In Part 1 of this on-going saga, I posted about comments attributed to Su Birch, head of the SA Wine Export Marketers (WOSA).

In his November 20, 2011 article for TimesLive.co.za, Neil Pendock, who describes himself as ‘South Africa’s leading independent drinks commentator…’ writes about Birch’s  war-of-words with Hong Kong businessman and socialite Sir David Tang (formerly he of Shanghai Tang).

I am happy to say that Su has since contacted me and clarified her side of the tiff as follows:

Dear Mike,

I want to assure you that WOSA is totally committed to the Hong Kong and Chinese markets and are doing as much as we can with our very limited funds.

We were active at 4 shows in China last year, one of which was in Hong Kong and brought WOSA Wine Workshops to Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

These master classes were presented by some of our best winemakers to a large audience of Hong Kong sommeliers and trade.

I presented at the Wine Futures Hong Kong seminar in November.

We are planning to be at 5 shows this year, the first of which is Vinexpo Hong Kong in May.

We have translated our promotional material in to Mandarin and building our first Mandarin website in the next few months.

WOSA does not sell wine, we just try to grow awareness and promote a positive image.

If you have some great ideas on how to get more wine sold in Hong Kong,we’d like to to hear them. But budget is always a problem.

Our bottled wine exports to China (unfortunately I don’t have Hong Kong separately) are up 90% for the 12 months ended October 2011.

I guess everywhere in the world you have politics, and quite why Mr. Pendock found it necessary to make such a huge fuss about my comment in an online lifestyle magazine about not wanting to go on holiday in China (where I have done some travelling) is not something I understand. Going on holiday and doing business are two very different things.

I hope this sets the record straight.

Best

Su

On my usual Sunday-morning walkabout, I took some images of the SA shelf at the Jason’s store in Tsim Sha Tsui’s K11 mall.

Those of you who have been following my ramblings here on Howzit-HongKong.com will know full well about my bitching about the lack off South African wines on the Hong Kong shelves.

Since my first post on this issue I’ve been at a loss of words on this issue but today, on my usual trawl of the South African daily papers, I probably found (one of the reasons) for the discrepancy.

Seems the head honcho of the SA Wine Export marketers (WOSA), one Su Birch have been in the thick of things as far as SA Wines’ import attempts into Hong Kong/China is concerned. And NOT in a good way.

Read this report from TimesLive…

Seems Su Birch has not exactly endeared herself into the local wine inport/export community with her comments.

More to follow…

Mike Jansen

(Hung Hom)

“Former South African President Nelson Mandela is alive and kicking.”

These were the words of Acting-President Kgalema Motlanthe late last night in a statement from the South African Government on the condition on the ailing Mandela.

This afternoon, at a press conference arranged to calm the mood in the country and to allay fears that Madiba (The clan name of Mandela) has passed away, Motlanthe confirmed that, while Mandela has indeed been admitted to the MillPark Hospital for treatment, he was fine and ready to be discharged for home-care.

I have been monitoring the news-wires for any updates the whole afternoon (Friday 28 January 2011) and finally managed to capture the pressie from South Africa via my iPhone (courtesy of Sky News here in Hong Kong):

(Turn up your volume if required)

“I’m still here” Stay strong Tata.

And then…. after the press conference, we danced, Madiba-style! Turn up the volume…

(braai is what we South Africans call barbeque)

September 24 is celebrated as National Heritage Day in South Africa.  The day is one of our newly created public holidays and its significance rests in recognising aspects of South African culture which are both tangible and difficult to pin down: creative expression, our historical inheritance, language, the food we eat as well as the land in which we live.

On September 5, 2007, Archbishop Desmond Tutu celebrated his appointment as patron of South Africa’s Barbecue (Braai) Day, affirming it to be a unifying force in a divided country (by donning an apron and tucking into a boerewors sausage). At the end of 2007 National Braai Day changed its name to Braai4Heritage and the initiative received the endorsement of South Africa’s National Heritage Council (NHC).

