• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

MsMarmiteLover

  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan
  • Travel
    • France
    • Italy
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Wine
  • Gardens
  • Supperclubs/Events
  • About
    • Published Articles
    • Books
  • Shop
    • Cart

South Africa’s Sweet Sixteenth, Star Ruby grapefruit and the Shebeen queen

July 5, 2011 4 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized

South African child licking citrus

In 1999 I visited South Africa, five years after the end of apartheid. The country seemed fitful, hanging by a thread: blacks stood quietly in the corner at places I visited while whites were either heading barbed wire companies, living in gated communities or, the other extreme, running around in rags on the street. I also spent time in Zimbabwe, which seemed like a vision for the future: a thriving artistic community in Bulawayo, and apparently friendly relations between black and white.
Twelve years later the situations have reversed: Zimbabwe is a basket case and South Africa, a hopeful experiment for the future of the continent.


Grapefruit 

I was invited to visit by South African citrus farmers: enormous Hagrid-sized desert khaki-clad men in shorts and boots. They are worried about grapefruit. The UK is one of their largest markets but it seems to be the forgotten fruit. 88% of Britons have never bought grapefruit. In marketing terms this is called ‘penetration’. The highest ‘penetration’ is for apples and bananas, most people buy them. A twelve per cent penetration is low.

Japan, on the other hand, adores grapefruits; averaging out at two each every day.

“What are the Japanese doing with grapefruit?” I asked, my curiosity piqued.

“The customers are older. They eat them for breakfast. Grapefruit is considered an old fashioned fruit”, I was told on my second day at a conference attended by farmers in Nelspruit.

Here is the story of grapefruit in pictures, starting with a tasting session of 10 grapefruit varieties. I must say, I’m a convert. It’s a clean tasting fruit, less bitter than it used to be. I imagine it in cocktails, salads and salsas, not just a half for breakfast.

Kruger Park elephant safari

After visiting the grapefruit farmers of South Africa, I spent a night in Kruger Park, a section of fenced off land near the Mozambique border where wild animals can live naturally.
I rode an African elephant for the first time. Terrifying. African elephants are wilder than Asian elephants. Their ragged ears are huge and in the shape of the African continent. The more holes their ears contain, the older the elephant. Elephants can live up to 60 years old; their life span is dependant on their teeth. They grow a new set every ten years; when the last set of molars has grown and worn out, they can no longer chew their food, end up chewing on their jaw bone and die through malnutrition. Being an elephant is hard work: their size means they must spend most of the day eating and only six hours sleeping. They also have very poor digestive systems.
Before the ride we had a demonstration of how acutely the elephant can smell. Each of us took off a shoe and placed it in front of another person. The elephant picked up the shoe with it’s trunk and handed it to the correct owner. This took a matter of seconds. (When travelling around the safari park, the human smell is disguised by the smell of the petrol from the car).
The groom told us that sometimes he went shopping to the supermarket on the elephant. But they cannot ‘park’ very near to the supermarket as elephants love citrus. When going on safari, do not have citrus in your car, elephants may attack!
To ride an elephant we had to clamber up a staircase and straddle the saddle, it was rather wide. The groom rode in front. The elephant moved quite swiftly through the thorned spiky trees of the African bush. It seemed unaware that we humans did not possess a three and half inch carapace with which to protect ourselves from scratches. Suddenly after ten minutes of the ‘ride’, the body of the elephant shook like an earthquake.

“What’s going on?” I asked nervously.The groom replied “She wants to join the wild elephants out in the bush. She’s communicating with them by sending out tremors through the ground”.

The elephant kept rearing up, turning her head towards the bush and dipping her shoulders. I really didn’t want to fall. I’ve fallen off a camel before but in the dessert, onto soft sand. The keeper on the ground seemed panicky. The groom shouted repeatedly at the elephant. My companion behind had gone strangely quiet.

“Do tourists ever die?” I squeaked.

The groom’s answer was evasive.
Finally with the bribe of nuts the elephant consented to turn away from the wild. Back at base camp, I dismounted with relief.

