People say "shame" here all the time. It's used primarily in two ways. If I say, "I cut my toe at the pool." The response is: Aw, shame. That one makes sense. The other use is a little strange. For example, someone sees a cute baby in a store...and remarks, "Shame, look at the gorgeous baby."
100% is used a lot as well to let you know there is no doubt something will be done as promised. "Will you be able to come back later today to fix the washing machine?" Yes...100%...not a problem. However, in my experience, 100% is what they're striving for and less of a promise. Things don't happen here with 100% certainty at all.
Finally, there is "sorted." This one is used when making plans with friends, making reservations or anything that needs to be "figured out." For example, our travel agent..."I'll sort this out and get back to you. Trust that all is in order." Or...if I say...have we figured out the itinerary for Botswana...the reply is..."absolutely, it's all sorted."
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Food
After last week's post, I got an assignment from sister-in-law to write something about food. Thanks for the homework, Kim! :-) Actually, it's a very good idea, but one that might not be all that exciting. That said, here are my thoughts on the culinary delights and disappointments of South Africa.
Variety. We have quite a few options when it comes to dining out here...French, Italian and what is best described as California cuisine because of the light fare and broad range of dishes. Different from the US, portions are much smaller. Many restaurants are located in the malls here. The others are sprinkled throughout town and often in residential areas with not much else around. The mall location are generally large and accommodate a lot of patrons, while the residential ones are small...maybe 10-12 tables. One of our favorite places is called Gameal's, a small mediterranean cafe in the strip mall down the street from our house. They have some delicious vegetarian dishes for me and meat dishes for Andrew. What is absolutely the best here are the Indian restaurants. Durban is home to the largest Indian population outside India...so there are more options there. But here in Pretoria, we have a few really great options as well. In my first couple of weeks here, I had sushi at two or three different Japanese places, which were quite good. There are also a handful of Chinese and Thai...but I can't think of one Mexican place. There is no place to get chips and salsa here....though we've heard about one Mexican place in Jo'burg. I'll have to investigate.
Vegetarian vs Meat. South Africans are big meat eaters. It's a dream for Andrew because people feel like he does about vegetables...they just take up room in his stomach that meat could occupy. Ostrich, chicken, pork and lamb are big...as well as ox tail which is used in stews. But I have found the vegetarian options to be plentiful and good. Salads are served everywhere and with a lot of Greek influence. Feta cheese is very popular as are olives and fresh peppers..which are common in just about every salad. I've always liked feta, but not as much as I LOVE the feta here. It is super creamy here and not quite as pungent as US feta. Next to feta, haloumi (a Greek cheese) is extremely popular. Fried haloumi is an appetizer at most restaurants and if they don't use feta in a salad, then you'll get haloumi. We found a cheese stall at the Rosebank market in Jo'burg that sells delicious spiced haloumi.
Local food. There are a few Afrikaner restaurants around serving very hearty meats and casserole type things. We haven't been yet...but everyone tells us to wait until winter. Otherwise, we've been to a pan-African restaurant in downtown Tshwane (Pretoria). The dishes were borrowed from around the continent including Ethiopia and Morocco. One of the most popular local dishes is called Pop or Mealie Meal. It's a corn-based mash that is totally flavorless so people put lots of sauces and meats on it.
Price. Dining out is rather affordable. Entrees at more expensive restaurants here range from $10-$15. Overall, food is slightly cheaper than the US. But where you really save is on the alcohol. Drinks are super cheap. A beer, glass of wine or mixed drink may be $3-$5. Bottles of wine (mostly South African and some European options) are very affordable as well...running $10-$15 per bottle. They don't seem to mark up the wine at all. And most places allow you to bring your own wine for a nominal corkage fee.
Service. South Africa is not all that service friendly...with some minor exceptions here and there. Servers at restaurants get at most 10% of the bill. And at most places, people are just not that concerned about helping. Maybe it's the lack of financial incentive? I don't know...but even at stores in the mall, you can rarely find anyone who will help you...even though there are usually a lot of workers available. But tipping is common almost everywhere. We keep a pile of coins in our car to tip people in parking lots. During the day, it's expected that you tip the attendant about 2 rands (about 25 cents). At night, you tip about 5 rands. The tips are primarily about them watching your car...from theft, dents, etc.
