Low Caste Cuisine

In 1999 while Sandile Dikeni was editor of Top of the Times, he asked me to write a cooking column that would be different from what the Cape Times audience would usually expect — this after I cooked pork chops for dinner (as in the first recipe).
Low Caste Cuisine generated far more reader interest than any of the columns on our leader page (including my own!) I had a lot of fun writing these, and that helped me realise that I was bored with writing about politics. That to some extent, helped fuel my decision to quit the Cape Times in October 1999.
Low Caste Cuisine had a short but glorious run of ten weeks. The recipes are timeless.
Get a kick out of a hot dish: A bout with Thai-style red curry
Mao Tse-Tung — him of the long march to freedom and later of the cultural revolution — was born in China’s Hunan province. Hunan is famous for its extremely spicy food and tobacco, and the honourable chairman smoked heavily all his life… but I digress.
I’m not able to find Hunan cuisine anywhere on this continent which drives me to despair as Hunan food is as similar to Szechuan or Cantonese as mieliepap is to couscous.