Red hot

Colourful is a word that will, from now on, always be synonymous with salsa for me. So too tasty, quick and easy, spicy, hot, fresh, fruity, versatile and Andrew Mendes, if he wasn't already.

Andrew is an exceptional chef; I've witnessed his mastery on a weekly basis for the last few months, so I knew that his salsa recipes would be great. Little did I know that they would be magnificent. It takes a genius to blend as many flavours as he did and end up with a dish that has an overall taste and texture but at the same time still retains the many individual tastes within that. Andrew did that, dish after dish, over the two days we spent cooking and shooting.

He created a salsa for almost every occasion. Little plum tomatoes, fresh basil, finely chopped red onion and bacon served with a fresh sesame seed French loaf made an exquisite breakfast. Then there was a fresh summery salsa of roasted nuts, red onions, red peppers, jalapeno's and rocket leaves served in a bowl surrounded with cheesy nachos; an ideal dish to enjoy around a table of friends while playing a board game or just chatting, although the salsa is sure to shut even the most prolix person up for at least a moment or two. And for a touch of elegance Andrew braised chicken breasts in lime and lemon juice with salt and black pepper and served that with a boiled butternut, avo and sweet and sour jalapeno vinaigrette. 

All the different ingredients made a superb palette of colours, the presentation gave height and the light depth, ensuring that I was never without photographic inspiration. I've developed two of the three films I shot and I'm quite happy with the results; but somehow I think that the last roll will round things off nicely for me, in terms of variety that is. I collect it tomorrow. 

So what now? Once I get the last roll back, I'll start the tedious task of editing the photos, which I hope Cindy will help me with (She has a brilliant eye for what works and what doesn't).

Congruently I'll be working through the recipes and making my final adjustments to them before handing them over to Andrew for him to do his final edits. Then we'll start working on the presentation of the book, which recipes go where, which photos to use, side notes, etc. Oh, then there's still an article to write about Andrew and his salsa's as well as a photo shoot of himself. And much more I'm sure; but that's enough work to keep us going for quite a while yet.

Hasta la vista, muchachos!

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Beautiful in its time!

Everything is made beautiful in its time. I love this line of words. The hope held in them has often lifted my spirits and sounded a clear prophetic call to my soul. And now again I find this line woven into the fabric of my everyday life, giving me hope for a better future.

Not that I'm kneeling at some rotten nadir in my life. Quite the contrary, life is filled with expectation. But regarding my temporary setback last week, with our failed shoot, I see how time sometimes holds us back only to catapult us into our destiny at the proper moment.

Its a truth in this situation too. I've been enlightened to that. I spent the last week mulling through all Andrew's delectable recipes, fixing the copy and making notes regarding things that seem unclear, and somehow, through this process, the candle of inspiration began to burn brighter in me. Now I can taste the salsa's, can feel the intensity of the chilis on the tip of my tongue and can see Van Gogh's colours splashed over the crisp white pages through teary eyes in ways that I had never imagined before. Its become palpably vivid!

The cover of the book, the forward, the recipes, the glossary; they're all there, in my mind's eye.

The project has gone from beautiful moth to magnificent butterfly. Armed with that canvass, I go shoot tomorrow, not needing to be inspired but left only with the pleasure to arrange time, place and space into the beautiful thing it is.

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New lands

A man should travel

its in his soul to find new

lands to make his home

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Shooting blanks.

Shoot! Shoot a chef, at work in his flat on his balcony! That's what I was meant to be doing today, as part of our grandiose plan to put together a book of hot and not so hot salsa recipes. But those plans began to unravel yesterday when a small minority of taxi drivers took to the streets armed with guns and real live bullets, not blanks, and bricks, stones, fire and whatever else they could wrap their greedy, bloody hands with.

So instead of him cooking up a storm and me photographing the process, I'm writing this and he's most probably washing dishes at the restaurant he is executive chef at, because who in their right mind would want to risk their lives for the meagre salary of a dishwasher?

 And these riots aren't happening  for the first time. And like the times before, they have no right to carry on the way they do! No right! There, I've said it, adding my voice to a million others who are now sick and tired of being held captive by these rogues. Every time they carry on like this, they bring the entire South African economy to her bruised knees. And we're sick of it! Sick of them killing our innocents; our babies, our children, the sick and the elderly, our mothers and fathers.

They want our business and they want the government to rubber-stamp and favour them for the foreign business soon coming to our shores, when the FIFA World Cup honours us as a nation. But the government, quite rightly so, seems to be intent on favouring a Rapid Bus Transport System, like in Brazil, to transport our guests to and fro between stadiums and the many beautiful sights in and around hosting cities. We want them to feel cared for in our country and safe on our roads, to create a sustainable tourism environment.

Just turn back the pages of recent South African history and you will soon see why these people have lost the government's and the peoples  vote of confidence. Innocent people shot dead, burnt alive in their cars, stoned, people threatened with their and their children's lives if they dared go to work and businesses crippled because of the resultant unstable labour force. And more, bus drivers and drivers of other taxi's, under the governance of other associations, shot because they are seen to be in competition with them, roads blocked and people unable to make it to work, cars and private property smashed and businesses looted.

An acquaintance of mine was reduced to tears, crying uncontrollably for days the last time these taxi gremlins went on a rampage. They broke into his laundry cleaning shop, stole whatever they could and then smashed every one of his expensive washing machines, dryers, irons and whatever else was there that they couldn't carry. And who do you think paid for that? He did and we are, in increased insurance costs and resultant service delivery costs and in fear!

