One of my favourite meals, the Kalk Bay platter from the Cape Town Fish
Market, a great restaurant. The platter contained, fish, calamari, prawns
and mussels. A large meal, but it is so good. They also do great sushi. By
the way if you are vegetarian, I would not rush there too fast…Here is
their website – www.ctfm.co.za.
I haven’t posted about rude food in quite a while, but while shopping at Pick and Pay today, I found a slightly rude potato.
Rude Potato
Day 38: Chillin’ out, originally uploaded by Craig Strachan.
Fresh jalapeno chillis from my garden, taken with my new homemade lightbox. I don’t have the cord to separate my camera from the flash, so I used the regular flash and a light shining from one side.
I had to post about something besides Emily, so here is a picture of a double cape gooseberry that I found in my garden today. Two individual berries sharing the same cape.
Don’t forget that tomorrow is National Braai Day, the most important public holiday on our calendar. It doesn’t matter what you braa, but you have to braai something!
You can do some seared tuna
or some wors
How about smoked chicken on the Weber?
Don’t forget the garlic bread
And if you need any help, here is a step by step guide.
Hi all
Please read the important message below from the Tongmasters. Remember that 24 September is National Braai Day, and officially the start of the new braai season. As usual, we will be celebrating in style, so watch this space.
Braai Day
We have just got back from spending a wonderful week at Club Med in Albion, Mauritius. It was a fantastic holiday. One of the best things about Club Med is that all your costs are included, including all your food and drinks.
The resort serves three meals per day at the main restaurant, and the smaller restaurant also serves a late breakfast and lunch. They also serve snacks in the bar throughout most of the day.
There is a massive selection of food in the restaurant, including prawns, seafood, meat, salads, pizza, sushi, pasta, desserts and cheeses. Here are just a few pictures of the food that I took on one evening. Every night is a similar selection, but always different.
Grilled Duck
Salad with balsamic dressing
King Prawn
Sushi
More King Prawns - eat as many as you like
Dessert
More dessert
I am amazed that I did not put on any weight, I really should have!
Don’t you love this chilli from my garden – just a little rude?
Rude Chilli
I have got very green neighbours across the road. They have an amazing ability to plant almost anything, and it grows wonderfully in their garden, which means that they are often eating wonderfully fresh, organic and tasty vegetables.
From time to time, some of these veges make their way across the road to our house. So, we were very pleasantly surprised when on Christmas Eve, Eric knocked on the door with a basked full of fresh produce from their garden.
Basket of fresh Vegetables
Cape Gooseberries, green beans and radishes
Fresh Fennel
Cape Gooseberries – these ended up on the dessert
Radishes – they lasted about 5 minutes
And finally, fresh strawberries. Nothing like the strawberries from the store.
What I love about their fresh veges is how tasty they are – they are so full of flavour. I used to grow fresh vegetables, but it was so much work that I eventually gave it up. I have no idea how Anya finds the time, but I hope she keeps it up!
Thanks guys; keep them coming!
The braai is probably one of South Africa’s most traditional meals. It is practised by all cultures in South Africa, and as often as possible! Probably the only thing that will prevent a South African from having a braai is a rugby game, in which case they will probably simply braai before or after the game!
If you drive through any suburb in South Africa on a summer weekend, you will smell the delicious smell of grilling meat.
Braaing is a very casual and social affair, but there it is taken quite seriously by the cook. You simply NEVER interfere with somebody else’s braai without asking them very politely first (even if the meat is burning!)
So, what exactly is a braai?
Very simple really, it is a South African BBQ. However, it is almost always cooked on wood or charcoal – very seldom on gas. A braai will typically consist of one or more of the following:
Let’s get going
You will need a braai (in which to make the fire). Many public picnic sites have brick braai’s available, or a Weber will do. You will also need wood or charcoal – we often buy “brikettes”, which are small round compressed pieces of charcoal.
Blitz, which is a paraffin-based firelighter, helps to get the fire going, but if you are a boy scout, matches and an axe will do!
Put a few pieces of the blitz (firelighter) onto the grid
Light the blitz. and give the coals a few minutes to start burning. Note that with the braai, you will always use “direct heat”.
Lighting the wood fire
Some nice coals starting to burn – it should take about 40 minutes to get good coals.
While waiting for the wood to burn, cook some garlic bread on the fire.
Garlic bread ready to eat – yummy!
From top to bottom - wors (beef sausage), chicken, and chicken kebabs in the front. You can also see some ostrich kebabs at the top on the far right.
Braaing is thirsty work – you will need plenty of liquid refreshments
When you can hold your hand above the grid for three seconds, you are ready to cook. Put the meat onto the grid, turning every few minutes or so.
Looking good – almost ready to eat.
After about two beers (40 minutes or so), you are ready to eat, so dig in!
Ready to eat – looks great, doesn’t it?
After a good braai, the plates will be empty!
One more think, we often have “bring and braai’s”, in which the host supplies the fire, rolls and salads, and the guests all bring their own meat and drinks. Simple and easy.
