Cookout
I hope all our friends over there in that country we left behind have grand plans this weekend to char some meat over an open flame in celebration of our country's independence.
Given the approaching holiday, this seems like the appropriate time to break the news that the uniquely American tradition of the barbeque isn't as unique as you might think. In South Africa, there's an even more pervasive barbeque culture than in the states. I know people in the American South take their BBQ sauces and BBQ methods quite seriously, but they aren't as serious as some South Africans seem be about their study of the art of the braai.
"Braai" is the South African term for barbeque. Actually, it's short for braaivlais, an Afrikaans word that means "meat grill." And grill they do, cooking everything from beef or lamb cutlets to ostrich and boerewors ("farmer's sausage"), a spicy South African specialty.
The braai is so pervasive that when we went on our epic search for a place to live at the start of our stay here, the people showing us each apartment would refer to the area for the cookout--the "braai area"--as if we had assumed there would be one. Katie and I have hypothesized that somewhere in South Africa's lengthy and liberal new constitution, each citizen is given the constitutional right to a braai.
This right was apparently extended to non-citizens. On our sets of keys for our apartment, we were given three keys: one for the apartment door, one for the patio door, and one for the communal braai area. It is our goal, by the time we leave here in March, to host a braai in our communal braai area for our growing group of South African friends.
But first we have to go to someone else's braai to see how it's done, and our neighbors said they would bring us with them the next time a particular friend of theirs hosts a cookout. They said he's the best at it.
We're told that braais always follow the same routine: the men gather around the grill, grunt, and poke at the meat. While they're debating the relative merits of particular meats and cooking methods, the women are supposed to be inside making potato salad.
It all sounds oddly familiar.
Given the approaching holiday, this seems like the appropriate time to break the news that the uniquely American tradition of the barbeque isn't as unique as you might think. In South Africa, there's an even more pervasive barbeque culture than in the states. I know people in the American South take their BBQ sauces and BBQ methods quite seriously, but they aren't as serious as some South Africans seem be about their study of the art of the braai.
"Braai" is the South African term for barbeque. Actually, it's short for braaivlais, an Afrikaans word that means "meat grill." And grill they do, cooking everything from beef or lamb cutlets to ostrich and boerewors ("farmer's sausage"), a spicy South African specialty.
The braai is so pervasive that when we went on our epic search for a place to live at the start of our stay here, the people showing us each apartment would refer to the area for the cookout--the "braai area"--as if we had assumed there would be one. Katie and I have hypothesized that somewhere in South Africa's lengthy and liberal new constitution, each citizen is given the constitutional right to a braai.
This right was apparently extended to non-citizens. On our sets of keys for our apartment, we were given three keys: one for the apartment door, one for the patio door, and one for the communal braai area. It is our goal, by the time we leave here in March, to host a braai in our communal braai area for our growing group of South African friends.
But first we have to go to someone else's braai to see how it's done, and our neighbors said they would bring us with them the next time a particular friend of theirs hosts a cookout. They said he's the best at it.
We're told that braais always follow the same routine: the men gather around the grill, grunt, and poke at the meat. While they're debating the relative merits of particular meats and cooking methods, the women are supposed to be inside making potato salad.
It all sounds oddly familiar.
posted by Erik at 7:01 pm
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