`Woza Friday, my darling!” went the chorus from a traditional song by migrant workers in the olden days. Emerging from their miserable underground life they only looked forward to two things – traditional food, and rest.
With no African eateries on the mines, they prepared their sumptuous African meals themselves. These included umgodu (tripe), samp, sheep’s or pig’s trotters and sheep’s heads, all cooked separately in three-legged African pots, in the hostels.
Today, African eateries flourish, serving African cuisine from every corner of the continent. Jo’burg city’s Southern African restaurants range from Nikki’s and Kofifi on the Newtown’s Cultural Precinct to Ekhaya in Yeoville. Berea, too, now has its own watering- hole-cum-food-hall called Ellington’s Place, which specialises in traditional food.
On my first visit to Ellington’s, on a buzzing Friday night, I knocked on the door of this well-kept turn-of-the- century house, only to be ushered into the restaurant itself through the kitchen. One gets to smell the food before even glancing at the menu.
In the well-furnished restaurant, a mix- masala of old and modern jazz blares at one, while posters of jazz maestros from Satchmo to Duke Ellington himself peer down at one.
Although the menu includes tripe, samp, sheep’s and pig’s trotters, it is s’kobho, or sheep’s head, that is the speciality. According to owner Fitzroy Ngcukane, sheep’s heads are in great demand and preparing them is a mission. They are delivered frozen, then dried on the washing line in the restaurant’s back yard. A flame torch is used to burn off the hair, after which a kitchen hand scrapes the head with steel wool and gets rid of the brains. Finally, the head is served in halves, with the hapless creature’s tongue sticking out. It costs R10.
Great s’kobho eaters have a way of dealing with the matter in hand. First they eat the tongue, then the ear, then the flesh in the orbit of the eye. Finally one is left picking at the bones of the cheek.
In a fast-changing world, there is a certain joy in visiting an old-fashioned African eaterie like Ellington’s Place. It could be a living rendition of Satchmo’s words when he singsWhat a Wonderful World.