Let John Tovey show you how to be a star in your own Kitchen while entertaining

Caption: Me in my kitchen in 2018 before the body cooperate vandalized it.

Welcome to another Tuesday book scrutiny slot.

 As we close off the month of July, I thought why not do that with some  food to say bye bye July and hello to women's month.

Caption: Baking in my stove before my property was vandalized and the new built in stove destroyed by the  body cooperate members of the building.

Yes, I love food. All sorts baking and cooking for consumption and entertaining  people. The first ever person who made me fall in love this art of making food was my father. 

That one complimented every meal I produced for him when I was a little girl.

Thanks to my  Sunday school teacher from Naledi Assemblies of God, Mam’ Lizzie Mogale, I also ventured into baking  and as if  was working in some classy Sandton restaurant, I had to serve her guests with a tray with all that fork and knife and water or drinks served with a sorcery plate.

 Youtube on the day I visited Mam’ lizzie Mogale at her house in  Protea North Soweto. Only to be told she's late.

 While the boarding school I attended, Rand Girls High in Braamfonteing Johannesburg. I learnt how to set up tables like they do in the Rosebank, Sandton restuarants.

You Tube video of green market lady showing his cooking skills. 

You know the ones  with different knives for this and that. Where the fork should be placed between the different dishes starters, main meal and deserts …. blah, blah blah.

Caption: pictures of cooking books I have collected through the years.

So whenever I pick up a cooking book I am reminded of my beautiful colorful childhood.

Time will just go back to the days of either cooking for my father or helping my aunt, Nomathemba in Alexandra Township set up her many Sunday dishes.

 

Her and friends who worked either as domestic workers or cookers at the affluent Sandton restuarants would share dishes like you are watching an announced  cooking competition with the competitors in a healthy and developing cooking club.

 

 

Youtube video at the Alexandra township Museum

So I knew who made the best fried cabbage, who preferred it cooked and spiced with the white pepper spice.

 I copied from the them the different kinds of making a beetroot salad.  The traditional grated with onion and vinegar for taste.

 

The diced and then dressed up with chutney source and the ones that are just done with Mayonnaise. As well as copying how to make the traditional Chakalalaka salad, with chillie and without chillie.

 The plain traditional Coleslaw salad or add raisins or apple.

 

 

The traditional Coleslaw salad pic from internet

While I was staying with my aunt, I was still in Primary school then, she taught me the basic food preparation.

 Weekdays were my turn to cook while Sundays, she took over as the senior woman of the house.

My dishes were very simple, especially in a house headed by a traditional Sotho man who preferred Pap in his main meals.

So every day I cooked pap, with minced meat on Mondays, Tuesday Pap with fried Ox Liver, Wednesday Pap with steak, Thursday Pap with fried Boerewors, Friday Pap with beef, Saturday Pap with tinned staff either  bull Brand or fish.

A picture Idea of my dishes

As you can see, it is true that in Johannesburg meat is the real deal hence the Eastern Cape say Apho inyama ingapheli kuphela izinyo lendoda. Coming from the Eastern Cape, these people made me enjoy pap and eating it with my bare washed hands instead of using a spoon.

While my weekend visit to my father in Protea Glen Soweto, I would grasp almost every recipe for scones, biscuits etc as the Christian woman loved entertaining guests and her house from Monday to Sundays were always frequented by different church people.

 Others from Assemblies of God and Faith Mission. Saturday mornings were her evangelism day for children so she would also gather kids from our street after a session of Biblical lessons and games. We would have a meal together before dispensation. So you see, I’ve always been a food lover. I may have lost interest in cooking over the years but the love of food has always been there.

 I’ve always collected and bought cooking books but never really had a chance of trying all of them.

Entertaining with Tovey- How to be a star in your own kitchen is one of the books I bought during the many Sunday Times book sales.

The paper had a slot to review new books at the end of the year,they gave journalist a chance to buy the books reviewed throughout the year.

