Friday, June 6, 2008

Out to Lunch

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Me, Thulie, Mussa, Mashilo, Nthateng,Stanley, Doris, Apinda

Most of the food available here in Johannesburg is european inspired. Like the states, modern South Africa started as a colony, therefor most of the food available here is European inspired. I personally found this kind of boring. Baring a few exceptions, I am a adventurous eater. I'll try just about anything once, if I like it, I'll eat it again no matter how strange. I mentioned this to Thulie, Behind the Mask's director, and she said she would take Doris and I out for some traditional South African food. Perfect. Today Thulie kept her word. The restarant wasn't so authentic, but the food they served was. Sohpiatown is located in Newtown, an area of Johannesburg that was once a run down industrial zone that has been beautifully revitalized to be a cultural center. The restaurant itself has a trend feel to match the district. The menu has a variety of choices including things that are very exotic like Gazel, Ostrich, and Crocodile, as well as very tame, things like burgers. But what I was interested in was authentic. The menu doesn't disappoint. You could get things like dried grub worms or Mogodu (stewed cows stomach). I said I'd try just about anything and I draw the line at guts. I just don't like the taste. So I kind of chickened out. I did get something authentic, but it was also pretty tame. Wors' li pap is basically sausage (wors') and boiled corn meal (pap) and it was really good. I also had a side of mngqushu (pronounced ng-*click*-shu), which is a bean mush. I said I'd try the Mogodu but I wasn't sure that I wanted a whole steaming bowl of it. Thulie ordered it for herself and let me try it. It was really good, but it tasted like guts so I was glad I only had to try a taste.

I thought of writing this blog post about halfway through the meal so by the time I took the pictures below I had already eaten half my food but I thought I'd show them anyway.


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Wors li Pap

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Mngqushu

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Mogodu (the g is pronounced kind of like the spanish "j")

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These guys past through during our meal.

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