African elephant foot
 An elephant’s weight is all on the front feet
elephant molars, kruger park, south africa
 See the molars?
 Elephant playing football, kruger park, south africa
 Elephant playing football
 A ranger dipping her rusk in her billy can of rooibos tea. Kruger Park.
 A ranger dipping her rusk in her billy can of rooibos tea
 A warthog, kruger park.
 A warthog. I can’t look at this without thinking of ‘Lion King’.
 An African dawn breakfast, coffee and rusk. Kruger Park.
 An African dawn breakfast, coffee and rusk
 The contract where we sign away our lives... elephant ride, kruger park
 The contract where we sign away our lives…
 A duiker seen at night
 A duiker seen at night
Imagine having giraffes in your back garden...
Imagine having giraffes in your back garden…
 Toiletries included insect repellent. kruger park.
 Toiletries included insect repellent
 My room at Kruger Park
 My room at Kruger Park
The terrace outside my room

Soweto

 The pots of food
On my last day in South Africa, I revisited Soweto, the township on the outskirts of Johannesburg where  the Mandela family lived. Winnie still lives there. She has a restaurant opposite the Nelson Mandela museum. Apparently the food is very bad.

I visited a Soweto landmark…Wandies, a shebeen or underground restaurant, South African style. I was hoping to talk to Wandie himself but he was away. The young restaurant manager gave me the tour showing the heavy cast iron dutch ovens which contained typical African food like ‘pap’ (a kind of maize like polenta), ‘sauce’ (tomatoes and onions), greens, meat stews (oxtail and ox tongue is very popular), and a curry (South African food is influenced by Malaysian, Chinese and Indian cuisine). African native food is quite plain, spices being imported from Asia. Wandies started as a four room house, but has now spread out to fit 175 covers. During last year’s world cup, they worked all hours. Once the only restaurant in Soweto, now Wandies has competition, several others have sprung up.
Further up the road I chanced upon a more basic shebeen, still a four room house, selling quarts of beer and fried food such as fish and chips. It’s named after it’s owner ‘Magic’ who sat in the living room playing guitar. He has an alcohol license which you don’t need to pay for in South Africa and is open 10 am to 10pm weekdays and 10 am till 2am at weekends. Magic says a true shebeen is where you discuss politics. White people never go to his shebeen but I was made very welcome. I explained what I did in London with The Underground Restaurant…“oh so you are a shebeen queen!” Magic exclaimed and opened a beer for me on his crate.

Tourists at Wandies shebeen, soweto
Tourists at Wandies
 Wandie himself, a friend of Richard Branson's, proprietor of Wandies restaurant, soweto.
 Wandie himself, a friend of Richard Branson’s
 Magic and his shebeen queen, Soweto.
 Magic and his shebeen queen
 Bar prices and an alcohol license, Soweto.
 Bar prices and an alcohol license
A quart of beer, shebeen, Soweto
A quart of beer
 At Magic's shebeen, a young man opens a beer on the crate where he sits...
 At Magic’s shebeen, a young man opens a beer on the crate where he sits…

Recent posts

Discovering fairytale Saxony in Germany

January 25, 2023

Fake meat taste test for Veganuary

January 8, 2023

A round-up of my favourite travel destinations of 2022

January 1, 2023

Previous Post: « Bacchanalian lunch at Blacks with MsMarmitelover’s 18th century menu
Next Post: Rediscover vine leaves »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. BIIAB Training

    July 5, 2011 at 5:53 am

    So thanks for an informative and entertaining article which has pulled me away from the day job for a happy five minutes!

    Reply
  2. claud15

    July 5, 2011 at 11:36 am

    Loved this, reminded me of my trip to Kruger many years ago and boy have the rooms changed for the better.
    Lovely article.

    Reply
  3. chumbles

    July 6, 2011 at 8:00 am

    Ms ML, there is a joy in your writing, an open engagement with the people you meet that makes me think you were born to be a travel writer. The narrative and the photos draws me in every time. Excellent. And thank you.