John Tovey, a former theatrical company owner and now operate the Miller Howe Hotel in the Lake District.He has appeared in many Television and Chat shows, runs gourmet competitions and cookery courses at the hotel. He likes going on cooking tours of South Africa and the United States.

In this book, Tovey whose hotel- the Miller Howe- was singled out for its ultimate accolade of tureen, pestle and moratar and bottle for best table, best hotel and finest wines in the Good Food guide of 1978 and 1979. Want to build the confidence of those who love to play in the kitchen. In this book he compares the preparing food as the art and the kitchen the same as the theater where actors need to practice and polish their skills as well as be ready to deliver that excellent piece to their audiences. He describes the interpretation of the recipe being the same way as the actor interprets a part.

How desperate are you for power? .... Sydney Sheldon's Bloodline will answer some of your questions

 

Let's read.... At the Savoy municipal library

 

IF you follow me on social media, you will know by now that I am a huge fan of Sydney Sheldon.

 I was introduced to him at a very young age. Back then, my father had several of his titles in our home Library.

Pic

Pic from the internet: Author of Bloodline, Sydney Sheldon

Over the years, I have become a collector of his books. I think I have about 12 of his titles now.

 However, his books were written years ago. He died in 2007

Though not around his stories are relevant in our lives today.

  Hence every month for the rest of this year, we will feature a title from him. He is one of the greatest writers /storytellers of all time.

 His work should be known by generations.

Pic from internet: Sydney Sheldon's title collection

So my Sheldon pick for this month is the Book Title Blood Line. This is to go with the theme of the slot, to encourage reading amongst us Africans and every story lover.

 

 William Collins Sons Co Ltd first published it in the Great Britain in 1978 then later by Pan books Ltd in 1979.

Reading this book, purchased at one of the second hand book sellers in Alexandra Township, South

Africa reminds me of the CCTV drama, Ifa lakwa Mthethwa ( The inheritance of the Mthethwa’s).

caption: screengrab from google of ifalakwa Mthetwa

The Zulu drama was about the battle for the inheritance of  Mthethwa family.  It is a book that makes you turn  pages as there are so many similarities that one can relate to.

 

 The story is mainly written from the powerful Jewish family battle of money, power, ambition, lust, danger and death.

 

The conspiracy of someone wanting to kill Elizabeth Roffe, a young intelligent woman.

 

Whom overnight becomes the richest girl in the world after someone killed his rich and powerful father.

Click, Click…… Doesn’t this line reminds you of the South African Zulu drama, Hlalakwabafileyo?

Let’s pause for a second on Blood line and reflect on Hlalakwabafileyo for a moment.

Plotted in the 80s the drama was a bout a Soweto supermarket owner whose son, Zuzumuzi was so desperate to take on inheritance that he at some stage planned to kill him.

 

 His wife (had also found out that he had a mistress in Hillbrow whom he fathered a son.

 

 To add more to the story, the family was given a wrong body to bury.

 

Anyway,  back to  our book and its author, Sydney Sheldon’s writing is timeless and cut across everyone.

 

 

 In this story, he zooms in on a rich Jewish family that owns a drug company that has enjoyed success in three continents.

 

Thanks to the rags to rich story of the founder Samuel Roffe. His desperate plea to marry a beautiful rich girl leads him to discover   an antitoxin that saves a desperate dying Jewish man.

The background set up of the story is in the Jewish Community of Krafow ghetto.

 In the book, you are introduced to Samuel, a son of a peddler and a nobody in the community that defines you by what your family owns.

 

 His passion for helping people leads him to help a laboratory, Dr Wal’s who has a beautiful and supportive daughter but the snobbish mother hates him.

She hates him even more when he learns that the low class no body whose father’s ambition is to own to two broken down horses to pull carts through the dirty crowded streets of the Krakow ghetto.