While South Africans all over the world are taking to their gardens, balconies, backyards and parks to braai, “Lady GaGa’s brother” was spotted somewhere around Cape Town doing his bit to promote the day:

Cape Town comedian and radio personality Paul Snodgrass donning 10kg of boeries to mark Braai Day

To end, here’s the Braai Day remix of Poker Face…

The famous boerie or boerewors (farmers sausage)

A South African braai (Pic: travelPod)

A shopping trip to my local Park & Shop here in Hung Hom this afternoon brought a welcome surprise.

If, like me you’re a Savanna Cider fan (OK I am a fan of any South African products available this side of the noodle-gordyn!) you will be happy to know that the golden cider is now available right here in Hong Kong.

Park & Shop is selling the 330ml (3%) Savanna Light for $9.90 each or $19.90 for 2.

I bought the last six left on the shelf.

Hopefully they’ll restock.

Jan Scannell, also known as Jan Braai has brought home a Guinness World Record that ultimately belongs in South Africa: that of the longest uninterupted braai (or barbecue for the non-South Africans).

The previous record-holder was a German (nogal) who braai-ed for 28 hours and 26 minutes.  With the support of the Cape Town media and dedicated listeners, Scannell easily bettered that mark to 28 hours and 30 minutes.

The “tong-master” was quite philosophical about his feat saying: ”(this) victory is not about breaking the record but is rather “a call to action for all South Africans to celebrate our common heritage by having a braai next week“.

“Heritage Day has the spirit of the World Cup without costing the tax payers a cent, and plus you can’t lose at braaing,” Jan said as he turned another braai grill over on the fire.

“Once a year we can celebrate as a nation; whether you are rich or poor, black or white, Xhosa or Zulu or from Durban, the Transkei, the Kalahari or Karoo everybody likes to make a fire and braai,” he said.

You can read more about Jan’s feat on the Braai4Heritage website. 

The V&A Waterfront in Cape Town during Jan Braai’s record attempt (Pic: David Brooke/Sport24)

Mission accomplished. Jan Scannell is now the official record holder

Here’s GoodHopeFM’s take on the event:

If you have been following Howzit-hongKong.com you will have noticed our category called Colloquialism.

Here we talk about all the unique South African-isms that form part of our country’s diverse culture.  We even maintain a list of all the words (called Lekke SA words) that have been developed over many years.

Today we leaned that some of the more recent South African-isms even made it into the Oxford Dictionary.

TimesLive reports:

YOH! I love your makarapa and vuvuzela – eish, it’s sharp sharp!

Though many South Africans will understand this sentence, for those who do not, help is at hand.

The new Oxford South African Concise Dictionary defines these words in its latest edition, compiled by the dictionary’s unit for South African English at Rhodes University.

* yoh (also yho or yo):

informal; expressing surprise, disbelief, shock or admiration.

* makarapa (noun) (also makaraba):

1. an elaborately decorated hard hat or miner’s helmet, worn as a headdress by supporters of a soccer or other sports team. 2 historical; a mineworker or migrant labourer. ORIGIN from Sesotho sa leboa, “men who work in the cities”.

* vuvuzela (noun):

a long straight plastic horn, chiefly used by spectators at soccer matches.

* eish (also aish or heish):

used to express a range of emotions, including surprise, annoyance and pain. ORIGIN: 1990s, from tsotsitaal.

* sharp sharp (also sharp):

informal. 1 expressing approval, acceptance or agreement. 2 used as a greeting at meeting or parting.

Phillip Louw, of Oxford University Press Southern Africa, is the managing editor of the dictionary, which hit the shelves last month and took more than three years to compile.  According to him, deciding which words to include was difficult.

“Ayoba was one of the words we debated about for some time. It can be used in so many different ways – as a greeting or to describe something. What we had to determine was whether it had penetrated the language beyond the MTN marketing campaign,” he said.

“We also have to determine whether a word will be here in the next few years, and we have to ensure that the word has been used in three to four different publications and by several authors.”

