World Cup Buffet: Bobotie (RSA - Republic of South Africa)

Over the next week I will be posting about recipes and foodstuffs from each of the semifinalist countries in 2010's South Africa World Cup, and - of course - the host country. We start in the host country of South Africa, which got eliminated in the first round. South Africa's cuisine is an eclectic mix of Dutch/Afrikaaner, English, Indian, Malay and of course the various indigenous South African cultures that make up about 90% of the population.

Since I don't have enough money or time to make all of these dishes, the best I can do is write about some of my experiences with them, and make others. With South Africa, we need look no further than that most famous South African "meatloaf" - bobotie.

Country: South Africa (IOC/FIFA Abbreviation: RSA)
Nickname of National team: Bafana Bafana (Zulu, "The Boys")
Number of World Cups they have appeared in: 3
Highest finish: eliminated in the first round
Common foods: beef, lamb, curry, dried sausages, mealie (maize meal), ostrich, seafood on the coasts; sadly, indigenous foods have declined over the last century.
Number of South African restaurants in the Baltimore area: 0
Number of South African restaurants in the Washington area: 0, though there is one in Charlottesville (Shebeen) and one way up in New York City (Braai)

Bobotie is best described as a curried meatloaf with an egg/custard topping baked on top. It likely has Malay origins but has easily been adopted by the population at large. From what I understand, every self-respecting South African housewife has her own tried and true bobotie family recipe. My friend Alan is a South African expatriate, and his mother also has a recipe. I didn't ask for it in time to write this post, but Alan & his mother might be amused to find out that I have tried to make bobotie before. And wouldn't you know, it didn't turn out too well for me.

There are many recipes for bobotie online. The one I used when I made it was one such online recipe. Another easy to follow one is on the Africhef.com website. Or you can use a South African cookbook. A typical recipe for bobotie includes the following, based on ingredients from a popular South African cookbook. (UPDATE - The book in question: Magdaleen Van Wyk's A Taste of South Africa, which is that rare cookbook that has a photo of just about every recipe from the book).

2 lbs minced meat (beef, lamb - make sure it's lean. Alan tells me the beef here is so much fattier than he ever saw growing up in South Africa. So find as low fat and as corn-free a ground beef as possible)
milk & slice white bread (to soak in the milk)
finely chopped onion
raisins and almonds
chutney and apricot jam
curry powder, turmeric and various chopped herbs
salt
oil
eggs (for binding and for the custard on top)
bay leaves

After soaking the bread in the milk (some recipes say to squeeze out the milk, others are very specific that you don't), mix it and all the other ingredients together except for the oil, one or two of the eggs (depending on the recipe), half a cup of the milk and the bay leaves. Bake at about 350° F (180° C) for 40 to 50 minutes, then mix the remaining ingredients well and pour on top, baking for an additional 10 minutes.

The recipe I used was not any of the ones from above. I probably should have used a shallower pan instead of my favorite loaf pan, because my bobotie came out too soft and wet, with more of a scrambled egg topping than a custard one. Again, I will need to try this out again. Maybe I'll ask Alan if he'd be willing to let me use his mother's recipe perhaps?

The American 'Ethnic' Food Section

This from an American woman living in Berlin, commenting on the awesome international section at her local supermarket in the Alexanderplatz of the German capitol. She's noting the "USA" section, with some of the most familiar foods a Yank could find in Germany. Love the hot sauce.

World Cup - and Plate

I am getting very much into the World Cup going on currently in South Africa. There are eight teams headed to the quarterfinals that start on Friday - Uruguay, Ghana, the Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Paraguay and Spain - and soon enough there will be four. Once we get to those semifinals, I am going to try out (or for lack of time, find) a dish from each of the four semifinalist countries and write about it. And since the games are taking place in South Africa (who didn't even make it to the glorious Round of 16), I'll include a fifth recipe from there, too.

I can't really prepare for it right now, except for the South Africa part. But I can make some guesses: I'm pretty sure at least Brazil is going to make it forward. Did you see that game against Chile? Damn, now I understand just why Brazil is such a soccer - er, football - juggernaut. So there will definitely be something South American posted here at some point soon.

UPDATE 1: Well it looks like I was wrong about Brazil - the Netherlands beat them 2 to 1 today as Brazil just fell apart after the Dutch tied it up. Utter shock, and the five-time World Cup champs go home, while the Oranje - the best team never to win the World Cup - go on to the semifinals. So we have two cuisines of five set: South African and (NOT Brazilian but) Dutch. The only downside: Dutch food ain't that good. I've had it.

UPDATE 2: The field is narrowed again, as Uruguay heads to the semifinals for the first time since 1970, keeping Ghana - and the African continent - from their first ever trip to the semifinals.

UPDATE 3: And the semifinals are now set: the Netherlands will face Uruguay on Tuesday, and the following day the mighty German team will take on perennial never-been-to-a-finals-before-but-still-good Spain.

Disembodied comment!

I recently got a comment asking about a local snack food that sounded in description like the "coddie" - the little codfish cake that is sometimes eaten between or on crackers with mustard. I myself hate the damn things but many Baltimoreans love them. Not sure where the comment is but I don't see it with any recent posts. Please let me know which post you're commenting to, folks, unless it's one of the newer ones! Otherwise I will never find it :(

An Loi

Are you in need of a quick dinner spot before a play? My friends and I were in just such a need on Sunday night before seeing the closing night of a play at Howard Community College (Edward Albee's The Goat - Wow, very energetic, powerful and absurd play). But where to eat that wasn't a chain? I am okay with chains, but I prefer to avoid them if something "non-chain-y" is around. The chains are often a little pricier than some of the non-chains anyway. Eric, however, was insistent: no chains. Fine with me. I was ready to mention the always good Mango Grove, but Alan had heard from a friend about a Vietnamese place off Broken Land Parkway.

An Loi is not just a phở place, like many Vietnamese restaurants I have frequented; it serves so much more. An Loi has other types of soups, hearty noodle dishes, various Vietnamese appetizers, and even a small wine and soju list. Especially impressive to me was their fish sauce: it's homemade. Yes, it says right on their menu that they make their own nước mắm, which I have never heard of any restaurant doing before. Maybe others do and I just didn't know about it, but An Loi is the first that I know of. It is a little richer, a little more "umami-ish" - than any fish sauce I have tasted before.

Our appetizers were the typical Vietnamese spring rolls ($3.50) - the soft rolls wrapped around noodles and vegetables. All I can say about them was that they were filling. I've found these spring rolls to be more or less "okay" no matter where I go: they are a thing to order, but they don't wow you like other menu items. The peanut dipping sauce was worth noting, especially for the chopped peanuts on top. More interesting was the papaya and shrimp salad that came next, which was tangy and vinegary. In fact, this tanginess was a bit stronger to me than the papaya flavor, but the salad was still tasty.

I could have ordered the Bun Thit Heo Nuong (the highly recommended "B2" for only $7.95), which Alan enjoyed - we thought the pork in this vermicelli dish, with shredded lettuce, mint, basil, shallots, peanuts, bean sprouts and such, reminded us very strongly of bulgogi. (I can't recall what Eric got, but I liked this even more.) Instead I decided to go with the tried and true phở (large bowl for just under $7). I think mine was the phở an loi. It was filled with the typical thin-sliced beef, tripe - I hate tripe but this was more thinly sliced and enjoyable than I've ever seen in phở) and tightly-packed meatballs, mixed in with dense strands of think rice vermicelli, plus bean sprouts and the occasional jalapeño slice (again, sliced extremely thin) that I added myself. I have to remark on the meat, which was, again, more thinly sliced than I've ever seen in phở, and was also more tender than in any phở I have had in a long time. Of course, I could not finish it, even though this large bowl was smaller than most large bowls I've had. This is simply because it still was packed with about as much meat and noodles as a typical phở that I have had before.

I do also have to comment on one unusual beverage that I simply had to try out of curiosity. Among the various beverages was a salty lemon soda (about $3). This sounds awful but you would be surprised at how fascinating this salty-sweet carbonated beverage is! It's almost like a slightly salty 7-Up. I think I caused a little extra interest from some of the wait staff, curious at the European-American trying this drink that to him would clearly be something new. I don't see myself drinking a six-pack of this stuff, but I would encourage you to try this if you head to An Loi.

