SACM Update #9

Occasionally, there are delicacies found in the least likely of places. Kent Zimmerman (eldest son of Steve and Pat) lived and worked for five years in the mining town of Springbok, approx a six hour drive north of Cape Town. Kent’s on-again, off-again romance with an Afrikaans girl eventually didn’t work out so he returned to the Cape to find work.

Kent’s friends in Springbok kept in touch and one of them, Bernardo, returned with a traditional Afrikaner delicacy: “skilpadjies”, pronounced skul-pie-keys. It means tortoises or turtles.

This is a favorite braai (BBQ) dish along with mieliepap (thick corn meal porridge), bananas (grilled in their skins) and boerewors (farmers sausage). Although Kent enjoys most traditional dishes, skilpadjies aren’t one of them — he gladly passed them to Steve, who enjoys such things.

One afternoon, Steve fired up the grill and gently cooked the skilpadjies over a low heat. Despite the fact they were grilled to perfection, no one would share the meal with Steve and he ate alone.

And before anyone writes vehement letters of protest to a wildlife group protecting turtles, a skilpadjie is actually chunks of beef liver wrapped in bacon. They only LOOK like turtles…