Food glorious food

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We ate constantly! South Africa has so much variety it's a foodie heaven, and Alison and her crew are deep into the Banting diet so add that element to the table. Not only is the food plentiful and uniquely theirs, it is also cheap. You can eat out for dinner with a glass of wine and spend less than TT $100.00 which is almost 200Rand.

The list of genuinely South African food available is long. That warmed my heart, to find people there eating their own food and not going down the road of KFC and McDonalds. They do have those of course, Subway, Wendy's etc but they are few and far between, at least in the Cape as far as I saw.



So what is so South African? First off there is Biltong .... All manner of meat and some fruits, dried to preserve them. And the meats include Ostrich, Eland, Kudu, plus the usual suspects beef, pork, lamb etc. The native animals to the country are protected and on view at game parks, but farms are also allowed to cultivate them for food. Ostrich meat for example is often found on menus. It is a very red meat, but it is soft and succulent. Those ostriches have some juicy thighs! Those meats are also used to make sausages, called wors, so there are numerous kinds of sausages. I imagine it's a hangover from the Dutch/German occupation days. Hot dogs made from those real meat sausages are not like the awful ones that we have. During our township visit we ate typical food of the african community, and that also included wors. And grilled lamb.





South Africa's coast has two oceans, Atlantic and Indian, both are rich in sea food, and fish like snoek are highly rated. We had snoek at the fish braai in Cape Town when we first arrived. Braai incidentally is bbq! South Africans, all of them regardless of race, love braai. We also ate several dozens of large scrumptious oysters, offered in restaurants, but most memorably at the Sedgefield farmers market on Saturdays when we were out in the country. There was a pub called the Oyster Bar as well, where we naturally had fresh oysters. The Mossel Bay Area (at the Point of Human Origins) is well known for oysters and mussels (Mossel) and I tasted some soft and delicious mussels from Judy's order at a Cape Town restaurant. Smoked salmon is frequently offered on the menu but it seems to be an import from Norway as South Africa's waters have salmon trout fish and not the freshwater salmon.





Corn is grown in South Africa - the staple diet of the african communities is "mielie pap". It looks like a very sticky white rice but is actually made from white corn or mielie meal. We ate mieliele pap for lunch when we visited Langa township. I learned that during the horror years of apartheid life for africans in the townships was so hard they survived by eating the stalks of the corn plants which they pounded to make it edible.





My personal fav dish of all the foods I tried is undoubtedly Boboetie (Bo bwa tee) a legacy of the Malay Cape Town district called Bo Kaap. It's a tasty pie - a cheese topping over minced meats cooked with Indian herbs and spices, served with side dishes like yellow rice, chutney, coconut etc. Ate it three times and loved it all three times. The best was at Jemimas restaurant in the Oudtshoorn district after the weekend in Prince Albert.





There is a wide range of fruit and veg in the KwikSpar and Woolworths Supermarkets. Huge mangoes and small avocados. In searching for limes to make rum punch we discovered that baby lemons - with thick skins and no juice - were being passed off and sold as limes. Not at all a substitute! What looked, smelled and tasted to me like passion fruit is known as granadilla. But the current foodie craze of Banting is threatening to put some products out of business if they get their way. Carnivores will be back and others will suffer. Banting is a weight-loss stay-fit diet promoted by a South African man, which is sweeping the corridors in the same way that earlier diets have. About 50% of all conversations seemed to be about it!





In the beverages section, South Africa makes great cheap wine. And South Africans drink their wine in quantities, which is great. Reds, whites, rose, sparkling.... the full range, and at less than half the cost of a bottle of wine here. Makes me want to cry! Their beer is also really good, Castle and Windhoek are the top labels I believe.





I got an insight into the home brew called Sogum, the beer of poor africans, when we were in Langa township. In the townships the sogum brew is made by someone who lives in the neighborhood, in their shack. A large bucket of the brew is made, which simmers overnight over a small coal fire. The drinkers gather at the brewer's shack where they sit around on benches patiently, for hours, sipping then passing the bucket around from hand to hand. Yes, Of course I tried some! We got there just as the brew was fresh off the fire so I got to blow away the top frothy bubbles and take the first sip! Strong! And I can't say what it tasted like. It just tasted like itself. Sogum beer. The bucket was quite heavy, filled to the brim, and I should add, I was afraid I would spill it. So it was a most vivid and outstanding experience of my visit to South Africa. Drinking Sogum beer made by Mambhele for the Zone 20 residents of Langa township.





