A long time ago when we first heard about traveling in Zimbabwe we heard of travelers bringing staples like sugar and rice into the country with them, to be used for barter. With the country going through hyperinflation, unable to trade for much in the way of anything, this was more valuable at the time than money. Before going to Zimbabwe we asked around a bit and were assured that markets were generally stocked and that things had stabilized but that didn’t mean that the barter economy hasn’t evaporated entirely either.
Zimbabwe is now the third country we’ve visited using the US Dollar rather than its own currency. Unlike the other two, Panama and Ecuador, Zimbabwe is far …

Throughout South Africa we’ve been hearing about Cape Malay food, but never really understood what it was.  We knew where the cape is, but what is or where is Malay?  What is this cuisine you speak of?
We went to the Capetown waterfront and asked the security guard the best place for Cape Malay food.  Pointing us in the right direction, we headed off to taste things which we couldn’t pronounce but wanted to try.  So I ordered a chicken curry rootie, unsure what rootie was, but figuring that anything with chicken was safe.  Danny opted for the babottie, a surprise for sure.  What came was delicious, and licking my plate clean so to speak, I was hungry for some more.
A …

Forgive us, but we figured it was ok to highlight wine instead of food this week. The existence of wine in the Cape Colony is no coincidence. Sailors long at sea often demanded wine in order to herd off scurvy and other fun diseases. Almost immediately upon founding the colony expeditions were went to the ‘frontier’ to find suitable land for agriculture, wine chief amongst the concerns of colonists, even though grapes had already been planted closer to town. The industry here got an added boost at the start of the 19th century when Britain and France were at war. Today pinotage is the king South Africa varietal, a hybrid of pinot noir and cinsault …

In honor of a very special birthday (that would be my own) today we woke up to a wonderful breakfast of milk tart pie made special for us by our CS hosts (the same ones with which we started our South African adventure). It is a South African Milk Tart and it made for a perfect breakfast (and will make a perfect un-birthday dessert) so we thought we’d steal the recipe to share!
The filling:
4 (6) cups of milk
2 (3) T butter
1 (1 ½) cups sugar
3 (4) eggs
2 (3) T flour
2 (3) T maizena (corn flour)
1 (1 ½) t vanilla
Cinnamon (as much as you’d like)
Boil the milk and butter. Beat the sugar, eggs, flour and maizena. When boiling …