It's just the second year for the Mzansi Food & Drink show with the festival running for a 3 day period from June 15-17th, 2024 at the Kyalami Grand Prix track. With an expected turnout of 30,000 people, come along and see what a food & drink festival looks like, South African style!
Mzansi is the colloquial name for South Africa as it means South in the Xhosa language. The Mzansi Food & Drink show incorporates two previous food shows: Coffee & Chocolate Expo and The Fire & Feast Meat Festival. The Fire and Feast section is an outdoor section with braai and chilli products with special events like the one chip challenge, hot tequila and a dad eating wings challenge for Father's Day while there is also an indoor section for other exhibitors with everyone from small 1 person businesses to larger food companies. There's everything from fresh coconuts, samosas, dumplings, Portuguese food, samosas, Thai food, coffee, tea and crêpes.
While there are all sorts of products, I gravitated towards the uniquely South African ones. A group of women carrying various samples of Morgan beef biltong offer us samples from sweet chilli flavour to spicy biltong. It's delicious and chewy and I love the subtle spiciness of the chilli biltong. They point us in the direction of their stand where we can buy some.
The story behind Sonia Booth's Marula Cheesecake Passion liqueur is a real life story of turning lemons into lemonade. She and her former husband, footballer Matthew Booth were embroiled in a "cheesecake affair". Sonia who was a model and the 2001 Miss SA second runner-up, suspected him of cheating on her so she hired a private investigator who uncovered the affair between her husband and a married fitness guru - their affair was said to have started on Valentines Day 2022. Sonia's Instagram account revealed that he baked a cheesecake for his mistress on the eve of their son's birthday. She saw the cheesecake in the fridge which she presumed was for her son but by the morning it was gone from the fridge, whisked away to his mistress in one of Sonia's Tupperware containers. Sonia went to the woman's house to retrieve the Tupperware and lay the container on the garage floor where her husband Matthew would see it.
"There was no way that I was going to allow anyone else to take advantage of the situation," she says and on Valentines Day 2023 one year later she launched Marula Cheesecake Passion Ice Cream. Now Sonia has her own brand of Marula Cheesecake Passion liqueur as well as boozy caramel popcorn along with the ice cream. "The popcorn has 4 shots in 1 bag," she says proudly. I try a sample and it does indeed taste like cheesecake and is sweet and creamy flavoured, reminscent of Baileys with an irridescent galaxy appearance.
Setsong tea is a 100% black owned tea company that is made using tea leaves grown in the Limpopo area, a rural area around 4 hours north of Johannesburg. They use indigenous plants like Tepane and Diya Tea in their products. For more than five generations, elderly Bapedi tribe members in Sekhukhune have been consuming these teas and they carry on the traditional knowledge as well as manufacturing. The teas are flavoured with ingredients like dried strawberry and fennel or orange, ginger and turmeric mixed to target specific health benefits or ailments. They pour these teas out of colourful enamel teapots.
"At every communal event (in South Africa) there’s always ginger beer, be it baby naming ceremonies, funerals or weddings. It's ginger beer and scones," explains Anna Trapido, food anthropologist and author. There is a Zulu word called Uvalo, which is a feeling of stress without an apparent cause, often perceived as negative energy or the presence of evil spirits affecting the sufferer. Anyone suffering feelings of uvalo are given ginger to drink as a tonic.
And that's what solo businesswoman and entrepreneur Lerato Nonyane or "Molly" specialises in. "Before we do anything you must drink my ginger drink because you will understand where I’m coming from," she says smiling and handing me a cup of her ginger tea. She started Molly's in 2013 and took it to market in 2018. Now her sachets of ginger beer are sold in 60 Pick and Pay stores and she is expanding her range to the gulf countries who adore her ginger beer. All you do is add water to the contents of the sachet. Along with ginger drink she also has a pineapple drink and a sugar free ginger drink. Her ginger drinks are made with ginger extract imported from India and Nigeria and sugar (or stevia for the sugar free).
"Magic happens," she says describing the effect when people drink it. I take a sip and its very smooth with a comforting ginger burn right at the end. Molly started the business after she was retrenched as a hotel marketing manager. She settled on the name going with Molly after her Aunt Molly. "I would love to grow my own ginger," she says but that's a plan for the future.
Eating insects is becoming increasingly common and in South Africa they have Mopani or Mopane worms. These 2 inch long caterpillars are said to have more iron than meat (100g gives you a huge 31mg of iron) and are high in protein and are a traditional delicacy eaten by the Tsonga people, a Bantu ethnic group in Southern Mozambique and Limpopo and Mpumalanga in South Africa. While they can be eaten fresh, Matomani makes products using mopani worm powder.
Mopani worms are wild foraged and harvested at Easter in Phalaborwa, Limpopo. They swell and grow with the rains and are found in Mopane trees after which they are named. To process them for food they clean and squeeze the worms and then cook them with sea salt. After this they are sun dried for 2-3 days. The Mopani flour can be used to make pancakes, scones, pizza and crackers and made into salts and butter. The actual flavour of the mopani worms are mushroomy with a rich, umami quality to them. They're particularly delicious in the energy bars coated in dark chocolate.
Also at the show is Instagram darling, TV presenter and cookbook writer Lorna Maseko the former ballerina who leapt into the world of food 10 years ago. She is here at the food show with her own range of sauces with a South African flavour. We start with trying the Chakalaka made with tomatoes, capsicum peppers, beans, carrots and tomatoes. "Each family has their own chakalaka recipe," she explains. Anna explains that Chakalaka was said to originate in the townships of Johannesburg pre-apartheid in Sophiatown which was a poor multi racial area that produced some of South Africa's most famous writers, musicians, politicians and artists. Chakalaka is a result of Zulu and Indian influences and is a delicious relish that is very versatile.
House of Azari (Azari meaning Divine Assistance) is a black owned winery founded in 2022 from Stellenbosch that makes a sparkling method cap wine and a nectar rose that is a little sweet and not as dry as a regular rose. They also have a coffee pinotage where the wines in matured in coffee barrels for 18 months.
Our final stop is at Nkuli's on our way out and would actually be my favourite meal during the 2 day show. Many of these food businesses are named after the owners and Nkuli of Nkuli's African cuisine makes traditional South African food like samp, dombolo (steamed bread dumplings), mogodu (tripe), beef stew and amanqina (chicken feet). The Amanqina is made by boiling chicken's feet and adding spices like Robertson's chicken powder, bbq spice, paprika with onions and peppers. Anna tells me that these are dubbed "Walkie talkies" as they're often served with the head and the feet or are also known as Zola Budd's after the South African runner.
The chicken is a blend of sweet and savoury flavours (Anna says that South Africans love sweet and savoury together) and it often gets called "Chicken Dust" because people cook it on the side of the road as it is a street food. Samp is made with corn that is boiled and then combined with aromates in a creamy cheese sauce. There are some wonderful sauces - in Zulu "Umhluzi" means broth or cooking juices so you do require some starches to soak up that luscious goodness.
The beef stew is cooked with carrots and peppers and is wonderfully soft and full of flavour while the Samp reminds me of a damper with a sweet flavour in it and flecks of grated carrot. My favourite is however the Mogodu. Many countries have various treatments of tripe although of course they never taste the same. This dish is made with tripe (serobe) and intestines (mala) boiled and then combined with onion and salt until meltingly soft. It's remarkable that this simple combination of ingredients produces something so utterly delicious. Bizarrely it even reminds me of the flavours of fried chicken.
And to aid in soaking up the juices there is pap, a sort of firm porridge made from maize is often served alongside mogodu. There are side dishes are township cabbage, a delicious and softly comforting shredded cabbage cooked down until velvety soft and the chakalaka which is so flavoursome I must make a version when I get home (I suspect I'll eat it straight from the jar).
South African Chef Andile Somdaka adds, "We have so much work to do. It has to begin at home first. Our own people here can see this type of food and give you all types of expressions like bad food, poor food food is talked down to. We need to fix that. When we show you this type of food, this is my personality on a plate. I grew up eating this type of food. This is my house! My doors are open."
Where I Stayed: Courtyard Hotel, Waterfall City
We stayed at the Courtyard Hotel Waterfall City which is 20 minutes outside of central Johannesburg itself. This location was chosen as it was 5 minutes drive from the Msanzi Food and Drink Show.
Courtyard Hotel Waterfall City is located right opposite the Mall of Africa which is a large shopping mall with lots of international brands. The hotel is owned by City Lodge Hotel Group who specialises in budget accommodation and the Courtyard brand is their newest 4 star offering. The hotel has 10 levels with 164 rooms and 8 suites. Service at check-in is very friendly and detail oriented and I make my way up to my room without any delay. My room is a king size room and very contemporary in style with a large, open area for luggage.
The room has a comfortable king sized bed and there's a good selection of complimentary teas, hot chocolate (most welcome in this chilly winter weather) and a coffee machine. There's also complimentary juice and water provided and this is replenished every day. In the main room there is one thing that is most perplexing and the room's mirrors are a bit distorted and one is a "fat mirror" while other ones are "skinny mirrors". I've never experienced anything so discombobulating from my hotel mirror before!
There's a work desk with USB ports as well as European plugs and a small chaise lounge and table. The bathroom is modern with fluted glass and a shower with two heads. The toiletries provided are a body and shampoo bar soap, body lotion and shower cap. The wifi is included for unlimited devices and is fairly quick. The 9th floor bar has a great view at sunset too and the spa downstairs is very good and I really enjoyed my facial and massage.
One thing to note: the air conditioning cannot be controlled from your room. You have to call reception any time you want to turn it on or off or change the temperature.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried traditional South African food?
NQN attended the Msanzi Food & Drink Show as a guest of South African Tourism but all opinions remain her own.
Msanzi Food & Drink Show
https://www.mzansifoodanddrink.com/
Courtyard Hotel Waterfall City
https://citylodgehotels.com/hotels/490/courtyard-hotel-waterfall-city
If you would like to book transport or a tour (which I recommend), we used Tshuku Tours (mpho@tshuku.co.za). If you want a specific food tour, you can also contact Anna Trapido @trapidoterritory or email her here
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