Sticking to tradition

Ask anyone what it means to stick to tradition and you’ll most likely be told that it means being old-fashioned, boring and predictable.

But if Zara Karmali, the owner and head chef of contemporary Asian fusion restaurant Karma, has anything to do with it, “tradition” could find a new level of respect with people looking for something fresh and exciting.

Karmali is one of 16 chefs who will be strutting their stuff at this year’s Taste of Joburg Festival, where visitors will have the opportunity to sample some of Johannesburg’s best cuisine, prepared by the city’s top chefs, in an informal and fun atmosphere, without punishing the credit card in the process.

“Exotic food has always been the territory that only the brave venture into,” Karmali says. “Until recently, many people have been afraid to venture out of their comfort zones and experience some of the finest flavours that the world has to offer.”

Karmali will be the first to admit that particularly exotic cuisine – like traditional Indian food for example – doesn’t appeal to as wide an audience as, say, more familiar cuisine coming from the Mediterranean.

“But if one were to show a little initiative and incorporate flavours that locals are familiar with, all of a sudden you have a multitude of exciting dishes that local people can relate to and that they aren’t afraid to try out,” she explains.

However, that said, Karmali doesn’t believe in watering down her heritage. After all, it’s the complex mixture of, on average, 10 – 12 herbs and spices in each dish that gives Indian cuisine its unmistakable characteristics.

“But incorporating elements such as avocado, feta cheese and Peppadews – which are most certainly not traditional Indian ingredients – into our dishes has enabled us to produce exotic dishes that lend themselves closely to Indian tradition, but at the same time don’t overwhelm more conservative palates that venture into our restaurants,” she jokes.

“The truth is that Johannesburg has seen a marked increase of interest in the more exotic side of food,” she says, “and this is something we very much want to nurture.”

“You just have to look at the numbers of Indian, Thai, Sushi, Ethiopian and Persian restaurants that are opening up in Joburg to realise that exotic food is not only trendy but also gaining popularity amongst people who are simply after something unbelievably delicious and exciting.”

Karmali strongly believes that this has everything to do with the integrity that comes from sticking to tradition.

After all, it’s the mastery of balancing the intense flavours of spices that makes Asian food what it is. And this is also the motivation that drives her to make exotic Asian food more accessible to a wider audience.

“I don’t want people to be scared away from trying out exotic traditional food – whether it’s eating it at their favourite restaurant or making it at home for that matter,” Karmali says.

“People shouldn’t feel alienated by complex flavours. Flavour is purely subjective and what appeals to one person may not appeal to another, which is why there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in cooking a modern take on traditional food.”

This is also why Karma has introduced cooking classes – in order to bring traditional Asian food closer to curious South African palates, and hopefully to stimulate a passion for flavour.

“Above all,” she enthuses, “we hope to dispel the myth that spice equals spicy [hot]. Chilli may be a spice, but not all spice is chilli.

“Tradition doesn’t have to be stale or mystical. And it also doesn’t have to exclude those that are curious to explore outside of their comfort zones,” Karmali continues. “And I’m excited about being able to introduce people to my culture through the flavours that are so famous from the region.”

A dish is only as good as its ingredients

Any chef worth his or her salt would be the first to admit that a dish is only as good as the ingredients used to make it. And one person who knows this all too well is Jacob Moliso, the executive chef at Jazz Maniacs in the Soweto Hotel on Freedom Square.

Jazz Maniacs is not your conventional hotel restaurant. Situated in the heart of Freedom Square in Soweto – with Kliptown and the Walter Sisulu Freedom Museum as a backdrop – the restaurant combines the simple but tasty traditional township food with a touch of class and sophistication.

The restaurant’s signature dish, the Kliptown Combo, which combines steak, wors, pap, chakalaka, mixed veggies and beetroot all beautifully arranged on a plate, is a perfect example of how even the simplest South African favourite can be made to appeal to any palate –local or international.

“For a chef, ingredients are everything,” Jacob says, “and I could not possibly dream of using anything but the best fruit and vegetables in the dishes that I prepare.”

An integral part of township food is a variety of hearty vegetables including carrots, beetroot, potatoes, spinach, cabbage, tomatoes and onions – all of which Jacob and his assistant chefs, Junior Molewa and Sam Lipali, hand-pick on a daily basis at a somewhat unlikely place – the street market around the corner from the hotel.

“I wouldn’t imagine it any other way,” Jacob points out. “The market here in Freedom Square stocks absolutely everything that we need and the quality is streaks ahead of anything you’d find in mainstream grocery stores in town.

“Not to mention the prices here in the market are a lot lower than the prices in the more commercial areas of Joburg, which means that we don’t only control the costs of preparing unbelievably good food, but we can offer dishes that are reasonably priced,” he says.

