Bringing a taste of traditional fare

FINE DRY: Singita Fine Foods owner Claudia Armstrong with one of the specialised biltong dryers they use. PHOTO/FILE

Biltong, droewors and boerewors - they are not items found on too many product lists but they form the delicious heart of what is being created at Singita Fine Foods in Hastings.

They are a fine slice of South African fare and they reflect the foods that Claudia Armstrong and her family grew up with in the Transvaal and Northern Cape where her parents farmed.

"We were taught how to make traditional boerewors and biltong."

After moving to live in New Zealand, and settling in the Bay, they realised they could not source those sort of traditional foods here so made a simple decision.

"We decided to make our own."

Biltong is dried, cured meat, droewors is a snack food based on spiced boerewors sausage and yes, the boerewors is a beef-based sausage with delicious spices.

Claudia said she wanted to share with Kiwis the many foods they grew up with and after making them and getting great feedback from friends, as well as inquiries from specialty stores, decided to go into commercial business. They get the best quality meat from local suppliers and import fine spices.

Creating fine fare takes a lot of time, and the right equipment, which meant sourcing driers for the meat. Heat is traditional in itself for preserving meat, given the hot, dry climate of South Africa.

The results have been a great hit at the Farmers Markets and now through their shop in St Aubyn St East.

Also check out the spinach and feta and spicy mango and chakalaka sausages, and on a hot day a cold beer or wine with a few slices of biltong or droewors can't be better.