My Recipe Competition

I have entered into a competition for recipes dealing with heritage, and how food is so integral to culture. As they have moved my recipe onto the next round, they have asked me to post a link to their website on my blog- Easy Recipes. My entry is as follows, for those who are interested.

As you drive down the road in my home town after dark, you will see hundreds of neon signs illuminating the parking lots of the local restaurants. Italian, Chinese buffet, pizza, burgers, BBQ, Japanese, Mexican, Greek, subs, and the typical American cuisine are just a few among many cuisines from which you can choose. These neon-signed restaurants are also reflected inside to the homes in my community. Growing up, we would have so much variety that it would make your head spin, and besides Taco Thursdays we would rarely repeat a meal in one month. So the term “staple food” meant nothing to me, until I arrived in South Africa six months ago…

In September of 2010 I joined a global mission program of the ELCA, and was placed in a small village in the Limpopo province of South Africa known as Masealama. The language, the landscape, the people, the songs, the lifestyle- many things have their differences with my life in North America, but one of the first things that came to my attention was the food.

Walking into work at the Drop-In Centre (which feeds orphans and vulnerable children) on the first day, I was greeted with friendly faces gathered around the stove. As I sat down and sipped tea with the ladies, one of them got up to begin preparing lunch for us. She walked over to a large bowl in the sink and started pulling out long rubbery strings and cleaning out the inside of the goop which was in them. “Do you know what these are?” she asked me. I had never seen anything like it really. “No” I replied. “These are chicken intestines, you will eat them.” So sure enough, my first meal in my new home for a year was chicken intestines, achaar (a spicy concoction made with mangos), and pap- the staple food of South Africa.

I knew I would be eating differently as I was immersed in this culture. I have certainly have had my fair share of interesting meals here- chicken intestines, cow intestines, cow heel, worms from Mopani trees, chicken heads and feet, and more. These things were more of what I was expecting- completely different food. But what I did not expect was the staple food which is eaten for every meal here. Pap, or porridge, is made from maize meal. In my region it is cooked soft (known as motepa) which is usually eaten for breakfast or hard (known as bogobe) which is usually eaten for lunch and dinner. It can be eaten with anything and everything- pap and eggs, pap and milk, pap and fish, pap and chicken, pap and mašotša (Mopani worms), pap and morogo (spinach), and of course, pap and tripe (intestines). Pap is well-loved, and even physically “needed” for life here in South Africa. Some people claim that they can not live without it, and when asked what kind of pap we have in the States, they are surprised to learn that we do not have pap- or even a staple food of any kind!

South Africa has taught me about the deeper meaning of food. Food expresses who you are; it is part of your culture and your heritage. Throughout South Africa pap is common, but in the various regions, the pap is cooked differently. The pap in my area is distinct in that it is cooked into a ball which hardens a little on the outside and thus gives allows it to maintain its shape.

No matter where you go in South Africa, you can tell where a person is from by their pap. They are all made from the same ingredients, but cooked differently enough to have many varieties. And this is true for our world. All of our food comes from the same place, the earth. We eat fruits, vegetables, meat, and grains, all of that is the same globally. How we prepare our meals is what varies. Recipes are personal and often do reflect the culture of the area (especially in South Africa) but ingredients and food are universal. No matter what you are eating, we are all the same.

RECIPE FOR LIMPOPO PAP:

Ingredients:

120g maize meal

600ml water

Method

1. Bring the water to boil in a pot

2. Add approximately 75 g of maize meal gradually and stir well with the wooden stirrer lefetlho until mixture thickens.

3. Cook for 10 minutes

4. Add the remaining meal, stirring well with a wooden spoon.

5. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Form into ball and serve hot.