When we arrived she was in the midst of preparing another dish on her tiny single burner stove. It sits in the middle of the room on a dirt floor. The ceiling is quite low. The walls are covered with accumulated layers of black soot from the stove. There are two long benches along the farthest walls. The harsh brightness of daylight coming through the single open doorway makes inside the room look pitch black. It gives an added air of desperation and sadness to the circumstances, the hopelessness of those township lives that gather silently in the kitchen each day. Sogum beer is their escape.





The dish on the stove is Umfino, made with green vegetables, mielie pap and okra. It resembles callaloo but I didn't get a taste of it as it was still being cooked. I left Mambhele's shack with a heaviness. There was no laughter no light no optimism in that dark room. For me it summed up what I sensed as the overriding life for many, probably most, africans living in the townships. I will blog about that separately.





Flipping the eating experience coin to the other extreme. We had a truly lovely dinner in the countryside near Knysna at the "Veg Table". Old, rustic timber cottage at the end of a really rough overgrown and soggy (from unseasonal weather) dirt track. In the bush. Miles from anywhere. It's at Brett's home, he is the some time chef who says of himself that he is not a cook but a botanist. His home is cosy and old fashioned with mismatched glassware, odd silver cutlery and candlesticks. He uses an old enameled wood burning stove with pull-out drawers and mismatched old enamel cooking pots on the stove top. The place felt like an old house that's seen better days but still welcomes you as its guest anyway.





BUT the word is definitely out! VegTable is a hot item place to eat. Opens just 3 nights a week, dinner only. Seats 16 persons, BYOB style (bring your own bottle) and the menu is whatever the cook is preparing that day. By the time we got there - advance booking essential - the place was full. We ate deliciously tasty vegetarian food prepared with love and painstaking attention.

Our 4 course menu comprised: Fig stuffed with soft feta cheese as starter

Squash with carrots in sauce was next

Main dish of delicious gnocchi with Gorgonzola sauce

Decadent desert - pastry base topped with 80% chocolate syrup over vanilla bean ice cream

Both Brett and the young woman assisting him in the kitchen served the tables, and regularly checked to see how everyone was doing in between bustling in the kitchen. Another young man appeared briefly to put a dish on the old stove but he never came to the front.

On leaving I scored a big farewell hug and kiss on the cheek from Brett. He was a lovely person who had made delicious food that was truly gourmet organic veggie. The VegTable is added to my list of memorable experiences.



Two other little restaurants make it on my list. In Cape Town there is the bustling sidewalk and shared table experience simply called "The Kitchen." Full of joy and smiles, where the woman whose brainchild started as the Love Sandwich but has bcome a bigger legend. She is Karen Dudley with a big, all embracing, laughing personality. She is constantly in and out moving between the hot kitchen and the hectic Food service/eating area. And always stopped to chat when people wanted her time! I loved the place..... so too it seems did Michele Obama as she stopped here for lunch during their visit (or was that an error by the driver who should have taken her to the nearby, posh, up market experimental place called The Test Kitchen?!!) well whatever, there's a little Michele memento, a wooden puppet on the wall where I sat. It's all very friendly.

http://www.lovethekitchen.co.za



Out in the old Dutch town of Swellendam on our return drive to Cape Town I discovered a surprising triumph of black woman ownership. It's called The Old Gaol, a restaurant started with funding under the entrepreneurship enterprise scheme to develop black businesses. This was in 2001. Four years later the original owners gave 30% share ownership in the business to four of its women on staff. Today one of the four women, Michelle, is still there as owner, manager and worker along with the son of one of the other owners. I asked to meet Michelle as I just wanted to wish her success. It is a good situation which should lead the country, still divided by privilege, to a solid future.

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Photos

Sogum beer, an overflowing bucket full
taking the first mouthful with assistance from Nhoza!

Township food at Mzoli's in Langa
mielie pap, sausage, lamb braai and some veg

A braai set up at the foot of Swartberg pass
The beloved open air bbq surprisingly hasn't translated into a thriving street food business at least not in Cape Town.