Once upon a time, when we had a little restaurant in Sutherland in the Karoo Hoogland, I had the audacity to bake pumpkin as a side dish – without sugar. I had lived in Sussex, England, for four years shortly before returning to open the bistro, and had forgotten a good deal of my Afrikaans, and evidently some of the details of Afrikaner cuisine too.
I was swiftly put to rights when a man at a corner table sent The Foodie’s Wife back into the kitchen to ask for a cup of sugar and a spoon.
“I have no idea,” she explained, somewhat inadequately. “Let’s just give it to him.”