 

 The wife influenced his daughter and the Dr to have nothing to do with the daughter. Terernia was then arranged to be married to a rich   old Jewish Rabbi.

(Gaz’lam Kethiwe)

Pause a minute South Africans, doesn’t this remind you of the Bomb Production drama, Gaz’lam… Khethiwe and S”fiso situation?

Anyway, Terenia was the only supportive person, she protested the marriage to the Rabbi so much that her parents had to call Samuel Roffe and give him six months to come up with a plan that will ensure their girl will be financially and cared for  when they are married.

 

He was banned from Dr Wal’s laboratory so this plan was made so that Terenia, who was seen as a foolish young girl could see that Samuel who had gone back to peddling could not afford her.

 

But Sam with little time helps his father with the family business of peddling and in the evening goes to a makeshift laboratory to try get concoction that  will free him from his poverty state.

 Even when he has some, ignorant people born into wealth are not willing to give him any chance to invest in his business venture.

 

 Throughout the six months, Terernia becomes his only confidant thanks to the terms and conditions of the six months grace period that allowed him to see Terernia at least three times a week. While trying to come up with a solid running business before their union.

 

She was supportive, so much that she even suggested that they eloped.

 

Anyway, with the clock ticking, he was saved by a friend who had a bedridden father. He had a chocking cough from one of the epidemics that frequented the crowded Jewish ghettos.

 

Alexandra township is a picture of the over crowded Jewish ghetto pic from the internet

Now his friend was going to trade an old horse for a cart, something that Samuel  had then and could even build another one from scratch. The family was so desperate that they didn’t mind him trying his antitoxin on the dying man.

Miraculously, the man recovered and word of mouth spread out. More people wanted the syrup Sam himself couldn’t keep up with the demand. People were getting healed.

For his dowry, the Dr gave Samuel six horses and a small-equipped laboratory of his own.

 

 His business grew to a point that he also mixed herbs and even people who could not afford the medication were treated.

 

 Terenia, believed medication was to cure people.

 But generation’s later, the legacy was targeted by greedy power hungry people who didn’t mind blackmailing and killing to get what they wanted.

 

So many similarities with how South Africa almost lost its freedom. You will enjoy this read!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Promote humanity stop the culture of spreading lies lessons from the books-Doing Life with Mandela and Ndazana Nat Nakasa

 

With author of Doing Life with Mandela Christo Brand at Nelson Mandela's cell in Robben Island

HELLO everybody and welcome to our new book slot, THE TUESDAY BOOK CORNER, Yhea!!!!.

Every Tuesday’s we will do a scrutiny on some of the books that are available to the public to indulge.

These are not necessary brand new books.

Some we will be borrowing from our local government libraries, others purchased from the second hand booksellers.

Giving a  talk about books at Savoy Library

                                                 Picture supplied by  Savoy Library staff.

While we are still trying to get national book stores to partner with us on book reviews, we will be

 

looking at some of the books that I also have on my personal  home Library bookshelves.

 

Yes, over the years, I have collected a number of books that I never had a chance to share the information with them with the masses and wonderful people like you.

 

Thanks to this blog, today as a budding writer,  I am able to do just that.

 

 So, this is not necessary a book review column, but rather us reflecting on the   lessons that we can take from each book we read. 

The aim is to  promote the culture of reading amongst us Africans.

 

Since this week is the most remarkable week in the history of South Africa.

 

 

 Just yesterday, we commemorated the 60^th anniversary of the death of journalist and short story writer, Nat Nakasa.

Nat Nakasa Picture from the Heritage Portal website

Like his family, I still do not believe that he committed suicide in New York on the 14 th of July 1965.

After reading the 25^th anniversary commemorative tribute by Drum Magazine Journalist, Mr Theo

 

A book gift from Theo Zindela's son Kwanda from Kwa Magxaki Port Elizabeth

Zindela NDAZANA the early years of Nat Nakasa- I am now more convinced that Nat, who had a thing

 

For white girls was forced out of the 7^th floor building while on  all expenses paid trip tour of the USA.

