Aunt Renie visits South Africa

 

I was shivering and shaking after I received the request from Aunt Renie from The Future of Storytelling -MOOC to host her trip to South Africa. I could hardly believe she had asked me, the humble Dr Earthworm to be her host. I spent time planning our trip - thinking of what she might like to see and experience in her short visit to our vast and beautiful country. These are some memorable moments from our trip. We met outside this beautiful church in Wynberg on a blustery day and set off for some amazing adventures together.

First we headed off to Tableview - and we arrived in a windstorm of kite surfers as far as the eye can see. Aunt Renie was really impressed with the view of Table Mountain from Tableview. She just wondered how people can brave the freezing waters of the Atlantic - I managed to get her to dip her toes in.

We drove along the Peninsula and here you can see us at the 12 Apostles. We had just passed Table Mountain a few minutes before.

She absolutely fell in love with Hout Bay which is a republic in its own right.

We stopped off and met John Bauer, world acclaimed ceramicist and Stuart Coutts, artist, animator and master storyteller busy preparing for an art exhibition.

We went to see the Third Installation of Black and Yellow: Collaborative Exhibition at Studio 41 where some incredible local Cape Town artists (Claude Chandler, Adele van Heerden, Keda Gomes, Jeannine Davidoff, to mention but a few) come together to show off their diverse artwork. Everyone is gearing up for World Design Capital 2014 in Cape Town.

We ended the day watching the sunset in Camps Bay and scoffing delicious pizza.

We set off along the Garden Route. We had the misfortune of losing our camera to the sea. We were lucky to get this picture of us in Nahoon, East London, taken by a friend who joined us on the trip.

Aunt Renie said the highlight of the trip was meeting these monkeys in Scottburgh, KZN. She had never seen them this close before. Aunt Renie said she would definitely come back to South Africa - especially because she wanted to learn to make biltong, eat mopani worms and see the Kruger Park. There is still so much more of South Africa that Aunt Renie wants to see. 

Her favourite South African food, after biltong was the milk tart (melk tert) we had for tea. She simply had to take the recipe home with her:

Milk Tart Pastry

2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs real Butter - not Margarine!
1 egg
3/4 cup self raising flour
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Mix all the ingredients for the pastry in a bowl and stir till it makes a dough. Press into a lightly greased tart dish. ake the crusts for 20-30 minutes, then allow to cool.

Milk Tart filling:

2 cups milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cake flour
1/4 cup corn flour
pinch salt
2 Tbs butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
Ground cinnamon

Heat the milk in a medium pot (to just before boiling point). Beat the eggs and sugar until creamy and light then add the flours and salt - the mixture will be quite thick. Add some warm milk to the egg mixture and then return all of it to the pot. Bring to the boil and whisk constantly until thickened.
Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla. Pour into the pastry case and sprinkle with cinnamon. Allow to cool before serving.