Adventures of an Expat in South Africa
One of my favorite small expat joys I acquired a taste for in South Africa is Malva Pudding. I can always conjure up a tiny bit of the magic of of a fiery African sunset, the awe of watching a dazzle of zebras approach a waterhole, or the heart-stopping shock of hearing the hadeda's first cry in the morning by making this consummate South African dessert.
Even though most Brits (and also Australians) I know are VERY loyal to their Marmite, even a single ONE of those jars would be one too many in our household. But it's hard to imagine that our family would ever complain about having too many Nutella jars. Here is a list of must-have things for your expat suitcase.
Koeksisters (pronounced "cook sisters" or close to it) are one of the South African food staples. Right behind biltong, rusks, and all things off the braai. They are a very sweet and very sticky delicacy made from a donut-like dough shaped into mini-braids and finished off with sugar syrup. The word derives from the Dutch koekje, which means cookie.
As a German, I love Oktoberfest. I love the Brezeln, I love the sausages, I love the potato salad, and I love seeing people in lederhosen. Imagine my delight when I found out that at the Oktoberfest in Namibia (formerly German Southwest Africa) they wear Lederhosen made from zebra skin. I'm not kidding you. They also serve the best Schweinebraten outside of Munich.
One thing I love about expat life and exploring new cultures is the recipes we pick up along the way. The German apple cake our family has come to love originated from our Filipino maid in Singapore. Note that it's not me, the German, who introduced her, the Filipino, to our apple cake. It's the other way around. I never fail to chuckle about this irony each and every time I make it.
Everything is perfect. It’s a Saturday night. The gin tonics are poured. The afternoon thunderstorm has passed and delicious smells are wafting from the grill.
“Honey, can you bring the buns?”
KABOOOOM! (That was me, crashing back down onto the floor of reality). Because what have ...
I really love going out to eat in South Africa, and the options are endless. With one exception: Mexican food. If you come from America, this leaves you with a big hole in your life. We have kids who can never agree on anything, let alone which restaurant to pick when we go out (which isn’t ...
Sorry, but this post can only be written in German (a first on this blog!), as it is about sausages, sweet mustard, and Southern German culture, so my English readers will have to take a (well-deserved) break.
Da wir gerade wieder einmal unser jährliches Oktoberfest hinter uns haben, ist das eine ...
A few days ago, I ate the very first mango of the season.
Come to think of it, it was actually still very much out of season, as I haven’t seen another one for sale since then, and I seem to recall from last year that the South African mango season doesn’t start until closer to December. ...
One of the first questions Zax asked when we knew we were moving to South Africa was if there was a Subway there. And no, he didn’t mean for transportation. He meant the kind where you can eat – in his opinion, the world’s best – subs. I’m kind of partial to Jersey Mike’s ...