~ South Africa's Sacred Institution ~

Any clue what that is??

As Desmond Tutu once said: "We have 11 official languages but there is only ONE word for this wonderful institution; it is BRAAI!"



A standard Sunday afternoon activity... the air is filled with the smell of burned meat, smoke arising in between the trees while the laughter, beer can clinking and kids playing is heard all over South Africa. No matter if you live in suburbia or in the country. From dusty townships to glorious sporting stadiums. The braai has earned itself its own protocol, etiquette and lingo, adorned by eager meat-turning participants everywhere!

Braai is BIG here! And if you haven't figured it out yet by now what BRAAI is... just another word for BBQ in South Africa!!

They even have a National Braai Day (April 27) and you can buy braai packs in the supermarket, complete with a can of beer in it, a standard pack for just 1 guy! Yes... guy, because BRAAI is a men's thing! In SA you NEVER see a woman around the braai area. Unless you come to MY house... because I don't believe in those 'standardisations' and we are very emancipated about it!



It's funny though, I have lived in 6 countries so far, but NEVER I have seen this division at parties like here! Whenever we meet for drinks and food, immediately the men hang around the braai and the girls hang around the kitchen table... even at MY house!! Now I know you will see this more in other countries as well... but here it is a strict division!! Almost like a silent law! Too funny!!

So the guys tell the ladies on Sunday: "Honey, this is your day off, we are having a braai!"

YEAH ~ RIGHT!!

Let me tell you how it goes, and then you decide if we have a day off!

Braai-ing is the only type of cooking a 'real' men will do. When a man volunteers to do such cooking, the following chain of events is put into motion:

1. The woman goes to the store.
2. The woman fixes the salad, veggies and dessert. (Which most men don't eat, they just want meat!)
3. The woman places the meat for cooking on a tray.
4. The woman puts out the necessary cooking utensils.
5. The woman takes the meat to the man, who is lounging beside the grill, drinking a beer.
6. The man places the meat on the grill.
7. The woman goes inside to set the table and check the veggies.
8. The man takes the meat off the grill and hands it to the woman.
9. After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.
10. The man asks the woman how she enjoyed 'her night off.'

And, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just NO pleasing some women.
HAPPY BRAAI-ING!!

Do you braai/BBQ in your country?? And what are the rules, pretty much the same as here??
Have a fantastic day!
Mireille

Halloween '09

We had so much fun this year with Halloween, first the party at school which was fun, creative, hot and lots of kids in great costumes!! They had all kinds of activities planned and of course a parade with trick 'r treating at the end. They even got a toothbrush and toothpaste sponsored by Colgate, how thoughtful is that!

Then on Saturday we first went to the Theatre to see CATS! Wow, that was so much fun, the show was amazing and the girls just LOVED it!!

Then in a rush we got dressed and went to my friend's house where the kids did their rounds of trick 'r treating with the nannies/maids and the adults had fun at the house with all kinds of international food and drinks, since we did a potluck party while in the meantime lots of kids entered the house to get some treats.
Dirk joined in later with the Halloween fun, he first went to a Rugby game in Pretoria, they even do tailgate parties before, but here they call it a braai with Boere rol and steak. And the Bulls won, so he was a happy camper as well!

Juliet's class


The girls only


And the boys


Juliet in action, filling a pumpkin with popcorn as fast as possible


Jasmine's class


2 of her friends, Emma & Jeongwoo


Jasmine in action as well


The nice thing about celebrating Halloween in a warm country is that you don't need layers underneath your costume, makes it a lot more fun! I was wearing a funky dress and my 'infamous' purple wig, went as a Wacky Woman! Unfortunately have no picture ;)

Do you celebrate Halloween? And how did you enjoy it this year, were you dressed up?
Enjoy the weekend!
Mireille

Our home here in South Africa

Since we are expats we move about every 4-5 years to a new country. We like that kind of lifestyle, but it is a big thing to move your whole household to the other side of the world. Dirk and me are 18 years together, 14 of these years we lived abroad. We started humble with 2 suitcases each. We moved to Spain, the Canary islands and the maximum of weight was 20 kilo's. We lived on the islands Tenerife and Lanzarote for about 1,5 years and moved for another 9 months to Rhodos, Greece. We were very young at the time, 23 and 24 and just had these 2 suitcases. From there we moved to the USA, (Dirk did his MBA at the UofO in Eugene, Oregon) with again 2 suitcases and lived there for a little bit over a year, and came back to the Netherlands again with our 2 suitcases. It was actually a very free and exhilirating feeling to have nothing to worry about! We rented an apartment, decorated it with goods from Goodwill and hold an Open House at the end, sold everything, packed our suitcases and left the country with only those 2 suitcases!

Moved back to Holland, got married...yeah we lived in sin almost 5 years ;-O and moved to Thailand. This time we had a bit more... a 20 ft container. But the house we had in Thailand was so much bigger than the teeny weeny apartment we had in the centre of Breda, the Netherlands. When we left Thailand to move to the USA we had a 40 ft container with us. Now 5 years later and 2 children we moved from the US to South Africa with a 40 AND 20 foot container. We had almost 600 boxes of stuff with us!! I don't know if this cycle of adding stuff will ever end, but I am working on it to really get rid of stuff we don't need. I still have boxes not opened since we left Thailand, more than 6 years ago! This is rediculous and my New Years resolution is to get rid of a LOT of stuff.

My friends all over the world ask me how we live here in South Africa, a lot of people have different ideas about that. So I will show you some pictures of our house. It is not a Zulu hut or some other simple shack, it is actually quite nice, more than you expect from an African country...believe me we don't have a bad life here!