    Reply
  4. Homeandfood

    October 3, 2012 at 5:16 pm

    Looks like you had an absolutely fantastic holiday, I'm very jealous indeed.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

Subscribe to my mailing list

msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Naples at Christmas- discovering piennolo di vesuv Naples at Christmas- discovering piennolo di vesuvio,the Christmas 🍅, which lasts up to a year fresh. It’s given boxed as gifts around Christmas being the only local fresh tomato available. It dresses all the Christmas pizzas and pastas. It’s grown on volcanic Vesuvius soil and sparsely watered. As a result it has thick skins, and a sweet intense flavour. #tomatoes #italy #naples
Not cooking much at the moment due to a thick laye Not cooking much at the moment due to a thick layer of dust over my kitchen. This will be my dining room/photography studio. Done on a whim.#unplanneddemolition
Another picture of my granddaughter Ophelia in a n Another picture of my granddaughter Ophelia in a nest of apricot tulle (found at portobello market). Isn’t she lovely? #granfluencer
Broccoli Stilton soup. This freezing week is defin Broccoli Stilton soup. This freezing week is definitely a week for soups. My friend @jimfrommanc is staying & needs his hot lunch.
Cheese on toast with crushed chilli 🌶️ in Ven Cheese on toast with crushed chilli 🌶️ in Venice the fresh food market sells bouquets of colourful chillies. I’ve still got mine, drying in an enamel jug. #travelandfood
The Christmas tomato or piennolo di vesuvio. Read The Christmas tomato or piennolo di vesuvio. Read all about it: https://msmarmitelover.com/2022/12/christmas-in-naples.html  Got a couple of bunches hanging in my kitchen. #naples #campania #tomatoes🍅 #travelphotography
Opheliagram. This morning I photographed her in an Opheliagram. This morning I photographed her in an Italian outfit I bought in Naples on a William Morris playmat which looks great and is practical for tummy time. So many things are different about parenting now. Parents use apps to track feeding, pooing, weeing etc. You don’t bathe them anymore for the first few weeks because you want to leave the vernix ( the white waxy stuff they are covered in at birth) on their skin as long as possible. Nappies now have a line on them that turns blue if they’ve done a pee. White noise apps to help them sleep. New technology guides new parents. As well as ancient probably prehistoric customs being rediscovered. #granfluencer #grandaughter I’ve tagged in @siennamarla and @jamescalmus as the authors of this baby.
I made two dishes from one pack of white beans las I made two dishes from one pack of white beans last night. Soak, then cook with 2 stock cubes, water & a fan of bay leaves. When soft & cooked, scoop some into a soup bowl with plenty of stock, add white wine, fresh basil and or a scoop of pesto and a squeeze of lemon for soupe au pistou. Garnish with Parmesan. Today I cooked the pot until the liquid had almost disappeared and added a block of feta. I baked this in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, added @pomoragoodfood new olive oil, salt and pepper for a gigantes plaki (but with smaller beans). Eat more beans!
What to make when you have lots of leftover egg yo What to make when you have lots of leftover egg yolks after making a pavlova? Zabaglione, that classic Italian trattoria dessert made from egg yolks, sugar & tons of masala sweet wine. Whisk it up over a bain-marie or be a bit cheaty & add a teaspoon of cornflour. Strong wrists needed. #italianfood #christmasdesserts #leftovers #cooksmart
The unpackaged vegan meats. My panel of 4 ( from c The unpackaged vegan meats. My panel of 4 ( from carnivore, to recent vegetarian, to long-time vegetarian to never eaten meat (my daughter)) tasted 18. It was quite a bushtucker trial. Carnivores & vegetarians liked very different things. Full report in next weeks @hamandhigh #veganuary #vegan #vegetarian #tastetest #fakemeat #plantbasedmeat
Fake meatathon tasting taking place as my veganuar Fake meatathon tasting taking place as my veganuary column for @hamandhigh So many companies doing this now. As a longtime vegetarian I don’t want anything that tastes too much like meat. But new vegetarians and vegans may want something that tastes close as damnit to meat in order to stave off cravings? Which category are you in? Have you any favourites or dislikes? Is this just another example of ultra-processed food? Let me know in the comments #vegan #vegetarian #meatfree #veganuary
