Food for Thought: Thoughts on Food

May 22, 2013

In the two months (to the day!) we've been in South Africa, I've been asked a lot what the food is like here. While I've mentioned earlier that the food is very "fresh", I realize that doesn't exactly provide much in the way of insight into South African cuisine. It really is not its own creation (as is the case with say Chinese or Indian) which makes it difficult to describe. There are influences from many different cultures, with India playing a significant role, and things like curry being very widely available. That being said, here are a few of our general observations on food and eating in South Africa:

1. Red Velvet Cake is everywhere. At the counter of every coffee shop, on the dessert menu at every restaurant, lining the tables at markets. You can find it in cupcake form and full-on cake form. Apparently it's a new trend.

2. The produce is prepackaged/bagged. It's often hard to find one lemon or one papaya, as they already weighed and packaged in multiples.

4. Eating out is substantially cheaper than it is in North America (or Europe, or Australia), however food from a grocery store is roughly the same price. Adds a whole new appeal to eating out.

5. Wine is also quite inexpensive compared to North America, and is available at the grocery store (aisles of it, not just a few store-label bottles), but you have to go to a bottle shop for beer or liquor. Also adds a whole new appeal to drinking wine.

6. Main grocery stores: Pick n' Pay, Woolworth's and Spar. While it sometimes takes some work to locate which store carries which product, it is possible to find nearly everything and every brand imaginable (Heinz Ketchup, Nutella, etc). The main fast food places here are McDonald's, KFC, Wimpy's and Nandos (South Africa's version of Swiss Chalet). I haven't seen Subway, Burger King or Starbucks to date.

7. Rusks and Crunchies: Rusks are a hard biscotti-type thing, but not usually as sweet, and often eaten with tea. Crunchies are a granola-bar type square, sometimes with chocolate on top, often eaten with coffee/tea.

8. Biltong: essentially jerky, but not quite the same taste or texture; it comes in slices, rods, strips or chunks. This is the snack when it comes to pretty much everything: after golf, while hiking, watching a rugby game, on a road trip, etc.

9. Ostrich meat- burgers, steaks, biltong...you name it.  Similar to Bison in that it dries out easily and is best when not overcooked, it makes for great braai meat (those are ostrich steaks on the braai in the picture below, right).

10. Braai:  a BBQ, but typically with coals or wood rather than gas or propane, and usually with nice meats (rather than budget hot dogs or hamburgers). It is inherent in the culture here. We experienced our first SA Braai a few weeks ago:

Zoo Trot and 44 Stanley

May 19, 2013

Animals combined with a morning run? Yes please. One Sunday a month the Johannesburg Zoo opens early (too early, according to M) to runners and walkers for a 5k/10k fun run within the zoo grounds. Here are a few snap shots (courtesy of M's iPhone) of what is hopefully the first of many "Zoo Trots".

After feeling refreshed from our early morning run, we spent a wonderfully sunny Sunday afternoon having lunch with a secondee friend, his lovely wife and their adorable baby at 44 Stanley. This is a place we have been to a couple of times already, but somehow I had not yet photographed it. It really is a special place; a little oasis of al fresco dining, fountains, antique shops, second-hand book stores and bakeries. On our way out, I thought it was the perfect time to snap a few shots:

The Place of Origin

May 18, 2013

The Cradle of Humankind is supposedly where it all began. Throughout the past 100 years, scientists have unearthed significant evidence at this Unesco World Heritage site that casts lights on the way we interpret humanity, our origins and human development.  We thought it was worth a visit.

The Cradle is an area covering 47 hectares, which sits approximately 50km from Johannesburg. While there are many sites within this area, we chose to visit the Sterkfontein Caves and Maropeng.

The caves are significant in that they represent massive discoveries in human evolution; a complete skull was found here back in 1947 (known to scientists as "Mrs. Ples"), and an almost complete skeleton thought to be over three million years old was discovered here as well (known as "Little Foot").

Maropeng is the official vistor centre of the area; "Maropeng" means "returning to the place of origin" in Setswana, the main indigenous language where the Cradle is located.

We spent a day road-tripping in and around the Cradle:

 Exhibits at the interpretation facility: home of many early life discoveries and mammal fossils 

Inside Sterkfontein Caves- limestone caves known to be the world's richest early hominid site

Statue of Dr. Robert Broom (archaeologist who discovered hominid fossils): Rub his nose for good luck or his hand for wisdom, but rub both and you're doomed. Is it any surprise that the guys chose luck over wisdom?

Exploring the area around Maropeng

The place we were looking for all along for lunch, without-a-doubt the best Biltong stop, and ending the day at Irene's Dairy Farm. A solid day. 

Jon Bon and a Picnic in the Sky

May 11, 2013

A few weeks ago, while we were touring around Soweto and taking pictures of Soccer City, we started talking about how we could see the inside of this amazing stadium. There are tours, yes. But, there are also a few big concerts as well. Which ones were scheduled in the near future? Bon Jovi and Justin Bieber, on back to back nights, no less. Can you guess which one we decided to go to?

Something interesting we discovered is that South Africans really make a concert an all-day event. People show up hours before the show, and the stadium is open for everyone to come in and get comfy. People come prepared with blankets and a picnic to camp out before the show. With an 8pm start time, we showed up at 5pm to a very alive stadium.

It's worth noting that the FNB Stadium can hold 94,736 people.  For concerts, that number decreases a bit to accommodate for the stage (and the lost seating behind it), but there were apparently close to 70,000 people in the house for Jon Bon. Not a bad turn out for his first visit to South Africa in over 18 years. Most memorable quote of the night: "I may not be as handsome as Justin Bieber, I may not be able to dance as well as Justin Timberlake, but I've been around longer than those two combined." Right. 

 Rocking out to Jon Bon with S and getting to know a couple of his awesome friends from home

The day following the concert we ventured back to Arts on Main (for the third time in a month- I seriously love this place!). This time was for something different though. It was for a Picnic in the Sky. No, I didn't make it up. It's a thing: there's a little local tour company that meets you at the market, provides a picnic basket, gives you a half an hour to fill it with goodies from the market, and then transports you to the tallest building in Johannesburg, where you partake in said picnic, 50 stories above the city.

Amazing weekend market- so many choices...

 Enjoying the view, the company, and the amazing food, on the 50th floor of the Carlton Centre

Enjoying a sunny winter day at Arts on Main, meeting up with some co-workers from the U.S.

The view of the sun setting over the city from The Living Room is one of my favourites so far!

Blue Bulls

May 4, 2013

Canada is not exactly known for its rugby teams. Or rugby at all for that matter. However, that didn't stop us from enthusiastically agreeing to don a team jersey (R190 for two from the hawker on the way to the game) and heading to Pretoria to watch the Blue Bulls take on the New Zealand Hurricanes (the Bulls won 48-14).

Decisions, Decisions and Durban

April 27, 2013

Shortly after moving in, M and I had the opportunity to go away for a long weekend (gorgeous weather combined with a public holiday seemed like the perfect combination). We contemplated whether we should be practical and stay in town to set up our new place, or pack up and leave town for a few days, in the midst of chaos. In the end, the practical side lost. What ultimately tipped the scale was that one of our main goals of being here is to see, do and experience as much as we possibly can, and that triumphed over the need for furniture, groceries and cleaning supplies.

M is not much for formally writing down goals, but we've talked a lot about what we want to get out of this experience, and I think it's worth putting pen to paper. In no particular order, here is our draft list:

1. Travel. Start with the obvious one. For South Africa, we want to see all 13 areas within SA (9 provinces, 2 countries and 2 regions) by doing as many mini explorations as we can. We also want to do a couple of larger trips, to see some of the other countries in southern Africa.

2. Community involvement. While we are not sure what this will look like yet, we both are passionate about finding a way to give back while we are here. Despite the fact that Joburg is a very progressive city, South Africa is still considered a developing country, and there is a stark reality in this country that reminds us of that. We want to do something.

3. Finding a way for M to be engaged and inspired for the next two years. We moved here with my job, so he will be looking for something (in the form of work, studies, volunteer, etc) to make the most of his time here.

4. SA Road Race. I want to participate in a race while we're here.

5. No TV. Since we don't have one, this should be relatively easy.

6. Join local clubs/teams. One piece of advice we were given before we moved here was to really set up our lives here and integrate as much as possible; this seems like a good way for us to do that.

7. Embrace the local way of life: spend a lot of time outside/in our garden and learn to braai. Yes please.

8. Document the experience: through photos, blogs, etc. to have a way to look back and also a way to share this experience with our friends and family back home.

Here are some snapshots of our trip to Durbs:

View from Zimbali, UShaka Beach and the Golden Mile promenade

Valley of a Thousand Hills

View of the valley from Inchanga

Umhlanga Rocks

Moving in and the Pirates

April 20, 2013

After three weeks of living at the guest house, house hunting, reviewing leases, signing leases, paying deposits and losing more than a night's sleep, we moved into our own place this weekend! M made sure to have a bed ordered and delivered in time for our first night (we managed to time it perfectly with a huge thunder storm...go figure). We spent the next couple of days picking up the essentials to be able to make it to work in some sort of order come Monday morning.

At the risk of making our lives out to be all fun and games, I thought I'd include some "life" shots. M likes to take these while we're out- apparently I get very excited at random things (giant bumpy squash), and I like to try everything before I buy it.

In the spirit of exploring the local culture (something that furniture and squash shopping doesn't quite cover), we made our way to the Orlando Standium in Soweto to experience a Pirates game. Despite the freezing cold, the energy in the stadium was contagious as we watched the Pirates take a 3-1 victory over the TP Mazembe. Our first South African Soccer game: Check.