And that's them at the worst of times! What about in the best of times? Ask anyone in any city or town in South Africa who the worst drivers are and they will all tell you, without a milliseconds hesitation that it's the taxi drivers. They slip in and out of lanes, push other drivers off the road, skip robots, drive as fast as they can without regard for speed limits or the safety of their passengers or other road users, stop when and where they please, mostly without indicating their intent to do so and in doing these things, causing many accidents and road deaths.

Are these the actions of people who have the interest of fellow citizens at heart? Then how can they be trusted with the lives of guests if they can't even tend to their brothers and sisters?Are these the actions of responsible businessmen and woman or of good citizens? Then how can they be trusted with very valuable and much needed foreign investment?

So we the people say no to them. And to the government we say: do not give in to them and do not give them the business they are killing for. It's time for the nations voice to ring out in the halls of government and for those people charged with the safe keeping of our children to stand up and add their voice; and to exert the power at their disposal to stamp out this killing, thievery and thuggery! Once and for all.

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Wellsprings

Blow Holy Spirit

blow, through demoralized lives

wellsprings of joy rise!

Photo taken and edited by Cindy Wittstock

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Gunning for the shoot!

I'm gunning for the shoot on Thursday, there's so much to do but not enough time in the day to get it all done. But none the less, progress is being made. 

Andrew has drawn up a chart with all the different types of  chilies, tomatoes and onions. And working through Andrew's recipes I can see why that could be very helpful. There are so many different chilies alone. But wow, don't those salsa's seem incredibly delicious. My mouth waters just thinking about them. I'm not sure if that's because they're going to be so tasty or because I'm afraid that they'll burn the heck out of my mouth! But I'll have to hang on until Thursday to answer that question.

I mailed the contract to Andrew this morning for him to have a look at, and if he is satisfied I will print it and so we can sign the agreement. And then we'll legally be in business. And besides that I'm working through the recipes, ordering, editing and spicing up the copy. 

That's all I have time for now, I'm off to get ready for my night job. I waiter at a restaurant in Camps Bay, the same one Andrew is the Executive Chef at.

Hasta la vista

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Sexy salsa

One of the things I love about being a freelance writer and photographer is the variety the work affords one. You never quite know what you will be doing from one day to the next. With that said, I'm sure you're now thinking,"I wonder what he is up to?"

I won't hold you in suspense any longer then: I'm embarking on my first book publishing experience. And not a book of poetry nor a novel, nor even a book of photographs, as many of you who do know me might have guessed; but a book of salsa's!

YUM!

That's right! A book of hot, sexy, salsa's made by chef extraordinaire Andrew Mendes. Mendes is the executive chef at a restaurant in Camps Bay, Cape Town. He has a passion for food that could fill volumes of books, not to mention many hungry belly's. But to start off with, he has chosen to share his original salsa recipe's with the world. Hot, cold, light, very hot, summer, winter, he has a recipe for every occasion.

"Salsa's are easy to make and are the perfect dish to snack on before dinner, or while having a braai; and they're complete meals on their own. They're even brilliant eaten on a hot slice of toast for breakfast," Mendes asserts.

Go to http://www.andrewmendes.blogspot.com to follow his journey and perhaps get a sneak preview of one of his many yum salsa's. Stand back Jamie Oliver.

And on the flip-side of his culinary journey is the journey to publish his creativity. And this being my first brush with publishing, I thought it might make for some interesting following. What will I have to do? How will I go about it? Who will need to get involved and will anyone be willing to help? How much will it cost? These are just some of the anomalies we're facing at the moment.

So what has been done so far? For one, we've realized the potential success we can achieve by working together - Andrew creating beautiful salsa's and me photographing the process and writing about it. That was the catalyst to arrange a brainstorming session at La Vie, over a couple of coffees of course, to plot our course.

I've drawn up a rudimentary contract (a lawyer would cost thousands),  between the two of us, just outlining what I would do and what Andrew would do. It still needs to be finalized and signed though.

As far as marketing is concerned, I've already set up a GMAIL account for him and the blogsite mentioned above, the www.andrewmendes.blogspot.com site, that was done by me. I mention that with pride because I'm a computer dotard. And hidden in the pages is an analytics account tracking the visitors to the site. Man, blogging is brilliant. 

Anyhow, back to the marketing. I've interviewed Andrew to find out what makes him tick and what makes a salsa hot or not! And I'm now writing an article about that, in the hope of getting it published in various newspapers and magazines. But the big day is on Thursday. That's when we'll be making the recipes in a makeshift kitchen on his balcony and giving them the final tasting test to make sure that they are perfect. And I'll be documenting this process on film. Yes, I mean still film - I'm still stuck in the dark ages. 

And then it'll be over to designing the book. We have what we think is a brilliant design theme for the cover and the content but then we'll need to arrange it all in an appealing manner. And that's where our skills fail us. But we have a plan of action - big sister Debby, who has a brilliant eye for design. Please say yes to helping us Debs!

And then, who knows what then - find an agent, find a publisher, find a printer! We'll just have to take it step by step. 

Anyway, follow this blog and his to find out how we are doing!

 

 

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Earth

    Earth lies like a still 

  lover 'neath approaching mate

    cracking in the heat

 

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Green window, white wall

I've just updated my Photography portfolio

on my web site. Please click on this link

to go there:

http://www.clintonwittstock.co.za

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Cutting night

Waiting for the sun

to fall into a new day

open eye, cut night

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