I was born to live here
This epiphany came to me late one afternoon after receiving one of those let’s-get-to-know-each-other-better emails where you get asked 101 questions about your favourite food, movies, hobbies, loo habits and much more.
When I had to enter my favourite foods, I really wanted to impress with dishes like Crêpe Suzette’s, Lobster Thermidor and Escargot. This will make me seem more normal, I thought. And normal is good. But the small little voice of conviction kept on prompting, urging… Yeah, okay, dammit!
I’ll choose pap and braaivleis. And real boerekos. Any day. There you have it! Fancy food just doesn’t tickle my taste buds. Give me Vetkoek, Boerebeskuit, Potjiekos, Samoosas, Melkkos, Durban curries, Koeksisters and Milk tart. Any day.
If I had to live anywhere but here, I would get seriously homesick for real food. It has dawned upon me that I was born to live in South Africa. I don’t want to be fancy; I just want to be free to be me. And I love plain ‘ol South African cooking!
Totally agree, although I found a lekker twist to the lobster thermidore, South African style. Freshly caught crayfish that has been butterflied (split in half). You add lemon juice and garlic and place the crayfish, shell down on a braai, stunning! Much better than “creamy cheesy mixture of cooked lobster meat” and cheaper too.
This qualifies as “braai” which means it has my stamp of approval! There is this great little place in Langebaan called “Die Strandloper” – a real primitive gem. You sit on the beach for a crayfish braai, snoek, fresh bread, farm butter, home-made jams and moerkoffie. Lovely!
Sounds awesome! I had my experience in Xai Xai Mozambique, I stayed in a house on the beach and each morning a guy would run up the beach with a bag of freshly baked Mozambican sweet bread for breakfast, and each afternoon, that same guy would run up the beach with a bag full of freshly caught crayfish. I think we payed R20 for 4 generously sized crayfish. It was a stunning trip overall, truly memorable.
Next time I’m in Langebaan, I will def give the restaurant a go.
Those things are so nice the South Africans import them to England because they just can’t live without them! Quite a lot of South Africans make a roaring business baking rusks, koesisters and vetkoek from home and some men try their hand at various boerewors recipes – so funny – most of them have a sausage maker at home. You can buy the real thing at the South African butchers scattered all over but at a price of course. Samoosas – too plenty in the shops as we have a lot of Indian, Pakistani people here and curries as well – I am not really a lover of latter. Milk tart, o yes! Even with a very wide selection of tomato ketchup available at the shops including Heinz etc., South African still flock to the South African outlets to buy All Gold! I can’t afford it, but many won’t touch anything else. Fortunately we can buy Mrs Balls (various varieties) in most of the chain stores as well as Rooibos of course if you like it. Another funny thing is Fanta Orange – it tastes totally different to South Africa’s Fanta Orange – it has real orange juice and is the colour of Orange Juice as well – not as sweet. Cream Soda here is the colour of Limonade … not green. So, some things bring us a little closer to home (through taste) and some things make us realise that we are actually not at home …