This sister’s cooking …
IT’S funny what you find when you’re looking for something else entirely. I discovered transplanted Eastern Caper Jeanne Horak-Druiff when I was looking up how many calories there are in a tablespoonful of fish paste. You see, the beloved and I are on a mission to lose some weight (yet again!) before Christmas. Not for us some trendy exclusion diet, like Banting or Atkins, though. We’ve found a three-days-a-week diet that’s sloughing our excess weight off quite slowly but surely without making us completely eliminate any food group.
It’s no real hardship because we eat normally for four days out of seven, although I must admit we’ve had to keep reminding ourselves of the difference between “normal” and “Elvis” eating.
So where does Jeanne fit in and why does she know so much about fish paste? The London-based “Saffer”, who actually works in a City law firm, has a food (and travel and photography) blog, that’s why. Cleverly called Cook Sister, it was one of the links to which I was directed when I was trying to decide whether or not it makes calorific sense to substitute fish paste for the peanut butter – foul-tasting and gummy goo, according to the beloved– listed on our threeday diet. What I discovered, apart from the nutritional value of 100g of fish paste, was a compendium of delights.
The much-married – four times to the same man, but you can read all about that on her blog! – Port Elizabeth-born-andraised Jeanne has lived in the British capital for the past 14 years, even though her original intention was to stay for just one.
She started Cook Sister, she says, in 2004, “before blogging was ‘a thing’, and all my friends thought the internet was where you met axe murderers …. it is the best creative outlet I could ever have dreamed of …. even in a foreign land, you can recreate the favourite tastes of your childhood and take comfort from them ... the story of what I eat is the story of my life ... you will find plenty of stories to keep you amused on my blog”.
That’s for sure. Having discovered it, I couldn’t turn away before hopping around to see what else this cook sister had to offer.
Among loads of foodie fun, facts and recipes, I learned there’s now a restaurant in London solely devoted to bunny chow. Apart from the fairly traditional Durbanstyle curry in a loaf – actually in specially baked “gorgeous round mini-breads” as opposed to what Jeanne describes as the “bogstandard” government white loaf – Bunnychow in Soho serves up bunny breakfasts and even bunny puddings.
Most surprising of all is that this most South African of dishes wasn’t introduced to England by one of our own, but by an Englishman named Atholl Milton. With no SA roots at all, Milton, who started out selling bunny chow from a food truck, simply decided it was the ultimate in portability and the “Next Big Thing” in food for Londoners.
For anyone hankering after the real thing – bog-standard white loaf and all – Jeanne’s blog offers an appetising, authentic recipe. And you can rest assured that, as her capitalised DISCLAIMER points out, “no fluffy bunnies were harmed in the making of this dish!!”
Today’s Chiel is Stevie Godson. E-mail her at