It was a very hot day, as in Southern Africa Christmas comes in summer so no white Christmas here folks !!! So it was a very hot and stuffy day and I was just relaxing outside with a Cold beer as it was too hot inside even with the AC on. It wasn't too better outside as well but Achhh.. atleast I had a beer. So while I was sweating and moaning all of a Sudden these dark clouds come and cover the sky. It was almost instantaneous from a Blue Sky to Dark Clouds with Loud Thunder Claps. The Thundering sounded like distant guns opening up. And then the rain, it hit in great swells and peals and it seemed as if the heavens had opened a Big Tap of Rain, I could smell the p such was the intensity of the water, you could smell the sweet petrichor. And just like that after 30 mins of raining, it stopped. Although the sky still remained cloudy the rain stopped and everything looked shiny and fresh.

And far in the horizon I saw a rainbow, a big one and I remembered the story about the leprechaun story of a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Well the end of the rainbow looked like it was in one of the infamous townships "DiepSloot" so I didn't want to take a chance at that pot of gold. I couldn't get a picture of the rainbow but I did click some pictures of before the rain and during the rain.