Grocery stores. You can find many comparable products to what we see at home...depending on where you are. The big super market near our house is called Spar and is patronized by a lot of US expats so they have more US products than other Spar locations. But they do NOT have good corn chips at all. And I've only seen one place to buy guacamole...and it's just so so. I haven't paid too much attention to the cost except that fruits, vegetables and wine are super cheap. Everything else seems like it would be at home. Spar reminds me of a Vons or Ralphs (think Schnucks in St. Louis or Stop N Shop in New York). For a step up with better produce and organic meats there is Woolworths (people here call it Woolies). This is more like Gelsons (Dierbergs). And then there are a number of discount stores called Pick N Pay (which is where I buy my cell phone minutes) and Checkers.
I'll close with another observation about expiration dates. Even though I'm not the meat eater in our house, the meats here seem to have little to no preservatives and hormones pumped in them--whether they're organic or not. So no super-sized chicken breasts, etc. Fresh meat often has the same sell by and use by dates...and is usually the day that you buy them or the following day. So it's fresh and presumed that you are buying what you're going to eat that day or immediately freeze for later. Cheese expiration is a strange one for me. Most say that they must be eaten within 3 days of opening which I've never heard of before.
Anyway...that's about all I can think of for now...
Variety. We have quite a few options when it comes to dining out here...French, Italian and what is best described as California cuisine because of the light fare and broad range of dishes. Different from the US, portions are much smaller. Many restaurants are located in the malls here. The others are sprinkled throughout town and often in residential areas with not much else around. The mall location are generally large and accommodate a lot of patrons, while the residential ones are small...maybe 10-12 tables. One of our favorite places is called Gameal's, a small mediterranean cafe in the strip mall down the street from our house. They have some delicious vegetarian dishes for me and meat dishes for Andrew. What is absolutely the best here are the Indian restaurants. Durban is home to the largest Indian population outside India...so there are more options there. But here in Pretoria, we have a few really great options as well. In my first couple of weeks here, I had sushi at two or three different Japanese places, which were quite good. There are also a handful of Chinese and Thai...but I can't think of one Mexican place. There is no place to get chips and salsa here....though we've heard about one Mexican place in Jo'burg. I'll have to investigate.
Vegetarian vs Meat. South Africans are big meat eaters. It's a dream for Andrew because people feel like he does about vegetables...they just take up room in his stomach that meat could occupy. Ostrich, chicken, pork and lamb are big...as well as ox tail which is used in stews. But I have found the vegetarian options to be plentiful and good. Salads are served everywhere and with a lot of Greek influence. Feta cheese is very popular as are olives and fresh peppers..which are common in just about every salad. I've always liked feta, but not as much as I LOVE the feta here. It is super creamy here and not quite as pungent as US feta. Next to feta, haloumi (a Greek cheese) is extremely popular. Fried haloumi is an appetizer at most restaurants and if they don't use feta in a salad, then you'll get haloumi. We found a cheese stall at the Rosebank market in Jo'burg that sells delicious spiced haloumi.
Local food. There are a few Afrikaner restaurants around serving very hearty meats and casserole type things. We haven't been yet...but everyone tells us to wait until winter. Otherwise, we've been to a pan-African restaurant in downtown Tshwane (Pretoria). The dishes were borrowed from around the continent including Ethiopia and Morocco. One of the most popular local dishes is called Pop or Mealie Meal. It's a corn-based mash that is totally flavorless so people put lots of sauces and meats on it.
Price. Dining out is rather affordable. Entrees at more expensive restaurants here range from $10-$15. Overall, food is slightly cheaper than the US. But where you really save is on the alcohol. Drinks are super cheap. A beer, glass of wine or mixed drink may be $3-$5. Bottles of wine (mostly South African and some European options) are very affordable as well...running $10-$15 per bottle. They don't seem to mark up the wine at all. And most places allow you to bring your own wine for a nominal corkage fee.
Service. South Africa is not all that service friendly...with some minor exceptions here and there. Servers at restaurants get at most 10% of the bill. And at most places, people are just not that concerned about helping. Maybe it's the lack of financial incentive? I don't know...but even at stores in the mall, you can rarely find anyone who will help you...even though there are usually a lot of workers available. But tipping is common almost everywhere. We keep a pile of coins in our car to tip people in parking lots. During the day, it's expected that you tip the attendant about 2 rands (about 25 cents). At night, you tip about 5 rands. The tips are primarily about them watching your car...from theft, dents, etc.
Grocery stores. You can find many comparable products to what we see at home...depending on where you are. The big super market near our house is called Spar and is patronized by a lot of US expats so they have more US products than other Spar locations. But they do NOT have good corn chips at all. And I've only seen one place to buy guacamole...and it's just so so. I haven't paid too much attention to the cost except that fruits, vegetables and wine are super cheap. Everything else seems like it would be at home. Spar reminds me of a Vons or Ralphs (think Schnucks in St. Louis or Stop N Shop in New York). For a step up with better produce and organic meats there is Woolworths (people here call it Woolies). This is more like Gelsons (Dierbergs). And then there are a number of discount stores called Pick N Pay (which is where I buy my cell phone minutes) and Checkers.
I'll close with another observation about expiration dates. Even though I'm not the meat eater in our house, the meats here seem to have little to no preservatives and hormones pumped in them--whether they're organic or not. So no super-sized chicken breasts, etc. Fresh meat often has the same sell by and use by dates...and is usually the day that you buy them or the following day. So it's fresh and presumed that you are buying what you're going to eat that day or immediately freeze for later. Cheese expiration is a strange one for me. Most say that they must be eaten within 3 days of opening which I've never heard of before.
Anyway...that's about all I can think of for now...
Friday, April 13, 2012
Hluhluwe and Umdloti
Before you try to pronounce the names of these places, you should know that they are both in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal or KZN as people here refer to it. But make sure you don't say K - Zee - N. It's K - Zed - N! Since that's probably not enough of a hint...here's how they are pronounced: Hluhluwe is Shooshlooee and Umdloti is Oomshloti.
Anyway, these were our destinations over the Easter holiday weekend. And let me just say right away that I will never ever again take a long drive on a popular South African holiday weekend. South African drivers are scary enough...speeding and passing with wild abandon. And while the freeway infrastructure around Pretoria/Jo'burg is quite good, when you get outside of town, the freeways become 4 lane roads without medians and often just a two lane road. It's in these areas that the dangers escalate...from cattle and goats crossing the road to people trying to scoot across to police check points. The police here deploy an unusual tactic of standing in the middle of the road and pointing at your car to pull you over. Remarkably, people actually stop for this which is surprising given the apparent lack of interest in obeying other traffic rules such as speeding and passing. The scary part is since the police stand in the road, you can't see them until the cars ahead of you start breaking very quickly. Oh and did I mention the occasional, surprise speed bumps in the middle of the road? The point is, driving here presents a variety of other dangers beyond just other cars on the road.
Having survived the driving, the rest of the trip was absolutely fantastic. Hluhluwe is one of the oldest game parks in South Africa. It's relatively small so we were able to drive through most of the park over the two days we were there. The have all the Big 5 game: Cape buffalo, lion, leopard, rhino and African elephant. We saw everything but lion and leopard. This being our first safari, it was a lesson in patience. You spend a lot of time looking and waiting to see something. And then, bam. Just like that you run across a giant white rhino and her calf. Since this is the end of the rainy season here, the brush was quite thick...so seeing game was not easy.
We stayed in a rondavel...a circular hut that is typical of African homes in the countryside here. The room was super clean and had a fridge and sink. Even the communal ablutions area was clean. Cooking out under the stars at night was fantastic...and then sharing our breakfast with the Vervet monkeys who came by both mornings was lots of fun.
The next two nights we spent at a beach resort town (Umdloti) north of Durban. It was a beautiful setting in our rented cliff-side condo. The water here was warm and great for swimming although the first day the Indian Ocean was so rough that all I did was dodge waves and rip currents. Durban has the largest Indian population outside India. So we had some fantastic Indian food one night.
All in all...a great 4 night getaway. Enjoy some of the pictures!!
