Nothing is more South African than the good old traditional…brrrraaaaai.
Where else in the world would an entire nation celebrate National Braai Day?
Do the Poms have ‘National Mushy Peas Day’? Methinks not.
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OK, so September 24 is officially Heritage Day, but even ‘the Arch’, Desmond Tutu, supports the more informal version.
And many of us would braai EVERY day if we could.
You see, it’s not all about the meat. It’s also about men gazing into the flames, talking about sport and, you know what… nudge-nudge, wink-wink… when the women and kids are out of earshot.
Cooking ‘vleis’ is important, of course, but hunter-gatherers like us also just get a kick out of lighting fires.
It must be because South Africans are said to have actually ‘INVENTED’ fire, according the the book, Awesome South Africa, by Durban’s Derryn Campbell.
Think Sterkfontein caves… Cradle of Humankind, the world’s richest hominin site?
Of course, some do take the ‘invention/discovery’ a bit far to vent their anger and schools even go up in flames at times.
However, generally speaking, most of us just like to stoke up the old Weber.
Take my son-in-law, Chett, this past weekend as an example. A full bag of charcoal was lit up and we all stood around the fire on a sweltering evening with the traditional beer in hand. It was truly a magnificent fire, worthy of a mountain of meat.
No self-respecting ‘braai master’ would ever think of dousing down the fire with water and DEFINITELY NOT with his beer. So we stood around for hours… and hours, waiting for it to die down a bit so that we didn’t burn the meat.
The grandchildren were way past caring about eating when the meat finally came out… 12 measly burger patties!
Chett was most indignant that his fire was so under-utilised: “Sigh! Women… they just don’t understand these things.”
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