As Jacob, Junior and Sam roam the street markets in and around Freedom Square, it’s easy to see that they’re no strangers to the store owners – whose elaborate displays of fresh fruit and vegetables add an amazing touch of colour to the streets of Kliptown, which was once an unbelievably depressing place to be during the Apartheid years.

“The variety of vegetables that we have to choose from is always good and we never have to question the quality,” Jacob points out.

“This is because every morning, fresh produce is delivered directly from farmers to the Fresh Produce Market in the Joburg CBD, and is then brought here to Kliptown. It’s easy to see how you can get lost in the rows and rows of vegetable stalls here – it’s like another world,” he says.

Jacob, Junior and Sam all admit that their dishes would not be half as good as they are if the quality of the ingredients were not of a superior quality.

And they’ll be equally quick to admit that there is nothing more embarrassing than having to salvage a dish gone wrong when the ingredients are to blame – because it is essentially their reputations on the line.

To this extent, Jacob says that it’s very important for him and his crew to hand-pick all of their ingredients to ensure that they can “wow” their patrons again and again.

“No chef can make a good dish with bad ingredients. Not even those guys on BBC are THAT good,” Jacob jokes.

“Here at Jazz Maniacs we’re all about using good local produce and supporting our local communities,” comments Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo, the General Manager of the Soweto Hotel on Freedom Square.

“People think we’re joking when we say that we get all our fruit and vegetables out on the street, but you just cannot match the quality and value for money you get when you buy your produce from a trusted and reliable source.

“We’re truly blessed to have such amazing ingredients, produced locally, available practically on our doorstep,” she adds.

“And as much as our chefs enjoy cooking with these unbelievable ingredients, our patrons also enjoy every bite of our signature township dishes.”

Jacob is one of 16 chefs that will be putting their skills to the test at this year’s Taste of Joburg Festival – which is scheduled to take place 30 September- 4 October at Montecasino Outdoor Event Venue. Tickets are available through Computicket on 083 915 8000 or www.computicket.com. Standard tickets cost R80 and premium tickets cost R170. For more information go to www.tasteofjoburg.com

Why customer service is NOT dead in SA

From: Nicolas Callegari [mailto:nicolasc@tribecapr.co.za]
Sent: 17 July 2009 10:48 AM
To: ‘taryn@tintswalo.com’
Cc: ‘gavin@tintswalo.com’
Subject: Tintswalo Waterfall breakfast

Hi,

I’ll apologise in advance if you’re not the right person to direct this e-mail to, but I’m hoping that you can forward it to the relevant person if that is the case.

On 11 July I booked a breakfast for five people (for my father’s birthday).  The number one reason that I chose to book at Tintswalo Waterfall is because I was there for an office breakfast function a week prior and we all found the food, atmosphere and general experience fantastic.

Upon arrival on the 11^th, I was greeted by our waitress and seated.  I was also informed that due to a large booking that had come in, the breakfast would be served buffet style.  Now, let me say from the outset, the food is always tasty and the service was also good, but I have to admit I was VERY disappointed that we had to serve ourselves from a buffet – this was not what I had experienced the previous time we had visited the hotel.

The whole reason I booked at Tinstwalo Waterfall was because of the great experience that we had a week earlier, having so many different plates of food served at our table – being able to order a nicely cooked breakfast of our choice form a menu and having all the juices on the table.  We quite literally felt like rock stars and our perception was that at R145 per head the overall experience was great value for money.

But I have to say that our experience on the 11^th was nowhere near as fantastic as I had experienced before.  The food in the buffet was very limited, we could not order any other hot meals from the menu and having to compete with a table of 30-odd people at the buffet put a general damper on the whole experience.  I wanted my dad to feel like as much of a rock star as we did a week prior, but sadly it was “just another average hotel breakfast buffet” – and, quite frankly, not worth the R800 I dropped on the day.

To compound matters, there was a general power failure in the area that morning and for some or other reason the hotel generator did not kick in so we sat in complete darkness and silence for most of the breakfast – expect for the constant beeping of the POS UPS that was slowly dying around the corner from the dining room.

I didn’t bring up the issue of my disappointment at the time with hotel management, but in hindsight I should have because I had really hoped for an unbelievable birthday breakfast for my father – which ended up being only somewhat average – and not the value for money that I had previously perceived the breakfast at Tintswalo Waterfall to be.

I realise that, this being after the matter, there’s nothing that can be done now.  But I would very much like it if you would take into consideration that the breakfast at Tintswalo Waterfall is an all-encompassing experience and you really shouldn’t take that away from the people (particularly non-residents who bring repeat business) when they have come to expect rock star treatment all the time.