Anyway, these were our destinations over the Easter holiday weekend. And let me just say right away that I will never ever again take a long drive on a popular South African holiday weekend. South African drivers are scary enough...speeding and passing with wild abandon. And while the freeway infrastructure around Pretoria/Jo'burg is quite good, when you get outside of town, the freeways become 4 lane roads without medians and often just a two lane road. It's in these areas that the dangers escalate...from cattle and goats crossing the road to people trying to scoot across to police check points. The police here deploy an unusual tactic of standing in the middle of the road and pointing at your car to pull you over. Remarkably, people actually stop for this which is surprising given the apparent lack of interest in obeying other traffic rules such as speeding and passing. The scary part is since the police stand in the road, you can't see them until the cars ahead of you start breaking very quickly. Oh and did I mention the occasional, surprise speed bumps in the middle of the road? The point is, driving here presents a variety of other dangers beyond just other cars on the road.
Having survived the driving, the rest of the trip was absolutely fantastic. Hluhluwe is one of the oldest game parks in South Africa. It's relatively small so we were able to drive through most of the park over the two days we were there. The have all the Big 5 game: Cape buffalo, lion, leopard, rhino and African elephant. We saw everything but lion and leopard. This being our first safari, it was a lesson in patience. You spend a lot of time looking and waiting to see something. And then, bam. Just like that you run across a giant white rhino and her calf. Since this is the end of the rainy season here, the brush was quite thick...so seeing game was not easy.
We stayed in a rondavel...a circular hut that is typical of African homes in the countryside here. The room was super clean and had a fridge and sink. Even the communal ablutions area was clean. Cooking out under the stars at night was fantastic...and then sharing our breakfast with the Vervet monkeys who came by both mornings was lots of fun.
The next two nights we spent at a beach resort town (Umdloti) north of Durban. It was a beautiful setting in our rented cliff-side condo. The water here was warm and great for swimming although the first day the Indian Ocean was so rough that all I did was dodge waves and rip currents. Durban has the largest Indian population outside India. So we had some fantastic Indian food one night.
All in all...a great 4 night getaway. Enjoy some of the pictures!!
Baby rhino following mom.
Vervet monkeys in a cabbage tree outside our rondavel.
Evening at Hilltop Camp.
Cape buffalo taking a mud nap.
uShaka Beach, Durban. The swimming was better here.
African elephants in the distance.
Hluhluwe landscape.
Impala.
Moonrise at Hilltop Camp restaurant patio.
Vervet who wanted some of our breakfast...
Nyala...completely unafraid of our presence.
Moonrise over the Indian Ocean from our condo in Umdloti.
Our rondavel in Hluhluwe
We had to walk under this scary thing to get to the "hide" where we waited for game to show up to a watering hole. Nobody came...but we did hear a herd of elephants.
Cape buffalo are quite dangerous...as evidenced by the stare down we got from this guy. He never took his eyes off of us. There were wildebeest around here too but I didn't get a good enough picture to post.
Sunset in Hluhluwe
A turbulent India Ocean looking at Umhlanga.
Vervet
Vultures.
Check out the tusk on mama rhino. She was actually quite close to our car. Also seen on the trip were warthogs and baboons. My warthog picture didn't turn out well enough to post.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Cradle of Humankind
Andrew was away in Atlanta last week, so on Saturday I went to the Cradle of Humankind with a friend. It's about an hour outside of town through beautiful rolling hills...still green from summer rains. Soon, I imagine they will be turning brown as the dry winter months begin.
Anyway, the Cradle of Humankind is worth a visit even though it feels a little like an amusement park once you get inside the visitor's center called Maropeng, which means "returning to the place of origin." Lots of interesting facts about our ancestors and the earliest hominid fossils...many of which have been found inside this World Heritage site....and all so close to our house! The best part was our tour guide who was quite the character.
Afterward, we drove to a little town called Muldersdrift to have a beer at this micro brewery called Gilroy's. All in all a very nice afternoon. Anyway...here a few pictures of the surrounding area.
Anyway, the Cradle of Humankind is worth a visit even though it feels a little like an amusement park once you get inside the visitor's center called Maropeng, which means "returning to the place of origin." Lots of interesting facts about our ancestors and the earliest hominid fossils...many of which have been found inside this World Heritage site....and all so close to our house! The best part was our tour guide who was quite the character.
Afterward, we drove to a little town called Muldersdrift to have a beer at this micro brewery called Gilroy's. All in all a very nice afternoon. Anyway...here a few pictures of the surrounding area.
Maropeng visitor's center.
Yes..it's getting cooler here.
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