Publications
Partners
Did you know that an area in Duduza, a township on the East Rand with the first RDP houses, is known as eMaskopasini – the place where the houses look like skopas?
Or that the apricot- and coconut-laden, pink and brown twee gevreetjie (hypocrite) hertzoggie biscuits were an icing sugar expression of anger about the 1936 removal of the coloured franchise by JBM Hertzog (then prime minister of the Union of SA from 1924 to 1939)?
Have you heard about the 1878 food fighting talk of Zulu King Cetshwayo kaMpande (who later led the Zulu nation to its 1879 victory against the British at Isandlwana during the Anglo-Zulu War)?
The king sent a message and a bag of uphoko (finger millet) to the Natal colony’s secretary for native affairs Theophilus Shepstone.
His message read:
All this and so much more is served up in the 100+ Flavours Report. This downloadable document of South Africa’s epicurean identity is published by culinary-minded Cape Town design agency Studio H in collaboration with Anna Trapido.
READ: Shamwari: A land for humans and animals alike
It brings forth a generous buffet of our nation’s iconic ingredients, recipes, tastes, cooking techniques and tools.
South Africa’s similarities and differences are described as vetkoek meet magwinya, tšhotlo fuses with fynvleis, and bunny chows embrace their shared traits and history with the kota and spathlos. Indigenous and exotic ingredients are compared and contrasted.
Mielies are originally from the Americas but the many, many ways in which they are part of our daily diet are described, as are the more water- wise, climate challenge resilient, ancient grains (such as sorghum and millet) that preceded maize.
Hardy, disease-resistant Nguni cattle take pride of place as do the smaller, alternative proteins such as madzhulu termites, mopane worms – which are actually caterpillars – tsie crickets and thungolifha stinkbugs.
Trapido said:
To celebrate the launch of the report, Studio H hosted a fantastical wonderland-style feast on March 16.
Emerald green stuffed parrots sat atop mountains of skopas, Christmas trees of NikNaks were decorated with sour fig and mebos garlands, giant beaded Chappies cubes served as stools for foodie fashionistas sipping Kliptinis (the Soweto Hotel’s signature ginger beer and vodka cocktail).
Multi-award-winning chef Mmabatho Molefe, of modern Nguni restaurant Emazulwini, made exquisite umngqusho.
Missed the party but still keen to see a selection of South Africa’s finest foods? The street-facing office window (at Tiny Empire, 37 Buitenkant Street, District Six in Cape Town) will be lit up with rolling screens featuring foods from the report, 24 hours a day, for next month.
READ: Siba The Restaurant finds a home at Table Bay
Pedestrians can stop and stare at the twirling displays of jodeterts, jaffles, umvubo and baobabs. Coils of boerewors wind around Gatsby sandwiches laden with slaptjips and then spiral off into Durban-style masala-sprinkled pineapples, koeksisters or splashes of amasi, boegoe brandewyn and umqombothi.
Party-goer chef Zandile Finxa observed:
"I love the 100+ Flavours Report and the exhibition that it grew out of, because it feels amazing to have the food that raised us seen; to see the flavours that defined my childhood given such a spotlight and immortalised in how they influenced the South African food culture; how they are the South African food culture, how they are us.
From maskopas that we’d buy from the mama on the corner while playing kgati (skipping rope), popping Chappies as we filled the streets with innocent laughter, to Sundays in my nkgono’s (grandmother’s) house with the Johanne 14 [cabbage] and rice enveloping us in aromas I came to associate with home.
These flavours are not just nostalgia, they are also for the many generations to come.”
The 100+ Flavours Report can be purchased and downloaded from https://www.studio-h.co.za/100-flavours
