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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Friday night braai

On Friday night the client of the diamond mine, for which Grant and his team contract, came to a function at our Guest House. Being 90 % South Africans on our side with 100% South Africans on the client's side and the 10% Asian contingency in Grant's team converted to the popular South African way of entertaining, we of course put on a BBQ (known as a braai to all) 

As always this is male domain because the men BBQ the meat but the females nearby (in this case, only one - moi!) have to make the salads, toasties and ugali/ crumbly maize porridge and tomato sauce. Fortunately I had a team of brilliant chefs, cooks and helpers who worked with me from Friday morning until 6pm to get it exactly right!

In the kitchen we had Salome (seated), James, Paul and Regina cooking the donuts - the best in the world - for dessert that evening
In the scullery, Pendo and Armani valiantly cleaned mountains of preparation dishes, pots and pans

In the garden at the braai area I had Mataluma, Madui and Edward helping me with seating, tables and preparing the fires
We were a group of 23 people enjoying the African evening and friendly ambiance
Grant lights the braai fire. A rugby series has just begun in SA; this night was the first match. So the TV and cable connection was set up on the refreshments table so that anyone interested could follow the game! 

I'm sorry I didn't take photos of the food table. Between me and the chefs, we'd prepared Greek Salad, a three-bean salad (does anyone other than South Africans know this salad?) ugali and tomato sauce, toastie cheese and tomato breads, Coleslaw, which were the accompaniments to boerewors (SA farmer's sausage) BBQ -flavoured chicken for the South Africans;  very, very spicy chicken legs (Indian style) for the Indians; T-bone steaks, rump steaks and Mishkaki/ kebabs. Marnitz and Thys BBQ'd the SA meats while Dipen grilled the spicy chicken legs on a separate grid. (If we don't do this, the normal mortals eating ordinary meat have their taste-buds attacked by fiery hot spices on the grill, which clings to rubs off onto the red meat portions) 

Of course the most exciting for me, was that my two friends, Amanda and Nsia were also there! We were all wearing cowl-necked blouses which caused great mirth while Grant took a photo of us three! 
 Amanda, Nsia and Jo

A wonderful time was had by all and we hope to repeat this get-together at our Guest House at a later date this year. 

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13 comments:

  1. It looks like a fantastic and heroic effort to host a bbq for so many people. We are very familiar here in Canada with the 3 or 4 bean salad and it is a favourite of many. For BBQ the standard kind of foods include: hotdogs, various types of sausage, hamburgers,ribs, spicy chicken wings, steaks, potato and egg salads, coleslaw, and cooling fruits like watermelon or things like ice-cream.

    Your menu sounds wonderful and you have me hungry now as it is just past normal dinner hour and dinner hasn't been started yet! LOL Hope you enjoy your day. Hugs.xx

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  2. Hi Jo, Sounds like you all had a fabulous meal together... WOW--that food sounded delicious... Glad you had plenty of help with that meal.

    Made me hungry --and it's bedtime here... ha

    Thanks for sharing!!
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  3. You are a fantastic event planner, Jo. Did you know that in the US, college students can get a degree in Event Planning (at some universities). You could probably teach all the course work involved in getting such a degree! It sounds like a wonderful party with delicious food for everybody's tastes. I like the idea of having the TV outside where the braai was taking place. The three of you ladies are beautiful. I like the cowl-necked blouses.

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  4. Sounds as though you all had a great time. Pity there was no photo of the food I would love to have seen the completed table. Nevermind maybe next year you could invite 'World Tuesday' followers along to take their own photos!

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  5. Hi Jo, the BBQ sounds like a great time and good food. I am sure your were busy preparing for the feast. I love the last shot of you with the other ladies. Great post, thanks for sharing your world.

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  6. Wow!! Amazed at the amount of food. Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  7. Sounds like a lot of work, a lot of food and a lot of fun.

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  8. Hi Jo, That is quite a happy looking gathering. I'm glad you had help with the cooking and hopefully with the clean-up as well.

    Thanks for sharing your interesting world.
    Blessings :)

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  9. Lovely photos of what must have been a fun time ~ We have 3 bean salad in USA ~ but am sure it is different spices ~ (A Creative Harbor)

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  10. Wow that must have been a nice BBQ party ! I am probably the only woman who has to do the BBQ because my "better" half hates it, he would rather do the salads, lol !

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  11. Lovely. Thanks for sharing.

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  12. Wow, I hope you throw a party if we ever visit Africa. You are amazing!
    K

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  13. It was at a similar braai-fleis that I noted that we missionaries often have to "suffer for Jesus". ☻ However, I don't think that is what Scripture really had in mind when it said "All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer..." Great Post, Jo!

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Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo