Nando's is a brand that needs no introduction, but I'm going to take a stab at giving it one anyway. A chicken restaurant specialising in Portuguese/Mozambican cuisine (well... okay, maybe cuisine is too strong a word), it's been one of my favourite chain restaurants for a long time. Given that it is basically a glorified fast-food joint - except it serves marinated chicken instead of burgers - it stood out to me in my student days for one important reason: they provided you with, and invited you to make wholesome use of, very large bottles of chilli sauce of varying heats and flavours. I used to have a competition with a regular companion at the chilli-fest to see if we could completely finish an entire bottle in one sitting.
Nando's, being a chain and with a keen eye for marketing (garnering criticism for some incendiary advertising in South Africa), have of course been selling Nando's chilli sauces in supermarkets for years. Unfortunately, a combination of tiny bottle sizes and a slightly different recipe (presumably designed to improve the shelf life - the restaurant sauces don't stick around long, especially with diners like me around) meant that I'd never taken to them, not because I didn't like them, but because it always reminded that I wasn't able to slather my dinner in the stuff as I could at the restaurant. I was occasionally tempted into trying a reasonably sized bottle of the marinade, but being a marinade rather than a table sauce, it was never really up to much.
Fast forward to about a year ago, and I spotted two "special edition" style sauces (in a large Asda, as it happens, although you can also buy them through the Nando's website). Transfixed by what appeared to be a generous portion (a whole 250ml!) of what promised to be a slightly special sauce, I had to buy both of them.
And ate all the way through the bottle without reviewing them.
Luckily, I've managed to get my mitts on a second set of bottles... and very nearly haven't gotten round to writing up a review again, so I guess I'd better use the last few drops to review the Nando's Bushveld Braai peri-peri sauce. Bushveld is a woodland region in Southern Africa, at the corners of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, and a Braai is a sort of Afrikaans barbecue.
Tasting Notes: The sauce, like many Nando's sauces, is runny but textured. Less usual are the occasional chunks of what appear to be green pepper (from reading the label). The smell is rich and tangy, with an edge of garlic and tomato. The flavour is surprisingly sweet, almost as sweet as a thai sweet chilli dipping sauce, but with that lovely rich, peri-peri flavour.
What it's Good For: This is a touch tricky, because the sweetness probably rules out a few obvious savoury dishes. Sauce this good is also completely wasted when added to another sauce (such as for pasta). It is pretty similar to traditional barebcue sauce with it's rich sweetness and piquancy (although it's really a different beast, since it doesn't have the dark molasses flavour of a BBQ sauce). It'd go well as a dip, or (like the label suggests) a topping for meat or sausages. It also goes well on cheese-on-toast, as long as the cheese is fairly mild.
Final Thoughts: This is a lovely stand-alone sauce, and along with it's partner (review pending!), I rate it very highly indeed. I wish it was more widely available, I'd take every opportunity to buy a bottle!
The Verdict: An unusual, delicious, Nando's-y twist on barbecue sauce.
