“Are you joining us for lunch of liver and stew in the township ?” That was the question one of my colleagues asked me the other day. Now I can be a bit of a picky eater and there are a couple of things I won’t touch. So I thought about it… for about two seconds… and agreed. And to be very honest, I haven’t been sorry I did. There we were, a Xhosa, two Afrikaners and a Coloured, four South Africans from vastly different backgrounds, heading into the heart of Zwide. As we walked in one of the locals said, “Just what I like to see. The rainbow nation getting together to eat in the township.”
Before we left the office we phoned ahead to check if they had everything and heard that they were sold out of roosterkoek already. Good thing we phoned. A quick stop in New Brighton meant that we came prepared with our own (with prior permission of cause). The eatery, and I call it that because its nothing like a restaurant as you would know it, doesn’t even have a sign outside and I would have passed right by if I was looking for it on my own. We made ourselves comfortable and Mr X, being the township expert in the group having grown up there, suggested that we start out with beef stew.
I hate to sound like Oom Oubaas, one of South Africa’s most beloved television soapy characters, but I can’t help it cause its true. “We chewed our lips off.” The roosterkoek was used to wipe our plates clean after we had eaten every little morsel. My mouth’s watering again. That was our starter done and time to order our main meal.
Lamb liver and fried onions – two plates between the four of us – washed down with Coca-Cola. Yummy, yum yum. The Damselfly doesn’t eat liver, so I very rarely get to eat it at home. This means I really tucked in and by the end of it I was so stuffed I couldn’t look at another piece of food. Most whites would probably never have the opportunity to try a township meal like this but I would really recommend that they get a black friend to take them for the experience. Since this I’ve also had the chance to go for a traditional Shisa nyama (township braai or barbeque), but more about that in another post.
It all looks good until the liver. I'm with Damselfly on that one. Now the braai sounds good.