After a visit to the Australian Centre for Photography gallery, Hubby and I stopped for dinner at Lucky Tsotsi, a bar and restaurant specialising in food from Southern Africa. I’d never travelled there before, but Hubby had lived in South Africa for 18 months and wanted to relive his food experiences.
I didn’t know much about food from this part of the world, and from the menu it’s obvious that it’s a real fusion of influences – European influences from the Dutch, English and Portuguese, Asian influences from India and Indonesia/Malaysia, as well as African influences.
Hubby had Mozambique Chicken, hot and spicy with Peri-Peri sauce that was a fusion of flavours from the Portuguese colonies.
I had Bunny Chow, which has no rabbit, but was a Malaysian-style chicken curry (they didn’t even skimp on the chilli), served inside a hollowed-out bread roll! Hubby says it was because rice wasn’t free available in South Africa in the old days, so the Malays had to serve their curries with the carbs they could easy access.
We also ordered a side of Samp (corn) and Beans – two ingredients easily grown in this mostly arid region and most commonly eaten by the Africans.
We talk about Australia as a place where fusion food rules, but Southern Africa is a place where fusion food is now ingrained in its culture.