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As many of you know (since I’ve been writing about it for the last year and a half), my wedding is coming up in just 8 short weeks! Matt and I are finalizing details and getting more excited with each passing day for both the wedding and our honeymoon. Every time I start getting ready for a new travel adventure, I like to reflect on those I’ve already enjoyed. I’ve been thinking a lot about my trip to South Africa last spring. Today, in honor of Friday and “weekend mode” aka procrastinating any and all productivity, I figured I’d share my musings here. 

Last March, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit my best friend in South Africa. She was studying there for a semester and I simply could not turn down the chance to visit. Though she was  living in Port Elizabeth, located on the lower eastern coast, we traveled throughout Kruger National Park (we obviously had to go on a safari!), Johannesburg, Drakensberg, and Durban before heading back to PE. Needless to say, it was a busy 10 days!

I could talk about the trip for days – the people, the scenery, the wine, the culture – but for now, I want to focus on the food because, well, this is a food blog after all.

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting upon my arrival in South Africa. To be honest, I didn’t really have any knowledge prior to my arrival. I was just excited for a beautiful adventure. The food, for the most part, was very westernized and European. If you’ve ever been to England and had a traditional English breakfast, you probably had eggs, baked beans, stewed/grilled tomatoes, sausage, and toast. Pretty standard for the most part, though it was funny to see some people completely thrown off by beans at breakfast (big fan over here so no problemo). We ate a lot of really amazing Indian food as well, especially in Durban where the Indian population is the second highest in the world behind India itself. I drank a ton of coffee. Whole fat cappuccinos with a touch of fresh whipped cream to be exact – very decadent stuff for this health conscious foodie, but I wasn’t worried about my nutrition on this trip. I just wanted to taste, enjoy, and experience as much as I possibly could.

Drakensberg was a different experience. Well actually, it was Lesotho. If you’ve never heard of Lesotho, look it up for a few minutes as the history is rich and beautiful (and so are the pictures).

In Lesotho, we were treated to a home cooked meal by a primary school vice principal. It’s important to know that there was absolutely zero electricity in the village we visited and that the tribe that lives there, lives completely off the land itself.

We had pap, which is essentially like a porridge made from ground maize. The pap is thick enough to pick up with your hands, which we did, and use to grab whatever leafy green was available, in our case, pumpkin leaves.

I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It was flavorful and really tasty! We learned about the village history, the school system, long standing traditions, successes, and struggles while we ate and drank a home brewed beer available NO WHERE else in the world other than Lesotho.

The day ended too soon, as did the entire trip, but I returned home with SO much new knowledge, respect, and admiration for a culture I knew nothing about before.

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Rebecca McKinney

I was born a foodie. My dad is a chef, baker, and restaurant owner and my mom might as well be because she owns whatever kitchen she walks into. I grew up working in my family’s restaurant and bakery in Pawling, New York – McKinney and Doyle. I started behind the bakery counter at 12 years old after begging my parents to let me start working. At 16 I worked as a hostess. By 18 I was serving tables and training behind the bar where I then worked every other weekend throughout my college career. Even now, when I am visiting my family in New York, I help out where I’m needed. To make a long story short, the food and restaurant industry has been my life for as long as I can remember.

I wanted to create this blog for a few reasons. First and foremost, to share tips, tricks, and knowledge about the food and beverage industry in general but also to help people see a different side of the restaurant world. Every restaurant has a totally unique culture and world within it. I want to help open people’s eyes to more than how fast the service is or how easy or hard it is to secure a reservation.

So, thanks for stopping by! I welcome your ideas, input, and feedback and hope you enjoy!

Eat well & travel often,

Becky McKinney

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