I need some help. An assignment is due Thursday. So. African.

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South African food. Appetizer, main dish, and dessert. I have a recipe for cookies. I have a simple one for sweet potato soup, for an appetizer. I would rather have a chilled soup to serve. Do they eat...chilled tomato soup, or cucumber soup? What about a main dish. Sandwiches? We need just enough for 30 students to have a taste of everything. I could make a lamb stew, but transportation and preservation is a problem. It seems they have some nice suggestions for swamp rat and tripe. So, sandwich stuff?

Don't they eat hot dogs and mac and cheese? shit

I need help. Some of the recipes are in French, which I don't understand, and some in a dialect which I also don't understand.

"Add a bouquet of fleur" What, flour, flowers, parsley, air, what? What is mealy-meal? Why do we need to slit the swamp rat? Can't we just put it in the pot whole? I don't know where to get Mopane worms, but now I know you have to rinse them twice and let them swell before they are cooked.

Homework stinks.

[merci_me]

1. Have you tried googling?

I ran the phrase South African and the word recipes and came up with a ton of hits. Here's an example: http://www.3men.com/south.htm

I know several South Africans, but most are Jewish and a few are Greeks. South Africa is very much, like here, a melting pot. They eat what all the rest of us do, though I tend to run into them often at Middle Eastern restaurants and both Middle Eastern and Jewish deli's. In fact, we've run into our family doctor, one of my husband's oncologists and his pulmonary doctor at one time or another, at our favorite Lebanese buffet. All of the doctors are Jewish/South African immigrants.

Do you have to make this stuff or just copy recipes?

Mary

[put out]

2. I did google, and what you describe seems about right,

from what I read. Kind of a mish-mash of everything, some native to Africa, some European, all kinds of other ethnic food; all over the place. I found a cookie recipe, and a soup recipe. The main dishes looked good, but called for ingredients which I would have been hard pressed to find in one evening, and transport to his school would have been a big problem.

My 15 YO and I were going to have to buy and make the stuff, and I had to take a class all this evening. After some cross words between us and the realization that it would nearly be impossible to this in the time we had, he decided to do a written report. I still don't really know how that went. Thank you anyway for your suggestion, I did find some interesting stuff. I kind of like the northern African recipes better.

By the way, my heartfelt condolence to those scrambling to finish everything by the end of the school year. For him (and the shadows under his eyes tell me this is not a joy ride for him at all) and the rest of us in this boat (school employee, myself) keep the faith!

[fortyfeetunder]

3. Due Thursday. Sorry I saw this today.

I have an African cookbook with a Western adaptation. It includes South African cuisine. I haven't cooked with it but the recipe are easy.


African cuisine gets influence from Europe and Asia

One dish I did try at work, someone with S. African influence made some bobotie (a spicy ground beef dish)...it was good.