One final comment I must make: we got our food fast. Very fast. I don't mean McDonald's fast, but it was certainly fast for a sit-down restaurant. This was despite the fact that we were one of several tables of patrons there that night. I don't know if this is typical or not, but if you have a play or something to get to, like at Howard Community, chances are you will make it in time.

WTF, Friendly's?

Friendly's Grilled Cheese Burger Melt. Excess. Gluttony. Ick.

(Photo from Friendly's via Slashfood)

Sláinte Pub and the Amazing Last Minute Goal

Unless you live in a cave, you've probably heard by now about the dramatic US victory over Algeria in Wednesday's World Cup match. Thanks to Landon Donovan (I used to live in his hometown of Redlands, California, mind you), who scored the game's only goal in the 91st minute of play, the US Men's National Team went from being sent home to being the winners of our Group. Now we advance with England, while Algeria and Slovenia head home. Go USA!

I decided to watch today's match at Sláinte Pub (pronounced SLAWN-chuh in the South, or SLAN-chuh in the North) in Fells this morning, with a lot of men and women who decided to take a sick day today (the malady: World-Cup-itis). To do this, I had to get up pretty early. The hoopla started at 9:30, but unless you got there around 8:30 you were not going to find a seat. Not only did I find a seat but I found one at the bar (okay, somebody else's seat, but he was outside and let me use his seat until I finished eating) in plain view of their biggest TV. Sláinte's motto is "Where soccer is religion." It certainly feels like a tempe to the Beautiful Game: three floors were showing today's games - the bottom two floors had the US-Algeria game, and the top floor had the riveting game between England and Slovenia. Football scarves abound all over the pub. Perhaps they may show other sports here when something soccer-related isn't on, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

In addition to three Diet Cokes and two beautiful pints of Guinness, each with a fat and shaggy head of foam like I have rarely seen, I went ahead and ordered myself some breakfast. Sláinte's regulars swear this is THE place for a good breakfast. Most of these breakfasts are in the $9 to $13 price range, including a mixture of American and Irish breakfast favorites. Some of the more intriguing menu items include the the not-quite-Mexican-or-Italian ranchero fritatta ($15) and the imposing traditional Irish breakfast ($12) of bangers, rashers, scrambled eggs, beans and toast, etc (I may need to order this for Sunday morning's England game - yes, I'm already considering returning). They have more traditionally American offerings as well, including blueberry pancakes ($8) and vanilla French toast ($8.50).


My breakfast was the Boxtie (BOX-tee), a mishmash of Irish-style potato pancakes (like a few large hash brown patties) interspersed with egg, Irish bangers and rashers (sausage and bacon) and topped with what is described as a "Guinness-infused cheddar". The Boxtie is served with sliced potatoes, onions and green peppers, and a slice of melon with a strawberry. This is a pretty imposing breakfast in itself, and it took me a while to slog through it. My favorite part of this meal was the Boxtie itself - the potato pancakes were slightly crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, and not at all mushy. The flavors melded well with the bangers and rashers. I'm not sure how I feel about the Guinness cheddar. There could have been more of it, because I really didn't get too much of a taste. But overall it's a dish I would suggest you at least try. Perhaps you should try it when the US plays (I think they're playing) Ghana on Saturday afternoon? Or when England next plays on Sunday morning. I mean, Sláinte isn't a church, but again, you are getting their brand of religion! And it's easy to go into a higher state of consciousness when your team scores the game winning goal that keeps you in the whole dang tournament just before the game ends. It is amazing and exhilarating.


Again, GO USA!!!

Pride Weekend Eats

There's a popular saying from Fran Leibowitz: 'If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture, you would pretty much be left with "Let's Make a Deal”' While I don't know about that - and while I'm flattered to think that could ever be the case - her quote sure as hell does not explain the culinary wasteland that is the typical gay pride festival. This is why it is so fortunate that at least the Pride Fest Block Party on Saturday is centered around Mount Vernon. There, the food is a bit better than the "crab on a pita drowning in melted cheese" I had at the Sunday festival in Druid Hill Park a few years ago, and which many people will have chosen again for this year's Festival in the Park. It's disappointing that Pride Fest coincides with the African American Festival at M&T Bank Stadium just about every year. I would hope that the food is a good bit better, and hopefully not of the "crab on a shingle" variety.

