Viva la Barbacoa!

I mentioned last week that while I was in Spain we had some lovely braais!

This is particularly relevant as we have our National Braai Day (aka Heritage Day), coming up on the 24 September. On this day the (almost) entire country will squint at the sky, test the wind (especially down our way), and check that there are chops, wors, (my favourite sausages are the locally made pork ones), maybe a rump or two in the freezer and of course plenty of beer in the fridge. Then it is simply a matter of building the fire with either wood, as we do, (using rooikrans which is an alien invasive tree but makes excellent coals,) or, grab a bag of charcoal and pile as many bits as you think you will need into the receptacle, light the match and keep out of the smoke!

If by any chance the flames leap up as the fat from the wors drips onto the coals, well, the chap nearest the heat simply chucks beer over it and that all adds to the flavour. That and the odd burnt bit, especially from the porkies that must be really well done!

Rob's braai. Delicious! (Pic thanks to Rob)

Add some mielie pap, tomato and onion gravy and some avocado, and your braai is done!

Simple!

Not so in Spain!
Andrew has a lovely gas braai that they have used a few times. They do have a 'proper' braai built from bricks but it is under the carport and very close to the car so they don't use that one. We had several lunchtime braais and the last Friday that I was there, we decided to have an evening braai. It was the most beautiful evening, warm and calm, so we sat on the patio with a beer and decided that we would braai a little later. Now, let me explain. Evening in Spain stretches to about midnight, as in summer it is still light at 10.

Braais, bugs and breakfast!

Today is 'Heritage Day' aka 'National Braai Day'. As I write this I can smell braai fires wafting round the village, and our wors and steak is defrosting in the kitchen! It is a perfect day, calm and still with a small nip in the air that tells us that although spring is here, winter is still lurking round corners and in shady areas! I started off the morning in socks and slippers and a fleecy top but after much exertion with a broom on the veranda, I went to change. Half an hour later I was back in the fleece but am being extremely brave about the socks and slippers bit! In fact, I am wearing my Birkenstocks, remember the ones that did the world tour a while ago?

Statice and bokbaaivygies.

And my garden is a picture! Statice is mixed with vygies, geraniums are tumbling over rocks as they have finally had a chance to grow because the veld is green and the bokkies have alternate fynbos to eat. Come summer they will be pruning my geraniums to within an inch of their lives!

A Dubaai Braai!

I know that this is a little late for the real thing, (well, only a month really!) but I want to share my National Braai Day with you! As you may remember, and as the four week gap in the blogging may show, I have been away. I am now fairly nonchalant about airports, booking in on-line, boarding passes, going to the loo before necessary to avoid having to queue when it is very necessary, airline food in plastic packets, balancing a three course airline dinner with cheese and biscuits and packets of sugar and cutlery on plastic trays (and eating said three course dinner with my arms pinned to my sides), drinking coffee during turbulence (eish) and managing to find a movie by touch-screen  which often means jabbing at the screen while the chap in front decides to recline his seat so you can't see the movie anyway because it is now  too close!

Proudly South African, our own Iwisa brand!

But I digress!! September the 24th saw me in Dubai, staying with my daughter and her husband so, being true South Africans, we had a braai! The really exciting thing was going to the local supermarket and seeing our Iwisa brand maize meal sitting on the shelf next to other imported brands. I felt right at home!