THINKING OF GOING GREEN?
PThe decision to go plantbased starts with knowing what options and alternatives are available out there, says Jessica Kotlowitz, registered dietician at The Green Dietitian in Cape Town. Take a look at your existing meals and see how you can make easy shifts and replacements to make them plant-based.
SOME OF JESSICA’S TOP TIPS INCLUDE:
Have a chat with your loved ones about your intent to go vegan. Tell them why you want to eat a plant-based diet and ask for their support. The biggest challenge is usually social integration. Know your supplements. It’s important to take a vitamin B12 supplement when on a plantbased diet. Others may need additional supplements depending on their phase of life and diet. If you’re feeling unsure about how to meet your nutrient needs or have a specific health condition that requires more dietary advice, be sure to consult with a registered dietician who’s knowledgeable about plant-based diets.
foods, but also to the sustainability and farming of what we eat,” Wendy says.
AM and Wendy, who’ve been living in the States for almost 20 years, say their love of food started in childhood.
Growing up on the east coast of SA and being part of a big family influenced their palates.
“Our dad, who’s now passed on, was Swati, and our mom is coloured, so we’d have your typical big brown family functions that always involved good food,” Wendy says.
“Durban was always a melting pot of diverse cultures and when we were young we had lots of Indian and Muslim family friends, which has influenced what we offer our customers today.”
The sisters left SA in their 20s with big dreams to travel and work abroad. Both applied to be au pairs in the US, with Pam landing a job in San Francisco while Wendy got a job with a family in Orange County, California. Wendy later moved to San Francisco to be closer to her twin.
It was the 2010 Soccer World Cup a few years later, hosted by SA, that started them on their entrepreneurial journey.
Wanting to impress their US friends with an SA-themed party, the twins realised there were no caterers around that made the dishes they wanted to serve.
No bunny chows, braaied meat or chakalaka.
“Pam was always cooking for our gatherings with friends, so she whipped up some of that home-cooked goodness and not long after that everyone was asking where they could get more,” Wendy says.
So the sisters secured a spot in downtown San Francisco and started selling street food and that’s how Amawele’s – the Zulu word for twins – was born.
“We were running this takeaway spot in the financial district where you see men in suits and ties all day and they were queuing up to order our bunny chows and frikkadels and slapchip rolls,” Pam says. “We’ll never forget those days.”
It was all new to the sisters and they butted heads sometimes, but once they decided who would do what things went more smoothly.
“I had to then step back and let Pam do her thing in the kitchen because she’s the better cook, while I’m better at handling the business side of things,” Wendy explains.
AMAWELE’S South African Kitchen grew over the years and the sisters eventually branched out into corporate catering and also made a rooibos iced tea.
But they hit a bump in the road in 2020 when everything came to a standstill because of the pandemic. They also suffered a huge personal loss when their dad died from Covid.
“I personally developed a very unhealthy relationship with food and ended up gaining weight,” Wendy says. “We couldn’t come back to SA to lay our dad to rest and on top of that it was a stressful time as business owners because everything was shut down and no one was having functions or corporate events.”
The sisters decided to get back into the kitchen and come up with something new. They used the last of their savings to turn their rooibos iced tea into an alcoholic beverage infused with vodka.
“We crafted Red Pearl Spirits – because everyone in the States was at home and drinking,” Pam says with a laugh. “We launched that last year and our drink won double gold and silver at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.”
Being part of You Are What You Eat was yet another joint adventure for the sisters who do everything together. It was an intense eight weeks for the serious foodies, but especially for Pam, who was on a strict vegan diet for the duration of the show.
“One of the weekends we had to work an event and cater for a group,” Wendy says. “We braaied meat and there was cheese and wine and Pam’s eating plan was entirely plant-based with no animal products.”
“Whipping up cheesy scrambled eggs for them that weekend was a tough one,” Pam says. “I can go without meat, but eggs and cheese – it was too much and we both thought I was going to crack!”
The findings of the experiment presented on the docuseries suggest that a plant-based diet is healthier than an omnivore diet, but some critics have slammed the programme for being biased and “anti-meat”.
Neither Pam nor Wendy became vegan after the show, but agree that being part of the experiment has made them more mindful of what they eat.
But there’s one homemade delicacy they’d never give up.
“I’ve cut down on meat,” Wendy says. “But thankfully we don’t live near a biltong shop – because I don’t think I could stay away from biltong!”