The work was done with the help of the dictionary unit for South African English at Rhodes University, which has a large database of newspapers, books articles and literature at the university’s library.

Cape Talk personality John Maytham lauded the latest edition as “excellent, highly valuable . perfectly pitched for the modern user“.

Louw’s favourite word this year is definitely makarapa. But his all-time favourite?

“There is nothing as lekker as the word ‘lekker‘.”

What can we add to that?

Lekkkkerrrrr!

With Heritage Day/National Braai Day coming up next month (24 September 2010) some of us on this side of the noodle-curtain may long for a boerie (boerewors) or a lekker tjoppie (chop) on the day thousands of our countrymen back home head to their backyards for a good old South African braai.

If you’re not privvy to your own sausage-maker… fear not, you can still get your boerie-fix.  Even if it’s just the taste of it, set on a bun and cooked on your Hong Kong balcony.

I found this video of (Englishman nogal) Heston Blumenthal cooking a Boerewors Burger (or “brrr-wos” as the famous chef calls it).

It’s quick and easy and better yet, the spices required are to be found anywhere in Hong Kong.  All you need are coriander seeds (toasted), nutmeg, ground gloves, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs and of course, a mixture of pork and beef.  As a shameless promotional aside, Heston uses Waitrose products which can be found in Hong Kong as well.

My own twist includes some fresh coriander (or danya as it is called in the Cape Town Malay community).

Enjoy your Boerie fix.

Cheers Heston!

Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu on Friday called on South Africans to throw some meat – or vegetables – on the coals to celebrate the country’s heritage and “braai“.

“We experienced an incredible spirit in the month of the World Cup when all that mattered was that we were members of this extraordinary Rainbow Nation,” Tutu told journalists.  “So I call on all of us to braai for Heritage Day, September 24. Let’s get together and enjoy ourselves, friends, families and even those who are not friends.”

Tutu is the patron of the “Braai for Heritage” campaign which is celebrated on September 24, an official public holiday to mark the nation’s multi-cultural heritage after the fall of apartheid in 1994.

The archbishop emeritus said the fireplace was a traditional gathering place in Africa and that anything from meat to vegetables could be put on a braai, a pastime enjoyed by South Africans of all races.

“We want to continue that tradition of all of us gathering on September 24, braaing for our heritage,” he said.  “The important thing is all of us on that one day again getting together and just enjoying the fact of being South Africans.”

The 78-year-old, affectionately known as “the Arch” will retire from public life on his birthday next month after years of speaking out against apartheid’s white minority rule and injustices around the world.  He will remain the patron of the braai campaign, which he joined in 2007.

“You can resign from an office job but you can never resign from being a braaier,” the campaign’s Jan Scannell told him in front of a banner featuring a large t-bone steak in the shape of Africa.

As I mentioned in a previous post, on Sunday Howzit-HongKong.com attended the South African Tourism Workshop at the Park Lane Hotel in Causeway Bay.

As always, not only was it yet another occasion where I got to meet an old university acquaintance totally by chance (I last saw him 20 years ago), but it was an opportunity to catch up with what is happening back home in terms of our country’s tourism industry.

My family and I make our annual Hong Kong summer trip home to the Western Cape and we always make a point of visiting as many places as we can fit in-between all the family commitments. Talk about being a tourist in one’s own country!

It was therefore a bonus that officials from the Cape Winelands District Municipality were part of the South African delegation at the Workshop.  My family home is located just outside the world-famous Stellenbosch Wine Route which, of course, is located within the Cape Winelands District.  As annual visitors to towns and amenities located in this District, I learned of many new offerings that has been developed in the region… some have been there for decades.

More about that later.

While researching (read: Google) the District, I came upon this informative series of video-clips on the Cape Winelands.  As the wine retail industry is growing exponentially here in Hong Kong, we thought that it would be a great idea to share these videos here on Howzit-Hong Kong.com:

Cape Wine Route, Episode 1

Cape Wine Route, Episode 2:

Cape Wine Route, Episode 3: