I have always followed award-winning South African singer-songwriter, Zahara closely but from afar; and it was fantastic to finally listen to her up-close and personal during the recent Samsung Africa Forum in Cape Town, South Africa. She wowed guests at the Cape Town City Hall during the media dinner and gala with her big voice, big talent, and well- big hair! As I enjoyed her soulful acoustic performance, I couldn’t help but tweet in search of confirmation that indeed all the afro sitting on her head was real. LOL!
After satisfying my curiosity, I then carried on with the fun lined-up for the evening which also included fantastic jazz performances from the band, Breakfast Included; and of course the delicious cuisine – yes I do love my food! Speaking about food, I started my treat with a slice of ostrich and beef biltong. For those who have no idea what that is, Biltong is a kind of cured meat that originated in South Africa. Many different types of meat are used to produce it, ranging from beef through game meats to fillets of ostrich from commercial farms. After that came some o’dourves and some wine and plenty of fruit juices – after all, we were in The Western Cape!
And there was more food on the menu. For starters, I had rocket, watercress and caramelized pears, gorgonzola and toasted walnut salad with balsamic reduction. The main course was oven roast chicken breast supreme with a reduced tarragon cream, new potatoes and fine green beans with lemon zest and butter. And for dessert, a tasty frangipane apple tart with honey and star anise apricots, served with mascarpone.
As I enjoyed the food, I filled my head with hopes of winning some Samsung Gadgets in the lucky draw. I knew I had not tweeted enough about the forum thanks to the numerous challenges of using a BlackBerry phone (key being low battery most of the time) and I didn’t have a traditional attire in my luggage so I had rule myself out of those competitions. But soon the winner of best traditional attire was announced and the top 3 people with the most social media activity followed suit. And by the close of the evening, all 8 winners in the lucky draw were announced; and no I wasn’t included!
Ameyaw Debrah and Bafana Bafana star Mark fish
Biltong courtesy of Biltong Queen
The Breakfast Included band
Zahara rocking her ‘fro’
Danny K presents prize for best traitional attire to Bayero Agabi
Well I had to settle for the Samsung gift box which contained a Diana Carmichael cheese board. I don’t eat that much cheese so I decided to give it to my mum as a gift. I surely enjoyed my short stay in Cape Town and needless to say, I came back home more convinced about Samsung. Now show me the money and let’s get me some Samsung devices! HAHAHA
