Love and Local Produce on the Umtamvuna River Bank

We found it, one part wild, one part green, two parts water and three parts love.  The place we plan to get married and celebrate the love adventure and journey up ahead.  And it has been ever evolving into a beautiful recipe with such variations and discoveries, the metaphor for love found in the chemistry…

Celebrating Vetkoek, Beats and Madiba at the the Ubuntu Festival in Cape Town

Tata Mandela celebrates his 93rd birthday today.  His life and dedication to the public’s well being has been a symbol for us to trust that we have the capacity to make changes in our life that leads to freedom and positive transformation.  Giving life to metaphors.  On Sunday, July 17th, the city of Cape Town…

Step by Step-Easy Dolmades Recipe (just like your Yiayia’s)

In less than a month, I’ll be back in Greece buying white peaches from my Yiayia’s (grandmother) neighbourhood laiki (produce market) and learning how to make feta cheese from the thea’s (Aunties) in the horio (village).  But lately I’ve been channeling my ancestors by consuming far too many olives and craving those cultural food comforts…

Communal Meals and Charcuterie at Glen Oakes Guest Farm

Have you ever stayed in a stone cottage with pigs and sheep as your next acre neighbour? In Hemel an Aarde Valley, there is a pig farm. Eight of us spent an electricity-free weekend on a farm greeting free-ranging piglets and making communal breakfast from the farm’s fresh eggs (and guess where the bacon came…

Raise your Glass to Gugulethu Wine Festival

Just like food and wine pairing flavours highlight salt, sweet, sour, bitter or umami (lekker or ‘scrumptious’), the Gugulethu Wine Festival proved to be a super umami event experience pairing all the right festival flavours. On the same weekend of the Good Food and Wine Festival, Gugulethu hosted a vibrant well-attended wine tasting event founded…

Pomegranates for Breakfast

If theres one thing I like about winter its the fact that pomegranates are readily available to my tastebud’s needs.  If I had to make up a fast or some sort of ‘cleanse detox’ sort of regime it would be to eat pomegranates for breakfast lunch and dinner and in this ‘detox,’ we would have…

Mopani or mopane worms (caterpillars) taste like dried leaves

“They taste like a bit like biltong or chicken, I love them!” she explained. “Actually, they taste more like leaves.”  A bag of Mopani worms are sitting dried in my cupboard waiting for my “how to cook this” experimentation session. My seastar, Nokulinda, bought them from a Sangoma down the road from her work in…

Diego’s Fish Festival Birthday in De Waterkant

When you meet Kimon and Diego, you’ll understand that when they throw a birthday party it becomes a street feast festival of seafood, love, family and friends.   On Sunday afternoon, there were four generations of family and friends, sharing steamed paprika-cream mussels out of the pot and apricot-butter fish fresh off the BBQ under…

The Search for Cape Town’s Best Gatsby Sandwich

Once upon a time there was the Gatsby Sandwich.  Related to its American cousin, Hoagie. Gatsby is South African, from the Cape Flats, and is the ultimate meal you can carry like a newborn baby, it’s as heavy as one too, crammed with a variety of ingredients and most commonly accompanied with chips stuffed inside. The Gatsby…

Oat Milk Pancakes with Peach and Pear Syrup

This isn’t a vegan recipe but it can be.  It’s an alternative pancake recipe when you look into your fridge and realize the milk is all gone.  You’re still in your pajamas, too hungry to wait in a check-out line at the grocery store, so your creativity kicks in and you make a plan. How…

Prickly Cactus Pear Smoothie

The best thing about when friends house sit is the magic of new groceries that end up in your kitchen.  One Sunday afternoon, I discovered prickly pear syrup (turksvy stroop) in my fridge and it sat there, waiting for me to make crepes or pour it on yoghurt. Instead, it ended up in my fruit…

The secret to making Oscar-winning Popcorn

The Academy Awards came and went but yet the popcorn-maker is still at work-satisfying each movie-goers mesmerizing experience in the world of cinema stories. You pay more for a Cherry Coke and Jumbo sized popcorn than a sit-down dinner at the show, and somehow a movie screening isn’t the same without this cinema snack. My…

Gatesville Saturday Market

My friend, Michelle and I drove past Athlone into Gatesville to dive into the goods at the Saturday market.  Along Klipfontein Rd, tents and vendors hugged three blocks of the sidewalk selling fresh aloe, socks, produce, breyani and jewelry.  We weaved through the daily market shoppers and poked our way through aesthetically fun and random…

Homemade Chocolate in a Jar

  Breakfast on Valentine’s day involved me, a spoon and my Love Source jar. This chocolate is goddessa concoction of coconut oil, cacao, agave syrup and vanilla pod with niblets of an orange essence. It’s from the ladies of I Heart Life Outside The Box where poetry and chocolate unite  just in time for Valentine’s…