I'll walk you through it from front door to the upstairs sun deck, the only room I don't have pictures of is the sauna, since it is still a work in progress....



1. First we were thinking to go all the way for a traditional Zulu house, the only problem it had was that our 600 boxes wouldn't fit, not even in the whole village....


2. So we opted for this contemporary house with a palm tree lined entrance.


3. African lady with baby on back greets you at the front door.


4. Hallway with canvas from NYC street scene. A bit of everything we have in our house; Asian, American, European and African pieces.


5. View from TV room, a fireplace opening up to both sides of dining and sitting area.


6. Sitting room, here we drink a vino with guests or read a book.


7. TV room.


8. View to front door and my future photo studio, still waiting for my lighting.


9. Dining room with fireplace.


10. Open kitchen, acutally the whole house has an open floor plan.


11. Kitchen, view from other side.


12. Full bar, you order we serve!


13. Our 'wild' animals protecting the bar area ;-)


14. Outdoor Lapa with gas Weber BBQ and charcoal braai.


15. Pool and garden.


16. Guestroom with en-suite bath.


17. Playroom girls, with a first; their own TV.


18. Girls bedroom.


19. With their own bathroom... I certainly didn't have that as a child!


20. Crafts- and computer room.


21. Master bedroom with fireplace.


22. Master bath with bush bath and almost outdoor shower, it has a glass rooftop.

23. Sun deck off master bedroom (plan is to put a jacuzzi here).

So quite the difference with our first house abroad, although I have to say, we are not more happy than in those first years. It was quite the adventure to travel just with 2 suitcases for a few years. Less headaches and worries about your STUFF!!

A big house is nice, but it can be a golden cage if you are not happy. Luckily we are happy and we enjoy our life style, but many expat families I've met over the years had a big house, great car and everything you think you would want in life, but weren't happy. And then it is sad, because the only thing they want is to go back home and don't see the beauty of that new country they are living in and experiencing...

Have a good one, I hope you enjoyed the peek into our African abode.
Mireille

South Africa: Four Corners Cuisine

Since I did a posting about how South Africans live and the days in their lives I can’t leave out a posting about what they like to eat. Since there is a huge difference between the classes and a huge difference between the backgrounds of South Africaners the food is as varied as no other country I have lived in before.

East meets West... And South... And North. That's how the cuisine of South Africa can be described. Where Indian curries meet British meat pies and Dutch cookies meet Indonesian chutney. Culinary contrasts that mirror the geography, culture, and history of this vast land.
South African cuisine has changed from indigenous dependence on wild game, cattle and gathering of foods from the wild, to farming, and cooking styles brought by colonists from the Netherlands, Germany France and Britain, as well as immigrants from India. Traditional "Cape Dutch" cookery mixes European cooking with spices like nutmeg, allspice and hot peppers, brought to South Africa from India and Southeast Asia.

But most of all; South Africans love their braais (barbeques) and are passionate about how it should be done, so be warned - don't interfere with a South African man and his braai! And the Dutch Boerewors is a staple on the braai, funny how these old fashioned foods we had in Holland as a child, you see here again...

But there are many more delicious, traditional South African foods available; the most famous of this is probably biltong, which is strips of dried meat which come in various flavour and types. It taste quite a bit like beef jerky, but better!

Potjiekos is a delicious slowly cooked meat and vegetable stew, which is traditionally cooked over an open fire. "Potjiekos" - (poy-kee-kawse) directly translated "pot food" or food prepared in a pot. In South Africa this means only one thing, food prepared outdoors in a cast iron, round, three legged pot using either wood coals or charcoal. Check here for recipes.

Mielie Pap, a stiff corn meal mix, the staple of a sub-continent. Mielie-meal (grounded maize) is the food of choice among the poor population. Pap means porridge in Afrikaans. My domestic worker Khethoe probably eats it 4-5 days a week. It tastes like polenta, it is only not as yellow.

When we were in Madikwe, the game reserve we had a delicious soup. Here is the recipe that I made up myself after they told us that the ingredients started with 3 C’s. Carrots, Cauliflower and Coriander. I tried these 3 ingredients, started playing around with some fresh and dried herbs and this is the result.

Madikwe’s Carrot, Cauliflower & Coriander soup (serves 10-12)

1 bag carrots, cut up in chunks
3 bags cauliflower, already cut up in chunks
1 pack fresh coriander (add to your liking)
1 tsp garlic
1 tbsp grape seed oil (olive oil works as well)
3-4 cubes vegetable bouillon
1 tbsp. NoMu African spices = a blend of cumin, fenugreek, coriander, allspice, ajowan seeds, chili, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger & cardamom
salt & pepper to taste

Sauté the carrots and cauliflower in some grapeseed oil and garlic, don’t stir too often, so the carrots and cauliflower burn a bit. This will add some smoky flavor to the soup. Add the bouillon cubes and cold water till all the vegetables are under the water surface. Put lid on and first let it come to a boil, and then simmer for about 1 hour. Then take the lid off and simmer for about another hour, really slow, so some of the broth is evaporated. The soup has a nice aroma and taste by now. Add the fresh coriander and puree the soup till you have a nice and creamy texture, no chunks in it anymore. Just a smooth soup, which is good for you & divine!!
Serve with some freshly baked rustic bread and you are good to go!

And then tell me about it. Did you like it, was something missing? Give me some feedback… you know I LOVE it!

Enjoy, Mireille ;-)