Forgive me for playing detective and letting my security investigative instinct kicked in.

 

But it does not make sense that a man who grew up under the influence of Rev Nicholus Bengu and

 

Taught at the Sunday School of Assemblies of God could commit suicide.

 

The South African National Editor’s Forum (SANEF) and the organizers of the Nat Nakasa Awards should help bhuti Thami Nakasa (see the You Tube insert) to get proper answers and lay the matter to rest. I wonder if the family does get royalties from these awards. They are named after their late relative.

 

In fact, these awards and any event held in commemoration of any victim of apartheid should also help the families with answers and get some sort of upliftment.

 It is really pointless to have such events but no progress on the upkeeping of the legacy of that particular person.

 

It also  does not sit well to have annual events such as the annual Nat Nakasa Journalism Awards which

 

Commemorating your late relative and give out thousands to the growth of the industry. Boast the confidence of upcoming journalists who documents the history of the country but  yet as a family,

 

you are not benefitting from the legacy of your own blood. 

Nor are you given resources that will help you preserve and keep the legacy alive at home in your community, not just faraway in the media … That is sick!

That is so  Un African and needs to be rectified by SANEF. 

Coming from the background of attending some of these journalism awards, I hope the family is included in almost everything and not just to come have a meal on the day of the event. They are not poor and short of food.

 

Book Cover of Christo Brand's book from the internet

The second book is Doing Life with Mandela….. My prisoner, my friend by Christo Brand with Barbara Jones.

I remember, interviewing Christo. He even took me on a trip to Robben Island. Please excuse the picture quality of the phone. I was still using a black berry then.

 

Entrance of Robben Island in Cape Town to interview Christo Brand and take a tour

But enough about me, but the book details an extra ordinary relationship formed by the late state man and someone who was supposed to further oppress him.

 

One of the many things that we can learn from Christo is that, we are all humans and deserve to be treated with dignity.

 

On the Boat to Robben Island with the view of table Mountain and Cape Town behind me

Some of the things that he did for Nelson Mandela and other prisoners at Robben Island were a demonstration of a human spirit.

I like the foreword written by Ahmed Kathrada who was alongside with Nelson Mandela. Both men were sentenced to life in prison in 1964 at the Rivonia Trial and sent to Robben Island in Cape Town.

 https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2017-12-31-real-life-political-drama-opens-new-chapter-for-books-in-sa/

To quote Mr Kathrada :

 

“ It was the 1980s and the time of the State of Emergency, when thousands of anti-apartheid activists were detained throughout the country.

 

Many of the Western Cape and even some of the Eastern Cape activists were detained at Pollsmoor.

 

Their own families did  not know where they were or how they were faring, but Christo let me see them.

 

One day he took me to see Trevor Manuel who was not allowed any visitors at all.

 

On the boat to Robben Island from Cape Town Museum

Trevor, who later became Finance Minister under Madiba and other presidents, had already been in solitary confinement for two years when Christo took me to his prison cell.

 

It was a big thing for Trevor to have me there speaking with him.

 

In prison, we had been hidden from the world for two decades. Only old photos of us, much younger, were available and even then it was a criminal offence to posses them.

One Can imagine the impact of our visit to him during which I passed on the greetings from Madiba and Walter Sisulu, amongst others, it really boosted his spirits.

On another Occasion, he took me to see Matthew Goniwe, an Eastern Cape activist who was killed by the security police after his release.

Former South African Finance minister, Trevor Manuel Pic from Polity.org

On weekends when sergeant James Gregory, another warder, was not on duty, Christo would call me to show me letters that Gregory had refused to pass on me. They had them for year, along with a whole bundle of indicator newspapers.

 

 

So with that said folks, this week. Let us promote the human spirit and stop the lies. We are hungry for the truth and our real African stories. See you next week, chow now!