It Is Called Imifino (Umfino)

And the day I learned to cook it

It is called Imifino (Imifino or Umfino, other spellings and writings are possible as well) and last year on Mandela Day I had the pleasure to be invited to an Imifino-cooking-session in NU 1. The team from the NDA - the National Development Agency arrived in mighty numbers and in full armour.

Now meet the cook sisters!

Awela, the Head-Chef

was able to give me a full lecture on Imifino cooking right away!

Traditional South African recipes mostly originate from early English, French, German and Malay settlers. However, the indigenous ethnic tribes were here long before the settlers and they have their own traditional culinary African culture.

IMIFINO IS:

a dish made from fresh vegetables

like carrots, spinach, cabbage, mielies  and mieliemeel

cut in pieces and cooked in a very big pot

simmered for 45 minutes at least

you can add onion and beef and oil

the mieliemeel makes it nice and thick

WE LOVE IMIFINO BECAUSE:

it is healthy 

we have eaten it in the rural villages with the old people

it is easy to make and cheap

you can grow the vegetables in your yard 

BUT you must know in the olden days they did not mix the vegetables like we do it today. Back then Imifino was made from traditional indigenous spices and herbs only. Just salt was added.

We are bringing in the Yellow now with the carrots! 

 

Thandi, the Assistant Chef and Advisor had already started with the more practicable stuff while we were still talking recipes.

And I can guarantee you one thing, while cooking Imifino the traditional African way there is no Mr. Cain deep frozen. It is really CHOP, CHOP, CHOP and CHOP!

Therefore let me introduce to you Mbulelo, the Chief Chopper and Development Manager. It was whispered in my ear by the two ladies Awela and Thandi. that Mbulelo could be in serious trouble at home, if his wife ever saw these images. Seeing him cutting carrots with so much talent, I was told, would probably lead to further assignments in the kitchen at the family residence. I think I have to take the risk and publish this image. Sorry Mbulelo!

The taste is worth the effort!

Without Any Doubt!

Twenty Five For A Bag - Winter Vegetables

This lady is selling delicious looking fresh vegetables on the Hi-Way central market.

Everything needed for a good warming winter soup like carrots, potatoes, onions, green pepper  and cabbage can be found here and bought cheaper than in town.

with one of her friends keeping her company.

Getting Ready For The Day

Madam is preparing her table at the market and she is getting ready for some big sales today.
And the wind is the last in line to hold her back !
You can take my word for that.

ART IN THE WIND

The weather service had given us a prognosis of gale-force wind, rough seas, seven meter high waves and a daily temperature of 12 degrees Celsius. And there it was. For several days. It can get that cold at the African coast in the Eastern Cape in winter.

The central market at Hi-Way in Mdantsane had the appearance of a gigantic, deserted, broken down theater. Black garbage bags, animal food plastic bags and other plastic rugs that are normally used to cover the make shift market stands where performing a wild dance in the wind and were making a crazy noise.

A couple of years ago a friend of mine who was at the time an art student at a very well known art academy in the Netherlands had come for her very first visit to the African continent. 

She visited me in West-Africa, where I was living in the north of Mali, close to the border of Mauritania.

When her eyes caught a similar sight like the one you see in the pictures she asked me : Is this intentional ?  Is this Art ? Are people doing this ? Old torn plastic bags had been caught in a field and where entangled in the streets, plants and the wire fencing that went all around the field.

I was out of words for a couple of seconds, looking at the surrealistic in the wind moving plastic sculptures that she admired. I could not imagine why she would think something like this, for me being it so obvious that this was one of Africa's big problems. Plastic waste. 

I was unaware that contemporary art had moved in this direction in the West while I had spend years in Africa.  

It tells you that people are trained carefully and with lot of dedication to look at things in a certain way. And the way to look at something can be fundamentally different.

And looking at it through her eyes I suddenly could see it as art as well. Art born out of poverty however that nobody pays for. Art that is genuine because it is non-intentional and non-pretentious.

What do people pay for ?

Here at Hi-Way what people pay for and want are the vegetables. 

In Western countries they pay to look at art that dissolves itself, that disappears.

So what is the discussion here? Is it art or is the fight for survival ?

It depends on our vision. It's both.

Sometimes, not always, there is a Western vision and an African vision.

The lady who owns the stand and sits in the cold is not aware of the Western Vision that she is sitting amidst an installation that would be considered by many as art. And nobody can blame her for that.
And a Western soul does truly not know about her life. 

But: is this not true Entrepreneurship?

It so much is ! And has to be admired.

And even more on an ice cold day in Africa's winter at the coast.