The Culinary Adventures of a Travelling Cook

232 Pages·2015·117.36 MB·English

by  Natasha Barnes

The Culinary Adventures of a
Travelli ng
Cook
For William, Moira and Graham
Natasha BarNes
Food photography By patrick royal
Thanks
I wish to thank Peta Lamb from Parys, as well as my dear friend Delyse Thank you, too, to Anne McLeod, my advanced cake-decorating
Fell from Amanzimtoti for their relentless nagging to write this book. My teacher, for her proofreading, guidance and assistance with my fruitcake
heartfelt thanks goes to my friend Hettie Saaiman, who so gracefully put recipes. Her vast experience was invaluable.
up with me for a whole month in Mauritius, and allowed me to run amok I wish to thank the following people for contributing some of the
in her kitchen while I finished this book. Thank you to Joyce who cleaned photographs: Leonie O’Donelle, Richard Heeps, Nadine Oliver, Alida
up week after week with a smile. I also cannot go without saying thank Coetzee, Barry Lawson, Graham Barnes and Sue Wiper.
you to my parents, Moira and William Barnes, who have always support- To the publishing team – Linda de Villiers (publisher), Joy Clack (editor),
ed me in everything I have ever wanted to do, and for never saying ‘there’s Beverley Dodd (designer) – thank you from the bottom of my heart. This
no money in Art, get a degree’. book would never have become a reality without your assistance and
And a huge thank you to Graham for supporting me in every step of professional guidance. It really is a dream come true for me and I could
this journey called life – dankie Boet. not have done anything as spectacular or visual without your input.
Published in 2014 by Struik Lifestyle Photographic Credits
(an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd) Andre Anita/Shutterstock.com (p. 63 third row right); Kenji AZUMA/
Company Reg. No 1966/003153/07 Shutterstock.com (p. 86); Michal Bednarek/Shutterstock.com
Estuaries No 4, Century Avenue (Oxbow Crescent), Century City 7441 (p. 136); Jez Bennett/Shutterstock.com (p. 1 right, p.62 fourth row left);
PO Box 1144 Cape Town 8000 South Africa Bikeworldtravel/Shutterstock.com (p. 140 top left and bottom right);
www.randomstruik.co.za Volodymyr Brudiak/Shutterstock.com (p. 63 first row right and third
row left); Jordi C/Shutterstock.com (p. 62 first row centre); curioso/
Copyright © in published edition: Shutterstock.com (p. 92 bottom left); Endless Travellers/Shutterstock.
Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd 2014 com (p. 85 first row centre); Filmlandscape/Shutterstock.com (main
Copyright © in text: Natasha Barnes 2014 cover image); Marco Govel/Shutterstock.com (p. 140 top right);
Copyright © in photographs: Natasha Barnes 2014, Anjelika Gr/Shutterstock.com (p. 18 second row centre); Richard Heeps
except as credited alongside (pp. 16–17, p. 18 third row right, p. 101 top left and bottom right);
Anton Ivanov/Shutterstock.com (p. 62 third row left, p. 85 second row
ISBN 978-1-43230-183-5 right); Javarman/Shutterstock.com (p. 210); Juancat/Shutterstock.com
(p. 125 top left); Kjetil Kolbjomsrund/Shutterstock.com (p. 176 top left);
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, Korpithas/Shutterstock.com (p. 125 top right); Andrzej Kubik/Shutter-
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, stock.com (p. 3); Nadezhda Kulikova/Shutterstock.com (p. 200 top left);
electronic, digital, mechanical, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, Barry Lawson (endpapers, p. 1 centre left, p. 162); Leungchopan/Shut-
without the prior written permission of the publishers and the terstock.com (p. 176 bottom right); Edmund Lowe/Shutterstock.com
copyright owner(s). (p. 4); Alberto Loyo/Shutterstock.com (p. 85 third row centre); Martchan/
Shutterstock.com (p. 85 first row left); Andrey Maximov/Shutterstock.
Publisher: Linda de Villiers com (p. 92 top right); Megapixel.org/Shutterstock.com (p. 93 bottom
Managing ediTor: Cecilia Barfield left); Maggy Meyer/Shutterstock.com (p. 56); Milosz_M/Shutterstock.
designer: Beverley Dodd com (p. 176 bottom left); Kruglov Orda/Shutterstock.com (p. 18 first
ediTor & indexer: Joy Clack (Bushbaby Editorial Services) row left); Vadim Petrakov/Shutterstock.com (p. 62 fourth row right);
Food PhoTograPher: Patrick Royal Pincasso/Shutterstock.com (p. 85 fourth row left); PokkO/Shutterstock.
Food sTylisT: Natasha Barnes com (p. 172); PzAxe/Shutterstock.com (p. 176 top right); Segoya/Shut-
ProoFreader: Samantha Fick (Bushbaby Editorial Services) terstock.com (p. 125 bottom right); Sematadesigns/Shutterstock.com
(p. 140 bottom left); Andrej Sevkovskij/Shutterstock.com (p. 63 fourth
Reproduction by Hirt & Carter Cape (Pty) Ltd row centre) Mircea Simu/Shutterstock.com (p. 125 bottom left); Villiers
Printing and binding by 1010 Printing International Ltd, China Steyn/Shutterstock.com (p. 26); Ian Woolcock/Shutterstock.com (p. 122).
Contents
Introduction 5 England – Pussycat, pussycat,
where have you been? 137
Parys – A river runs through it 7
China and Hong Kong – No English needed 153
The Bushveld – Oupa se kind 27
Thailand and Burma – A thousand little Buddhas 163
Silwood School of Cookery and Your Family
magazine – An artist in the making 45 Singapore, Malaysia and Bali –
Songbirds and satays 173
Out of Africa – Overland by any means 57
Sri Lanka – Tea for two 183
Ethiopia – No mountain too high 75
Cambodia and Vietnam – ... I took the one less
Argentina and Paraguay – Old friends 87 travelled by 197
United States of America –Living the dream 99 India and Nepal – A passage to India 211
Russia – Christmas in Siberia 111 Recipe index 222
The Mediterranean – Food for the gods 123