Pasta buselli al cedro. Cedro or citron is a fragr Pasta buselli al cedro. Cedro or citron is a fragrant citrus & one of the founding citrus (along with pomelo and mandarin) that created all the other citrus fruits you know about. Usually candied, it is also used in this unusual neopolitan recipe in which you soak the zest in the pasta water overnight before cooking. Post up on the blog later today. Board a Xmas present from @siennamarla #pasta #naples #cedro #citrus
My london garden ce matin My london garden ce matin
My Sacher Torte (1 word or 2?) with a difference- My Sacher Torte (1 word or 2?) with a difference- bergamot marmalade in the middle. In the @hamandhigh this week. It’s bloody delicious. #chocolatecake #feelaustria #untoldstories #vienna #sachertorte
These are Mela Annurca apples, ‘mel’anurca’ These are Mela Annurca apples, ‘mel’anurca’ in Neapolitan dialect. They are a Christmas apple, in season now. I bought this little model basket of apples in San Gregorio di Armenia street in Naples where every year neopolitans buy something to add to their ‘presepe’ or nativity scene. Often scenes from markets to add to the expensive, anything from 500 euros to 5000 euros nativity crèches. Around Christmas this street is packed (watch out for pickpockets) with locals and tourist picking out their addition to the scene. Melanurca apples are picked in September then laid on the ground to ripen, turning them every day by hand, to ensure all sides transform from a yellow green into a Wicked Witch red. They are very healthy, particularly for your hair, according to scientists at the university of Naples. #naples #neopolitanchristmas #melanurca  #food #travel #sangregorioarmeno #presepenapoletano #nativityscenes
The Christmas tomato 🍅 or piennolo di vesuvio, The Christmas tomato 🍅 or piennolo di vesuvio, a local tomato that is sold around Christmas in Naples. It is grown with very little irrigation and lasts fresh up to a year. Hence it is used for tomato based Christmas dishes. This tomato has a thick skin and is really intense in flavour. It hangs outside grocers, on balconies, in kitchens, having been braided by ladies into bunches of 1.5 kilos. Each costs 15 euros. I went to visit the farmers and the ladies skilfully tying the tomatoes into clusters, using the vines to fasten them, like cherries. Boxed, these are given as gifts. Reel on the way! #naples #christmas #tomatoes #travel #food
Travel: how I pack. I choose one colour as well as Travel: how I pack. I choose one colour as well as black and white and stick to that palette. For Sicily & Naples I’m doing red, white & black. I’ve bought @coti_vision red glasses chain, a red beret & a black one, a pair of red @snagtights & a black pair, a red hair clasp, a red & white pair of shoes (25 euros, leather from Naples), a red & white dress, a black & white striped dress, and so on. Do you roll? Do you flatten & spread? Do you fold? How do you pack? A few days before I leave I leave my suitcase open in my bedroom and every time I think of something I need to take I sling it in there. ( like adaptors) Last thing is wash bag ( I have a hanging one which is useful) and coat (red for this trip). Basically I colour code my life. When I did the Camino everything was blue & yellow, the colours of the Camino. When I went to Ireland I took all my green clothes ( I don’t have many). If I go on a boat trip I pack blue and white. #packing #colourcoding #travel #mysuitcase
Ruota di pesce spada. A glorious oven baked Sicili Ruota di pesce spada. A glorious oven baked Sicilian fish dish, baked on onions, studded with garlic cloves wrapped in mint leaves, then more onions, capers, olives, oregano & rosemary. Use a thick central slice of swordfish (where can I get that in london?). I’m tasting grillo & Nero d’avola wines @tenutorapitala about an hour inland from Palermo. The owner is the last count Bernard de La gatinais. He has 3 daughters. He’s French (Brittany) and Sicilian. He spoke about how difficult it has been for wine growers since lockdown- so many restaurants closed. Now they are grappling with high energy & fuel costs. ##winesofsicilia #siciliaDOC #wine #travel #sicily
I love Venice. I love Maneskin. I love Italy. I lo I love Venice. I love Maneskin. I love Italy. I love boats and water. #biennalearte2022
London cure smoked salmon from @formanandfield wit London cure smoked salmon from @formanandfield with mikawa citrus (cross between mandarin & pomelo) and home pickled green peppercorns on a plate I bought in minori Italy. #londonfood #citrus #sundaylunch
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Archives

Copyright © 2023 msmarmitelover