A culinary compendium alive with local flavour
Myrna Robins enjoyed the gastronomic trip through our provinces, but questions the fare in the Khoisan section
Just because there is a road does not mean it can be travelled. SA journalists Kevin Bloom and Richard Poplak took a nine-year road trip through Africa and were confronted with a series of paradoxes: Africa is failing, and yet it is succeeding. Its economies are soaring; its citizens are dying of starvation and disease; corruption is endemic. This book is a series of 10 essays on their experiences, looking at white people, at Chinese influence and money, at the change that is taking place in the continent – what the authors discovered to be the continental shift. Countries focused on include Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, the DRC and South Sudan.
Winner of the Man Booker Prize for LifeofPi, Yann Martel now tells a story of the 20th century from the viewpoint of three people. They are Tomas of Lisbon, who in 1904 finds an old journal and reads of an amazing item that could redefine history – if only he can find it. So he sets out on a journey. Then, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, a Portuguese pathologist and fan of murder mysteries finds himself in the middle of a real-life murder puzzle. And 50 years after that, a grieving Canadian senator goes to his ancestral home in Portugal. And somehow the quest of the three is pulled together “in a tale of great love and great loss”.
THOSE following Western diets may gulp at the thought of a snack of salted stinkbugs fried in butter, while others – who spend as little time as possible in the kitchen – may appreciate the Swati dish Indakala, or boiled, salted peanuts. Both can be found in the second edition of a compilation of our indigenous dishes, following on the original, published in 2000 through the CSIR.
The new and intriguing collection of Heritage recipes from 11 ethnic groups across South Africa reveals that much of the fare is also contemporary, as current generations of rural cooks continue to use local ingredients and traditional recipes to feed their families.
IndiZA Foods is a Pretoria-based company headed by MD Kgaladi ThemaSethoga and 0perations director Ursula Moroane-Kgomo, both high-powered businesswomen with degrees in food science and business management, who have considerable experience in the food industry. Both are also passionate about the preservation of indigenous culinary cultures, women empowerment and rural development.
Their joint enthusiasm resulted in the publication of this worthy addition to our traditional culinary literature. Women in the rural communities were invited to submit recipes for the food they cook daily – simple fare using local ingredients, occasionally enlivened by stock cubes, seasonings and items like margarine. Several high schools were also involved in the project.
The compilers started in North West, with Tswana dishes and went on to Mpumalanga where Ndebele and Swati specialities were hunted down. The Free State yielded Sotho staple fare and the northern province of Limpopo saw recipes