It’s always been with great confusion that I receive comments and questions about why African people always order well-done meat.
My latest chat was with a Zimbabwean waiter at Fishmonger in Illovo, Johannesburg. He asked whether I was sure that I wanted my steak medium rare. I confirmed this and asked why he questioned my choice.
He said: “African people generally order well-done meat. Moreover, all women always say they do not want to see blood.”
We went on to chat about customers’ meat preparation preferences.
This set me on a trail. I rang the City of Johannesburg Speaker of Council Constance Bontle Bapela and asked how she liked her meat done. Well done, she concurred.
I asked whether she ate meat rare at home. She said: “Yes, of course. It’s fresh and I particularly like the liver soft and rare off the fire.”
Cape Town-based Welile Eric Botha, a renowned wine sommelier, said he liked his steak medium rare and I am certain he has been in the industry long enough to hear the chefs moan about well-done meat orders.
Durbanite Ncami Sithole, a senior research and food development manager, said she liked her steak well done. When I probed, she said: “I like my meat dead so I can eat it!”
I laughed and we talked about izoso, which, of course, Ncami enjoys as much as the rest of us when we have family gatherings.
Izoso is the choice parts — such as fillet and liver of the cow after it has just been slaughtered — that men (the slaughterers) select to braai quickly and serve on izithebe (boards) to people according to their age and gender.
From the time I was a child this was my favourite part of an occasion. The meat is served just salted and very rare. I remember trips to the butchery with my father where he would sample the raw wors so that he could taste the seasoning and herbs and choose the best before buying it.
On chatting further with African people, including Bapela, about why they order well-done meat at restaurants and eat rare when they have family events, everyone agreed that at home the family would have bought the cow from a farm they had travelled to and slaughtered it themselves — they know the provenance of the meat.
They are all for hung meat because most people slaughter midweek for a weekend celebration. But they do not trust the source of meat at restaurants and would rather have the meat well done in the hope of killing bacteria.
It makes for an interesting thought around farm to fork, which is nothing new to African folks. Organic is a new word to many people today but it is an old practice to those who grew up in rural areas and continue to grow their own produce in their backyards after moving to the townships.
If restaurants want all their patrons to enjoy meat prepared to its optimum, they need to educate people about a number of things: tell them the source of the meat and when the animal was slaughtered, have an open-plan kitchen so that customers can see the food being prepared, ensure staff are trained to handle food in the correct way, and make sure certificates are available.