INTRODUCTION
Life takes its own turns, makes its own demands, writes its own story;
and along the way, we start to realize we are not the author.
George W. Bush
The journey of this book began with an aerogram. A simple, folded sheet of paper from Sri Lanka that ultimately
shaped a chapter of my life. At the time I did not realise the significance. I was, in all respects, happily employed
as a cookery editor, and had a life plan mapped out. But, as John Lennon said: ‘Life is what happens while you’re
busy making other plans’ and I soon found myself in a completely different direction in a short space of time.
I unintentionally swapped my apron for a paintbrush and rapidly became one of South Africa’s most published
international artists. A journey as long and hard as the gold with which it is paved. My talent has taken me all
over the world, affording me a whirlwind of success, and notability in my field. While nothing prepared me for
this experience, I soon found myself reliving my adventures through food, instinctively collecting recipes and
information along the way, knowing that, someday, I would share this knowledge.
During my numerous trips abroad, I have not remained idle. To complement my Grande Diplome from Silwood
School of Cookery, I attended cooking schools in Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, undertook an
advanced cake decorating course, obtained a National Qualification in Training and Development from the
hospitality industry, and opened two cooking schools at a maximum security prison in KwaZulu-Natal where
I trained prisoners in conjunction with the Department of Labour. This enabled me to uplift the skills of the
often forgotten and downtrodden souls from our society. In the early days of my career, it was not unheard of
to cook with the prisoners in the mornings, paint in the afternoons and fly to New York over the weekends!
One afternoon not that long ago, I found a little tin box with all sorts of bits and pieces, the type of stuff we keep
for no reason at all. Amongst all that junk I found my blue aerogram, with a recipe lovingly scribbled in ink and
post marked ‘Senkada Gala Sri Lanka 1997’. The aerogram sparked my memory and brought back the promise
I had made to myself to one day write my story. At the time, of course, I was not sure of how it would play out.
The aerogram was the first correspondence I had received from abroad and the first of many I had collected. The
letter included a recipe and also the story behind it, and came from the Sri Lankan Minister of Defence.
Instinctively I knew the time had come to tell my story. This book is the canvas of how it all played out.
INTRODUCTION 5
P A R Y S