Kurje glave / Chicken heads

V službenem bifeju nam vsako jutro streže kavo zgovoren tip po imenu Sam. In je beseda dala besedo in se je izkazalo, da se tip v prostem času ukvarja tudi s turizmom, pa se je ponudil, da nam organizira lokalnega vodiča in nas peljejo na ogled Soweta (kar se je kasneje izkazalo za precejšen strošek iz naše strani oziroma za dober zaslužek iz njegove strani). Pa nič ne de, dogovorili smo se tudi za večerjo, na kateri so Sam in njegovi prijatelji pripravili tradicionalno afriško hrano, s seboj na žurko pa so pripeljali tudi svoje punce, tako da je bilo hrane, zabave in plesa na pretek.

A talkative guy named Sam works at the coffee shop where we go for coffee every morning. And he told us that in his spare time he is a tour guide and he offered to take us to Soweto with a local guide (which later proved to be quite expensive from our side and probably quite profitable from his side). Nevertheless we also accepted his offer of dinner where he and his friends would bring traditional African food. Their girlfriends came along and so the dinner evolved into a party with plenty of eating, dancing and fun.

Med jedmi, ki so jih prinesli gostitelji, je najbolj znan moroho, tradicionalna afriška jed iz špinače in arašidov, vendar se moderni afričani znajdejo in namesto arašidov uporabijo kikirikijevo maslo, ki ga kupijo v trgovini. Mesne jedi pa so za bolj močne želodce, saj je najbolj opevana jed narejena iz kurjih glav in nog. Izgledalo in dišalo je sicer kar v redu, saj so bile glave in noge skuhane v zelenjavni omaki z začimbami, a nisem se mogla prisiliti, da bi dala kurjo nogo, kaj šele glavo, v usta. Na sosednjem krožniku pa je bila kurja drobovina, načeloma sicer prav lepa kurja jetrca, želodčki in ledvica, prav tako dišeče začinjeno, a vmes so bila prepletena kurja čreva. Menda posebna specialiteta. Tudi ta jed je z moje strani ostala nedotaknjena. Nekako se nisem mogla znebiti občutka, da so naši gostitelji verjetno popoldne doma lepo pojedli belo kurje meso, potem pa so nam tujcem kot specialiteto prinesli, kar je ostalo: glave, noge in črevesje. A sem opazila, da so tudi gostitelji z veseljem jedli prinesene jedi, torej jih najverjetneje res tudi sami jedo in niso le nekaj, kar podtaknejo turistom.

The most well known dish that our hosts brought to the dinner was moroho, a traditional dish made with spinach and peanuts. The dish has been modernized so that store bought peanut butter is used instead of peanuts. The meat dishes require a strong stomach. The most glorified dish contains chicken heads and feet. It looked and smelled quite nice because the heads and feet were cooked in a spiced vegetable sauce, but I just couldn't bring myself to put a chicken foot, much less a chicken head into my mouth. The next plate contained chicken innards. There were nicely spiced chicken livers, stomachs and kidneys but there were also intestines snaking over the plate. It's supposed to be a delicacy but I didn't touch this one as well. I couldn't shake the feeling that our hosts probably ate the white chicken meat at home when they were preparing our food and brought us what was left over: heads, feet and intestines. But I noticed that they ate the dishes as well which means that they don't make them just to scare tourists.

Kot priloga je obvezen "pap", to je tu zelo razširjena hrana, še najbolj podobna žgancem ali močniku. Jed skuhajo iz koruzne moke, okus ima povsem koruzen, barva pa je bela, saj tu gojijo posebno sorto zelo svetlo rumene koruze (mimogrede, tudi jajca so tu bolj bledo rumene barve, verjetno zato, ker kokoši jedo to svetlo koruzo). Tako koruzno moko prodajajo v trgovinah v velikih vrečah, največkrat vidim, da jo ljudje kupujejo v vrečah po 5 kg. Kruha pa očitno ne jedo preveč. V trgovinah prodajajo v velike vreče pakiran toast, nekaj je tudi rženega kruha, tu pa se izbira neha. Kadar si zaželim kruh v štruci, je treba v Spar, kjer – če imam srečo in je na zalogi, tu se namreč ne poglabljajo preveč v optimizacijo oskrbovalnih verig – se dobi ciabatta ali francoska štruca. Kakšna škoda, da ob vseh teh vrečah koruzne moke ni še nikomur prišlo na misel, da bi lahko spekli koruzni kruh.

A side dish is the "pap", a very popular dish that resembles porridge or polenta. They make it from corn flour, it tastes just like corn, but the color is white which is due to a very light yellow variety of corn that is grown in Africa (by the way, eggs are also very light yellow in color, probably because the chickens also eat this light colored corn). The flour is sold in supermarkets in large bags, most often I see people buying it in 5 kg packages. They obviously don't eat much bread. I usually find giant bags of toast in supermarkets as well as some rye bread but that's where the selection ends. If I want a loaf of bread I have to go to Spar where - if I'm lucky and it's available, they don't pay much attention to supply chain optimization - I can find a ciabatta or a French loaf. It seems a shame that with the large bags of corn flour no one has thought of baking corn bread.

Zraven hrane je na afriško večerjo prišla še velika plastična posoda tradicionalnega afriškega piva. Je motno in ima nekako kiselkast smetanast okus. Takoj smo navalili vsak s svojim kozarcem, a so nas gostitelji podučili, da se afriško pivo ne sme piti stoje, saj bi s tem menda užalili njihove prednike ali nekaj takega, ampak ga je treba piti spoštljivo sede. V nadaljevanju smo potem raje pili običajno pivo iz pločevinke kar stoje, kakor se za pravo žurko spodobi.

In addition to food, a large plastic container of traditional African beer also made its way to the dinner party. It's cloudy and has a sour and creamy taste. We immediately grabbed a glass each but our hosts enlightened us that African beer shouldn't be drunk while standing up as that may offend their ancestors or something like that, but that we should respectfully sit down. We rather drank normal beer from cans while standing up as befits a good party.