And so, because gay (truly, LGBT) pride is truly not a foodie event, you have to avoid most if not all of the kiosks and head for the restaurants. Which I did.

• City Café - I must say, this is quickly becoming a semi-regular hangout for me. It's always a good place to go on a weekend night for a cappuccino and some sort of dessert. The problem for me lies with the entrées, because they're often pricier than I want to spend. (The expense in general is also why I don't eat out that much anymore.) But I did something different on Friday night and just had some appetizers, always a good idea if you're trying to save money and sample the food at the same time. I was not disappointed with the appetizers I got. The first was a fried green tomato with crab meat plate ($11): two slice o' green maters in sweet lump crab with a lemony beurre-blanc. It didn't look like much, but I did not exactly snarf it down. The coating on the fried green tomato was dark, dense and crispy. I found that it overpowered the nice sour tang of the green tomato just a little bit, but it was something I could deal with. It was a lovely dish, but what really stood out were the grilled lamb chops ($11): four small "lollipop" lamb chops with a limoncello glaze, sprinkled with pecans and dried apricots. the lamb chops were almost caramel-like in their sweetness, and packed a good amount of juicy, tender meat. Even these two appetizers together cost $22, but it's a bit cheaper than either one of these plus an entrée, which would set you back at least $30.
  
• Lunch was a half-buffet/half-fixed menu outing at Indigma. They're trying something I've never seen at an Indian restaurant before: their "table side buffet". Here's how it goes: 1) Choose one of three prix-fixe lunches, veg, non-veg and mixed, each of which consists of eight Indian tapas in small square bowls (including the rice), with hot naan. You get as much as you want, but it may fill you up; 2) then go to the buffet, which includes salads, chutneys, raitas, pickles and desserts. I ordered the mixed combination for the surprisingly low price of $10, plus a ginger lassi for $4. The lassi was a little thin, and the ginger was subtle. Really, the lunch offerings overpowered it. My favorite among the tapas was their fenugreek (methi) chicken. It was so juicy and not at all tough or dry, with a nice color and texture. It was chicken the way I would always like to eat it. A potato fritter went all too fast (maybe I should've eaten another one) and the butter chicken had a nice, buttery sauce. There also was a lemon pickle I got at the salad bar that was very different from most Indian pickles I have ever had. The food was pretty good but for the price it was amazing.

• Dinner was at Minato, where I met up with several friends, including my neighbor, for sushi. This time I let them choose what to get, and they made no mistakes. I just can't identify the rolls but we had the typical sushi-sashimi platters. My share was around $30 or so. That includes a sake and plum wine martini that gave me all the sake I needed without having to order my own bottle, and at $7.25 it was cheaper than most of the good cold sake they have. Again, I left satisfied. For me, Minato never disappoints!

Of course, the festival itself didn't exactly please me food wise. I got an okay crab cake sandwich for $7, and a cold sweet tea which, depressingly, was neither all that cold nor all that sweet. Add to that a $6 piña colada in a peensy plastic cup that had less alcohol in it than if I had just asked them to give it to me "dry" and hold all the rum in the first place. At least we in the Men's Chorus went out to Tamber's afterwards. I ordered the chicken tikka ($14) which tasted more like a barbeque fajita than anything Indian. But still it was so much more preferable to the eats at the festival in Druid Hill Park. Yes, even then my theory was confirmed: the typical Pride Festival is itself a culinary wasteland.

Why does Sandra Lee have a television show again?

What the fuck is wrong with this woman? I mean, seriously!?



And here all this time I was really wondering how to make a block of ice cream look like a baked potato. My life is now complete.

The Littlest Potato

I just picked this at my plot in Clifton Park while I was weeding and otherwise tending to my garden. Most of my potatoes will certainly be much larger than this when I finally do dig them up, but still:

Isn't it cute!?!?!?