Sophia Lindop - A Unique Food Experience

Congratulations and celebrations!

Well, about two weeks after our new site - www.yuppiechef.com - went live, just over a 1000 people signed up for my newsletter.  We anticipated having 1000 readers by the end of December!  Can you imagine our excitement!?

In the eye of the beholder...

I so enjoyed cooking at 'my' active kitchen (that I run on behalf of Euro Appliances, Cape Town - www.euroappliances.co.za) last night!  I work on the Viking range of products.  What a joy!

Anyway, I was reminded all over again of the importance of presentation!  The main course was kingklip, baked in the oven with a drizzle of grapeseed oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, and a good squeeze of lemon juice - simple!  But, I served it on a bed of steamed spinach, and topped it with chargrilled red peppers, lemon and a lot of fresh dill, and it looked tasty and tasted good.  I am sure the one influences the other...?

East meets South!

I was reminded yesterday of how different, yet how similar, all human beings are.  And how important it is to be knowledgeable and sensitive to one another's culture and traditions...

We hosted our first Japanese group, and with the table beautifully laid, we welcomed our guests to our home - I must say, I was a little nervous.  I wasn't sure whether the spicy Malay cuisine that they asked for, would suit their palates.  But, I had prepared a special meal, and I was sure that our warmth and hospitality would do the trick!

We served the first course - smoorsnoek parcels ('snoek' is a local white-fleshed fish.  This is hot smoked and jazzed up a little to create a wonderful flavour).  I noticed that they were struggling to eat with the knife and fork provided, and remembered that I had beautiful ivory chopsticks that my parents had brought back from a visit to the East in the 1980's.  So, quietly I took these out and presented them to our guests.  Faces lit up, and they were 100% at home and ready to dig in!

And so they enjoyed the second course of bobotie with seasonal vegetables and a sweet potato and orange creation, chopsticks clicking, while Leah, Yuesrey (the tour guide) and myself were sitting there practising with our spare sets of chopsticks, trying not to drop everything...