World Nutella Day

  Feb. 5th is World Nutella Day and it’s a surprise that I missed it. I had a love affair with Nutella in 2003 and it lasted til 2005. During that time I was the main author of “How to incorporate Nutella into 3 meals a day” the sub-title should have been “how to gain…

The Rotating Lamb Spit at Up the Creek

  We floated on the Brede River for 8 hours, jammed to great South African music collaborations and ate delicious festival food at Up the Creek.  There was one food tent where Ma and Pa came up the creek and cooked for their whole festival family.  From a military tent, the food army family catering…

Dim Sum in New York City’s China Town

    In countries that celebrate the Chinese New Year, more food is consumed during the New Year celebrations than any other time of the year.  Which reminds me of my time in China Town, New York City.  We weren’t eating traditional New Year foods but celebrated Chinese cuisine with the most delectable dim sum.With my…

Fool-proof Crepes

For my birthday this year,  my ‘sweet as sugarcane’ man made us a crepe breakfast.  His speciality in the kitchen ranges from delicious pasta dishes, creative braai ‘BBQ’ fish marinades, and his exceptional skill to flipping crepes with ‘kitchen ninja zen’ style.  There is no need for a spatula when he is around so I…

Guacamole on Toast

Fresh vital goodness on toast, for breakfast, for a snack, appetizer, or just because it’s avocado season-Guacamole toast has been born.  Or is it the lazy way of getting all the pungent delicious flavours into one bite without cleaning a food processor or pestle and mortar?  Well if you have a cutting board and a…

Rooibos Rice with Smoked Paprika Mussels (Quick Paella-wanna-be)

I thought to myself, ‘How can I make a rice dish a little more interesting?’ So I started with the idea of color and decided to use all ‘red’ coloured ingredients in my kitchen. So first off, I made rooibos (redbush) tea-flavoured water to steam my brown rice.  I also took flavours commonly found in…

How to Make a Fresh Fruit Smoothie (Batida)

  An apple a day plus some other amazing ingredients will definitely keep el doctor away.   I am self-medicating with an abundance of fruits in season.  In my own kitchen I took the fruits in season in South Africa with some inspiration from the beloved country, Brazil, and I blended the fruit together to make…

Bread with Gluten-free Flours

    I love bread and anything to do with starch-carbs. This recipe doesn’t exclude Celiac-disease tummies out there because there is still hope if you can get your hands on stone-ground wheat flour and mix bread recipes with other gluten-free grains. I’v experimented with gluten-free grains for awhile but, for me, nothing compares to…

Coconut Milk Borscht with Drunken Rice Noodles

Quite possibly the most delicious comfort soup on the planet.  If soup is as old as the history of cooking, then this one surely makes history.  Why?  Cause we’re marrying Thai and Eastern European flavors into one incredibly colorful noodle dish, this ain’t your everyday ramen, folks.  Rice noodles and beets get dunked and drunk…

The Perfect Soft-Boiled Egg

    Is the perfect boiled egg done in 3, minutes, 4 minutes, 4 and a half?  What if the egg is extra-large, or has been refrigerated?  The beauty of the perfect boiled egg is that you develop your own quirky habits of ‘knowing’ when it is ready to the consistency you enjoy dunking freshly…

Vegetarian Bobotie

    This layered oven-baked dish is a reflection of  the histories, cultures, and cuisines that flavour the peninsula of Cape Town.  The roots of the spices used in traditional recipes come from Cape Malay cuisine but is easy to make your own Bobotie-inspired dish with the flavours and ingredients in your own kitchen, celebrating…

Amatungulu Num Num Jam (Carissa-Natal Plum)

Carissa, also known as the Natal Plum, Num Num, Noem-Noem, or Amatungulu in our household was found growing just steps outside our house in Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa.  My boyfriend Chris grew up with his grandfather making this jam out of the Carissa fruit that grows in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal.  So when we saw…

Simple Carrot Soup

    Underneath the soil lays an abundance of root vegetables that make delicious vegetable stock for spring and autumn dinners.  This soup can be made in twenty minutes, fresh, from peeling to simmer to blend and in a bowl with a hearty piece of bread. Ingredients: 5 medium-sized carrots 1 Chinese white radish (resembles…

Easy Rice and Beans Recipe

This complete meal that leaves you feeling strong and capable of just about anything. About each culture has there own version and my particular favorite are those flavours that reign in the cilantro sprinkled regions of Central and South America.

Morning Power Smoothie with Baobab Fruit Powder

A morning smoothie that uses super-powered natural foods to the best of their ability. You’ll consider fruit and nut gathering as a hobby after making this potion.

Food Language Speaks Up!

Food and communication is a necessity for all of us and this blog is a celebration of variety, sharing of ideas, cultures and the language of food which ultimately connects us all. The food that will be and has been created in my kitchen and friend’s kitchens will be spoken about in this blog, as…