Thanks for listening,

Nicolas Callegari

 

……….and the response:

From: Francois Botha [mailto:francois@tintswalo.com]
Sent: 17 July 2009 12:45 PM
To: nicolasc@tribecapr.co.za
Cc: ‘Edward Woudberg’
Subject: Rockstar Horror!!!

Hi Nicolas.

I think I remember you, were you not the gentleman that we struggled to get the bill to because of the power failure. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the bumpy ride you had to encounter with us. As you are well aware we had trouble with the power and our Genny did not kick in, so we were really running to try get it up and running but to no avail. We were also having trouble with our till system and that is why the issue of getting you a printed bill occurred.

This is still no excuse for the experience you had and I wish I can alter what went on but can’t. I can however still give your dad the Rock star treatment that he deserves and would like to invite you back for a meal on me at his nearest convenience. I know that the reason you brought this to our attention is not for the purpose of a free meal, But I do want you to know that we do appreciate constructive criticism when it is due and in your case it definitely is due. Thanks for letting me know and not just leaving this and never coming back.

Please phone me personally or send me a mail and give me the opportunity to Re-Rockstar  your dad. I will make sure that Myself and Wayne who is our Food and beverage manager will look after you personally and hopefully we can mend the bridge we have damaged.

Kind regards and thanks,

Francois Botha

Why Virgin Mobile South Africa sucks…

If you’re one of my followers on Twitter or you’re a friend of mine on Facebook (or even if you know me in the real world), you’ll know of my deep-seated dislike of Virgin mobile South Africa.

I was a very loyal MTN subscriber for close-on 10 years but as has been the case with MTN, the gradual fall in customer service quality and the general lack of concern the company has for keeping its existing customers happy over acquiring new one – and I decided to cancel my decade-old contract for “greener pastures”

Virgin Mobile had all the great promises – the lowest call rates in South Africa, no contract tie-ins, free text messages, true per-second billing and a very low per/MB rate for its data traffic.  Heck, they even had the phone I wanted so badly at that point in time (Nokia E90), so it looked like heaven compared to MTN.

I suppose I should have noticed the first warning signs when it took me three visits to the Virgin Mobile Sandton City retail store in order to sign up for the package that I wanted.

Two of the three times I was told that “the system is down” – an excuse that would become the most spoken phrase at Virgin Mobile over coming months – even if they didn’t know it yet.

I eventually ended up signing a 24-month package with Virgin Mobile.  And so began my slow decent into mobile phone hell.

And here’s why:

• After about 3 months, my Nokia died and had to be sent in for repair. It took Virgin Mobile over a month to fix a simple software glitch – FAIL
• In October 2008, Virgin Mobile “migrated to a new system”, which sent their billing and other systems into total disarray. To date, errors that were caused by the system migration still persist and the migration is still being blamed by call centre agents as the cause for billing and Vrewards problems – FAIL
• On the subject of Vrewards – the system has been broken from day one. Virgin Mobile claims that its Vrewards have real cash value – which they initially did. But later Virgin Mobile decided to change these “real cash” Vrewards to airtime, which is now credited to your account – even though the pre-recorded message on their phone lines still claims that their Vrewards have “real cash value” – FAIL
• Free unlimited SMS packages were falsely advertised as so and are now subject to a draconian “fair usage policy” – FAIL
• Virgin Mobile piggy-back on Cell C’s GSM network as a virtual network operator. Cell C’s network is not the best when it comes to coverage and quality of service – and as a result dropped calls, “Network Busy” errors and terrible data speeds are a sad reality for Virgin Mobile subscribers – FAIL
• The claimed “super fast” data network is based on Cell C’s Edge network and is slow, continually times out and has some of the biggest latency issues I’ve ever seen. 3G is not even on Cell C’s radar – EPIC FAIL
• Earlier this year, Virgin decided to “bring it’s 1-year free itemised billing” to an end and automatically slapped R20 extra onto my account – which, despite having been asked to stop it, is still being charged to my account – FAIL
• The average hold time on Virgin mobile’s call centre line is 20 minutes – FAIL
• The company’s call centre agents have no power whatsoever – they continually over-promise and under deliver, never call back when they promise to do so and are merely a mechanism for blaming continual system problems for the ongoing issues that Virgin Mobile has. – FAIL
• Virgin Mobile’s network is horribly broken. It takes numerous attempts to make a call. “Network Busy” seems to be Virgin’s new payoff line. – FAIL

There are all sorts of rumours going around about the future of Virgin mobile in South Africa – especially because of uncertainty around Cell C’s future and I, for one, am scratching together every cent I have to get myself out of this God-forsaken 24-month agreement.

