Hi,

In June of 2011 Anne Catherine, our little Emma and I came to Switzerland and moved into an apartment on my parents in law’s farm Es-Bons near Aubonne, VD. Anne went back to her profession as a physiotherapist, and I spent the year between winding down my business in South Africa and having a wonderful time with my baby daughter.

But despite Switzerland being a great place to live in and the family here supporting us tremendously, I still had my difficult, homesick days.

On days like that I wanted nothing more than a proper pepper steak pie, a samosa, or even better - a lekker stukkie rump steak and boerewors met pap en sous, en ’n vuur wat nie presies om 15:06 aangesteek hoef te word nie.

I quickly learnt that although Coop stocks Mrs Balls, you can’t just run out to the closest garage and buy a pie, or to the butcher for boerewors or steak with a piece of fat around the edge. Polenta just does not taste the same as braaipap, and forget about koeksisters, melkert or beskuit - just see the faces when you try to find karringmelk or kremetart to make your own with!

In any case, I found a South African owned pub (Bulls in Gland) that serves Castle Lager and Klipdrift en Coke (met baie ys ja), figured out how to watch SA sports through www.livetv.ru, found a miller to grind my mealies, and started to experiment with making boerewors.

My Swiss version of boerewors, which is essentially the local Saucisse a rôtir spiced the boerewors way turned out to be a huge favourite with the locals, and is much cheaper than the pure beef version that we are so used to.

On the back of the wors followed melktert, koeksisters, sausage rolls, various pies and bobotie - all home-made according to original family recipes.

One of the old wine cellars here turned out to be the perfect place for hanging biltong, and I am sure that it is cool enough in there even to make some in summer - I will post the result of this experiment.

So there I was, smugly dunking my beskuit in a mug of coffee for breakfast and washing down my pap en wors with a Klip and Coke around my own little (wood) fire, when I realized that the most important ingredient was still missing - good company!

I am really not a Facebook person, and braaiing with my boet and my dad on Skype did not do it for me either.

Maar ‘n boer maak ‘n plan, and every now and then we stick a couple of tables and chairs up in the barn, make big pot of pap and sauce, bake a potbrood or three, add a bit of salad, druk a cd in the hi-fi and invite all fellow ex-countrymen to our fire for a lekker, old fashioned family kuier.

Now life is almost perfect

Hey Reon,
This post makes me want to be:
1. South African
2. Living near Aubonne

Sounds like you are enjoying life!

Cheers,
Kelly

Howz it boet Reon! Like they say "once you go black you will never go back". Exactly my sentiments about Aftican continent and all peculiarities of life down there that I miss, which makes me homesick. Lekker boerie'n'pap met chakalaka, potjie... Proper braai with klippies'n'coke... Wave your flag... good company... Bring it on...

Hoezit!! Boet the next time the Zurich boertjies decide to tan a tjop I'll make sure to PM you. It's well worth the effort of coming to Zurich. Tell you what, you bring some of your home made billies up and sell it to us and you'll pay for your trip in no time.

ja meneer...kon dit nie beter vertel het nie...

send us an invite and we can have a taste test...i was so desperate, i once watched an entire bok match over skype on my dads tv with him - it was fun...hilarious, but also tragic in a way!

enjoy...and drop us a line if you need a taster/spekskieter/tarentaal kolletjie prater...

I a m indeed a happy man

Yebo!
Thanx for the welcome
I like that bit under your message that says "this is what we do" - do you type it everytime or is their a way to add it like a signature? I looked around the tools but could not find anything obvious...

Welcome.

My parents have a fairly impressive family recipe book which include - among other things - bourewors and koeksisters. Many of my extended family live in RSA, and the culture is very familiar to me - although one of my biggest disappointments is that my parents (who both spoke Afrikaans) never spoke it in our household.

Before I left Germany, I noticed that Metro Group (which runs Real, Galeria Kaufhof, et cetera) had started cutting down on their South African range of foods - they axed Mrs. Balls' chutney, for starters - but they got rid of a number of items. So I took to buying online. I found a decent retailer called Saymo - but there are others.

Incidentally, Hansa Keks (available from places like Ostversand) make a good substitute for Marie biscuits, if you're just dying to make a pudding.

I'll be waiting for that invite

The biltong plan is an excellent one - made a good batch + drywors earlier in spring, but it's all gone already. Busy concoting a biltong dryer to use in summer, and will have a new lot ready by the end of the month - aiming to do a road trip from here to Bern, Zurich, Basel and back last weekend of July - just let me know how many kilos needed - I think best to email me directly on reon@wors.ch?

Thanx for the welcome and marie biscuit advice boet

Ayoba! Shape, Shape!

You are welcome boet!

To add something to your signature you go to: "Control Panel" and under "Settings and Options" you select "Edit Signature" and you can write there anything you wish including URL links. Once saved it will always appear in your every post.

Lekker Dag!

Dankie - but I do not have an option there that says Edit Signature

It has something to do with limited profile. Then I guess you need to keep on posting and receiving rep points until your status will change from newbie into junior member with more privileges So on and do forth, then the options should appear. I'm still surprised that you cannot edit full profile though. Contact admin and fire bullets

Lovely intro Reon
.... my you made that sound very tasty !
Welcome to Switzerland and Aubonne.

Thank you Sky from that special place

Hello - do any of you saffers know where I can buy some boerewors? In Luzern/Zurich area? I do not want to go through the effort of creating my own..

Castle Hansa on the other hand

For everyone that loves braais watch below(women please refrain from it as the video advises)

oops here's the clip:

I make and deliver - seem my website www.wors.ch and email me on reon@wors.ch if you like.