A spectacular lunch in Kliptown

After our wonderful morning at the Shwe Shwe Poppies house and the Creche we had another surprise waiting for us... a LOCAL lunch in Kliptown, another part of Soweto. Kliptown is home to the signing of the Freedom Charter, which was signed in 1955 by anti-apartheid activists, Kliptown holds a primary place in South African history. Today, Kliptown still struggles from lack of water, electricity, and housing, but efforts to sustain the local community and bring joy into the lives of the locals is an ongoing venture.

We wanted a local lunch and for sure we got it!!

This small restaurant looked almost like a museum, with tons of paraphernalia from all era's. Kitchen examples how it would have been for the reall poor to middle class people, very interesting to see.

The front of the restaurant.

Inside, tons pots and pans, stoves of another era.

Even an old stroller, typewriter and LP's with good ol' music.

A real treat... we were looking forward to this local lunch that soon would be served!

The owner offered us a welcome drink out of this bowl, a sour kind of buttermilk, the locals call it Maas or Amasi Enkosi. Our driver is looking at our faces and having a good time :-)

I loved his display of kitchen units from the olden days.

Different signs...

Ubuntu is a concept in the Bantu language. It is about the essence of Humanness.
Simply put: People are people, through other people. I am human, because I belong.
This concept acknowledges both the rights and the responsibilities of each citizen in promoting
individual and social wellbeing. 

Then after a welcome drink and talk we were served our lunch, buffet style. This food represents how the black South Africans eat. From the poor, to the middle class to the richer ones, we had it all at once. It was a huge spread!

South African cuisine is often called 'Rainbow Cuisine' as it has had a variety of multicultural sources and stages.

At first we were amazed at how much the owner of the restaurant would put out for us, dish after dish was put on this table and we all were so hungry, but then when we gave it a closer look... some of us were not that hungry anymore. We have one vegetarian in our group and she had a hard time looking at the dishes, but even us the ones who eat meat had never seen this!

3 Goats head boiled... I heard the cheeks are a delicacy and at first was willing to try, but how do you tackle this??

Some bread, at least something familiar ;-)

Some brisket in gravy, we know this one.

Some salads, simple but yummy!

Goats head... hmm not so sure, what part of the head was this??

Ting pap, a fermented kind of pap made from sorghum. 

Regular pap, made from corn meal, an everyday staple eaten with a flavorful stewed meat gravy like you saw above.

Livers, kidney and lungs, not something I eat on a regular basis...

Spinach, grateful that we had a few recognizable dishes :-)

Beans

Part of the goat's head...

And last but not least... boiled chicken feet!

Our Fun Friday group although very hungry ended up not eating that much, mainly the pap and the veggies. Nobody was brave enough to tackle these new foods!

And the owner of the restaurant told us later: 'Thank You for NOT eating!" I don't know if he meant it as a joke... or that he was indeed happy, since now he had so much food left over for sharing with others while we had paid for it.

This was a great experience for us, we got to know so much more of the local eating habits and the struggles that the black people had to go through during the Apartheid. It was a memorable day for sure!!

Thankful for the hospitality of the owner of the restaurant! We had such an interesting lunch!!

Did you ever have an intersting lunch or where served some food that you never seen or tasted before?

Tell me about it!

Mireille xx