Celebrating Poverty

A few years back I took an American tourist on a sightseeing trip around Cape Town. After showing her all the attractions,we ended up at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. I eagerly showed her around the craft market, pointing out all the bits and bobs made out of old LP's, coke tins and a bunch of other recyclable materials. Not very impressed, she turned around  and took the wind completely out of my sails with the words "You guys really know how to celebrate poverty". With that we left, me feeling deflated, her probably annoyed that there was nothing "proper" for her to buy.

I haven't though about that moment for years, until I looked for the recipe that Stefan chose for this week: Paella. According to my research, Paella was considered the poor man's feast and originally contained no seafood. It was usually made in the open field by labourers using whatever meat they could find. This usually included chicken, rabbit, duck and snails. Rice was always readily available and was also the best way to fill up a lot of hungry tummies for very little money.Today paella is the most popular dish in Spain and there are literally hundreds of variations.

So why can't we celebrate poverty? I am not saying it is a good thing to be poor, but poverty often leads to incredible creativity. There are many examples of this throughout the world. Struggling people come up with the most creative ways to feed their families and decorate their homes.Coming from South Africa, we are used to people getting creative to do just this. All around the streets of Cape Town, you will see people using different ideas to make money, to decorate and construct their homes and to dress. Something the IKEA culture of Europe has destroyed here. It is awful to walk into people's houses and they all look the same. IKEA display number 12 or 13. It is so boring.

I know many people see the squatter camps around the Cape Town area as an eye sore, but I find the way the houses are constructed, just beautiful. I know it sounds corny, but I see it as beacons of hope, as people looking to better themselves and struggling but not giving up.On a field trip at university I had the opportunity to visit the Noordhoek informal settlement. There was nothing informal about it. I was amazed at how organised it was. There were streets and plot numbers and a whole committee running the area. We went into some of the houses and I was gobsmacked at the way the woman made their houses beautiful.If you want to know what I am talking about, take a look at a book called Shack Chic. I fell in love with these little houses, and although I know there is a lot of heartache and pain behind those doors, I still love to draw them. I can spend hours on one of my drawings of these little streets, but have not spent one second drawing a row of houses in Knightsbridge or Oxshot.

Rhino for Sale on the Oprah website for $350!

Missing Home by Margie

Anyway enough about that, last night it was our turn to try this poor man's feast. We were seven people all in all, but there was a catch for the guests: Every one had to help and was responsible for a course. The "Single until Monday" man and The Newlyweds, were responsible for the starters, The Hosts for the main course and The Old married couple for dessert.

The Cooks

Our "Single until Monday man" got off to a flaming start preparing his little starters. Blinis and caviar! Yes, we had caviar. Nothing poor about that! It was the first time I tried caviar and I loved it. Not everyone did, but I thought it was brilliant.We will forgive Tony and Nadia for buying ready made, as they are currently in transit and do not have their own kitchen.

The man in action

Creme Fraiche and Lumpfish Caviar-ing

Starters check!

We chose a Jamie recipe, again. I am sorry, but I really love Jamie's food. It is not fussy at all. His is a bit different from the traditional paella recipes. It contains no chicken or fish or dreaded peas (I hate peas!), but rather pork belly and chorizo and seafood. We had the pleasure of visiting the Cobham Farmer's Market, on the appropriately named Leg o Mutton field, that morning. We bought almost all our ingredients there, so all the meat and seafood was Organic and Farm Fresh. The only thing with Farm Fresh meat, is that it doesn't come in neat little packages like in the supermarket. Who would have thought that a Pork Belly actually had a skin, complete with nipples! Poor Nadia and I had to "de-nipple" the poor pig and de-beak the squid, before we could get started. Not as easy as it sounds. I was sharply reprimanded for my lack of sharp knives. Stefan and I will definitely have to invest.

Pork Belly complete with nipple!

The Newlywed de-nippling the poor pig!

After choosing a "Recipe Master", we were all set to go. Nadia, Mark and I did most of the prepping for the
Paella, while Tony was our "Recipe Master", a good role for him as he could practise giving orders. This skill will come in handy when he starts his new job in a few weeks. Unfortunately though, our Recipe Master abdicated after the preparing was done but his successor did a wonderful job. She was known for the rest of the night as "The Recipe". We also had "The Light" (holder of the torch) and "The Stirrer" (Paella stirrer that is).

The Stirrer and The Light in action.

What a feast. I could eat Paella every night. The last time I had it was in Spain and I think ours was MUCH better. Who said too many cooks spoil the broth? We had seven and all was wonderful. I was so glad we had the girls there who have both made this dish before as I would not have known what to do. A great help indeed!

Now doesn't that look good?

The dessert was the cherry on the cake or rather, the strawberries on the cream. Finally I got my cream! Pavlova with fresh berries. Karen made the meringue from scratch and filled it with delicious cream and berries. Yum! Yum! We all had a piece, but Nadia and I polished it off.

Before: How gorgeous!

After

What a brilliant evening. It was so much fun listening to our 80's classics and having an uninterrupted adult conversation, although the subject matter was a bit strange. We again got to bed very late, or very early, depending on how you look at it, but it was worth it. I would like to thank all the cooks for their input, The Stirrer for stirring, The Recipe for reading and The Light for shining his torch so well. We should definitely invest in an outside light as well, but then The Light will be jobless and it is a recession at the moment. One has to be considerate. Lastly I would like to thank all those poor Spanish farmers for having the creativity to invent this feast. I am seriously considering changing the name Fat Saturday to Paella Saturday.

Please remember to send any recipe ideas or challenges to satfatterdays@gmail.com (Not a spelling mistake, the other name was already taken!)

Until next week...