” Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go”.
Anthony Bourdain
We are listening to
We are listening to this Pasha podcast on soil and its important role in sustaining livelihoods. From food, nutrition security to climate change, soil is the invisible thread that connects all life. As Leigh Ann Winowiecki, a soil systems scientist at the World Agroforestry, says “the biggest challenge is getting people to stop treating soil like dirt and start treating it with the respect it deserves”.
We are reading
Long synonymous with Cape Malay cuisine, this article traces the history of one of South Africa’s favourite dishes, Bobotie.
After seemingly countless lockdowns and endless curfews, it felt like we would never host gatherings for loved ones in our homes ever again. But as the world opens up, is it possible that the psyche of typical dinner parties has also changed? Long Live The Dinner Party!
Is it wine, beer or an alcoholic fruit beverage? The South African government amended the Liquor Product Act (Act 60 of 1989) in 2021. This is what is changing.
It’s the end of an era. Pioneer Foods recently discontinued a South African childhood fave, fish paste. Things got tense back there for a while. We are not laughing, you are.
In the 1900’s, Campbell soup needed a reliable source of tomatoes that would be uniform in taste and size. Cue the birth of its revered tomato breeding program. And possibly the beginning of modern supplier development programs.
We are cooking
Recipes from our current favourite thread aka “433 To Turn Your Person Into A Mushroom Lover”. A reader asked the Guardian newspaper for guidance on how to convert their significant other to a mushroom lover. Sounds like reasonably good grounds for a break-up to us. However, 433 fellow readers disagreed and promptly chimed in with hundreds of suggestions. Who knew there were so many scrumptious ways to cook the humble mushroom? A refreshingly wholesome thread in difficult times!
We are watching
It seems fitting that we have been rewatching the GOAT- Antony Bourdain’s last visit to South Africa. Again. Towards the end of his visit, he first acknowledges that things here are more complicated than he had anticipated then finishes on a high note, if we can get it as right as possible here than there’s hope for all of us. We miss his voice.
