Food and identity at the FLF

I was lucky enough to go to the the Franshhoek Literary Festival over this wintry weekend, and attended a panel discussion titled A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread:

Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse – and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness –
And Wilderness is Paradise enow

Omar Khayyám (1048–1131)

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Anna Trapido (Hunger for Freedom), J-P Rossouw (Tasting the Cape) and Michael Olvier (A Restaurateur Remembers) chatted with Hillary Biller of the Sunday Times about food, restaurants and simple cooking. But the enduring thought for me was of the strange case of South African cooking.

We cook incredible food – in our homes. But we shun it at restaurants. In fact, the only ‘South African’ restaurants are of the Afro-Disney variety

Anna Trapido’s take on this was that we need to “sort out our national identity before it can manifest itself on a plate”. She tells of how amasi made in the traditional way is almost impossible to find because the sale of unpasteurised milk is illegal, yet how it is a highly popular South African food.

Why is it that we embrace the cuisine of other cultures, but not our own? What is our cuisine?

Also, does this matter?

PS if you know of any restaurants serving great SA food, please let me know!

PPS Go to Dutch East in Franschhoek, it may not be SA fare, but it is a religious experience