Admittedly, all I need to do is pay the outstanding balance on my phone and Virgin will “set me free” (unlike the jail sentence that MTN or Vodacom tie you into when you sign a contract with one of them) – there are no penalties for cancelling contracts early.

The only thing is, with the total and utter incompetence that Virgin Mobile staff demonstrate on a daily basis, am I willing to take the risk of paying R3,500 to Virgin to cancel my agreement and then sit with a six-month battle to stop the debit orders and subsequent wrongful credit bureau blacklisting that Virgin is all too happy to slap onto innocent people.

We’ll have to see.  But one thing is certain, Virgin Mobile is doomed to failure if they carry on the way they do – and I’ll put money on it, by 2010, they’ll be gone.

Richard Branson would be ashamed.

O.M.F.G! It’s Aprillia’s new RSV4

Check out the original story on Wheels 24 here: http://tinyurl.com/ngn7ds

Aprilia’s RSV4 Factory, claimed to be the world’s most advanced superbike, has finally arrived in South Africa and it’s clear designer Sergio Robbiano has kept his 2006 promise that “everything else will be old after the RS4”.

The Aprilia RSV4 is the only V4-engined superbike in production, and it’s already proved to be competitive against the best that Japan, Italy and Germany can serve up at the highest level of superbike racing. Max Biaggi is fifth in the world superbike riders’ championship halfway through the RSV4’s first season of competition, and Aprilia lies at a comfortable fourth in the manufacturers’ championship.

According to Aprilia the RS4 is as close as you will ever get to the real WSB deal. The adjustable geometry chassis allows parameters such as the position and inclination of the steering head, and the height of the rear swingarm pivot to be adjusted. The positioning of the engine in the frame can also be altered to change handling characteristics to suit rider preferences and different circuits.

The Factory version that’s just arrived has Öhlins Racing front forks, with their 43mm stanchions titanium nitride coated to minimise friction. As in Biaggi’s and Shinya Nakano’s race bikes, the forks allow precision adjustment of pre load and compression and rebound damping.

Looking after the rear end is an Öhlins Racing shock absorber that can be adjusted for pre load, compression and rebound damping, and length, allowing ride height to be optimised to suit rider preferences.

Brakes up front are some of the finest radial calipers, Brembo monoblocks, mated to 320mm diameter stainless steel floating discs developed by Aprilia especially for this machine. A Brembo “Serie Oro” system utilising a 220mm stainless disc and dual piston caliper with a racing type pump and integrated reservoir slows down the rear wheel.

Naturally it was a challenge for Aprilia to develop a brand new four-cylinder engine – their first – which would be capable of delivering the performance the chassis deserves. The Italian engineers’ creation is said to be superb, though, and Max Biaggi proved it at Monza in May by establishing a new World Superbike top speed record of 326km/h.

“The super compact 65 degree V4 combines the factory’s mechanical engineering know-how, gained in winning well over 300 World Championship races, with state of the art electronics, to produce a truly significant engine for the 21st Century,” says Aprilia.

The bike utilises full ride-by-wire technology with no mechanical link between the twist-grip and the throttle valves, which are controlled by the latest generation Marelli control unit.

Each cylinder bank has a dedicated servo unit, actuating the relevant throttle bodies only, allowing the processor to manage the fuelling for each cylinder independently. Three engine mapping programmes are available, controlled from the handlebars, allowing the rider to change the power delivery mode to suit prevailing conditions.

By using a 65 degree V-angle layout rather than the 60 degree of their V-twins, Aprilia was able to build the engine very over-square, with the resulting large bores allowing for very big valves and high revs. The bike allegedly revs happily to 14 200  r/min and produces its peak power of 132kW at 12 500 r/min, with the torque peak of 115Nm arriving a little earlier, at 10 000 r/min.

To keep control the weight of the RS4 as tightly as possible, Aprilia’s engineers made use of ultralight materials for the engine, with all valve covers and external housings being made from magnesium. The frame, at just 10.1kg, weighs virtually the same as that of the twin-cylinder RSV, while the trick aluminium swing arm weighs just 5.1kg.
The Aprilia RS4 Factory is the closest you are likely to ever get to the WSB version, but at R245 995 this privilege doesn’t exactly come cheap.

To ease the blow Aprilia will throw in a 24-month unlimited distance warranty.

Technical specification
Engine: V-4 cylinder, 4-stroke
Displacement: 999.6cc
Bore x Stroke: 78 x 52.3mm
Max torque: 115Nm at 10 000r/min
Max power: 132.4kW at 12 500r/min
Dry weight: 179kg