I am a newbie. This is a pretty interesting community and I would like to join. I am still reading around and enjoying the good stuff.

Hi Bridge and welcome.  It is good that you finally got here.

You will find a lot of good information here about Australia, camping and camp cooking.

I think all the folk here would be interested in your Potjie cooking.


Derek

Welcome from me also.

When it doubt take it that we are joking or teasing, some just dont seem to understand our somewhat twisted humour.

I saw a half hour cooking show once on African cooking.  They used lots of spices and I enjoy trying out different things.  Also at a camper/trailer group someone cooked a sausage that was curled up like a snake and it was very tasty.

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Camping is very popular in Africa, atleast in my country. People camp for various reasons. It could be because of a long distance journey on foot (very common in Africa), hunting (I started camping with my grandpa at 12), study trips, tours and sad to say war sometimes is another reason. These must sound very different from your kind of camping in Australia.

In my country most people won't actually cook during camping. They would simply heat up something (yams, cocoyams, plantains, cassava, etc) that had been cooked and packaged in a special way at home and then eat with roast meat, fish, etc caught in the neighbourhood. Cookouts are very popular especially when we camp during hunting expeditions.

Very different, isn't it?

Welcome Bridge.
Please tell us more about your country....I might learn something first hand.

Muzz

---

In Africa now we no longer refer to specific countries within the continent. The AU (African Union) is leading Africa towards a new USA - one nation - one people.

If it's just my country you want to know something about, well it's Cameroon. It's quite a small country in terms of population (16million) but you might have heard of it especially if you are a football fan.

The name Cameroon originated from the portuguese phrase "rio de cameroes"  meaning "river of prawns."
Come to think of it, we are talking about camping here, that's where the portuguese explorers first camped. Running out of food they started looking around and found this river rich in prawns and other fish. It became their permanent camp. The name changed to "kamerun" under the germans and then to "Cameroon / Cameroun" under the British and the French.

The world fact book will tell you more but to sum it all Cameroon is usually referred to as "Africa in miniature." It's the only country in Africa where you can have a full taste of what Africa from the North to the South and East to West is, in aspects like weather, scenery, food, etc.
I hope this bit gives you an idea.

Do you have any traditional recipes for your country.


Derek

I am sure I can come up with something with time.

Here is a good link to the realities out there for other curious friends here.

http://www.saharanadventure.com/map.html

Thanks for the interesting web site I spent an hour on it tonight. I will pass it on to one of my Grandchildren (ya you guys one of the 16) as I know he is studying  Africa in school right now
Vicky from Canada

Reading about the people in Cameroon, it says they love football and beer, most Aussies would fit right in or vice versa.
BTW welcome.

pd

If I remember correctly Bridge himself drinks Guinness.  ;D ;D ;D ;D

G'day Bridge and Welcome. Can't wait to try some African tucker. Might have to find a suitable substitute for Kudu though :)

Regards Skip

Hi Bridge

Now, what I noticed was that you said was small country with only 16 million population.

Ok, Australia, for all its size has just 20 million

& Canada, my country has just 33 million people.

This gives us much less clout than our soutern neighbors, the United States, with their 301 million folks.

:)

Vicky wrote on May 13^th, 2008 at 3:01pm:

Thanks for the interesting web site I spent an hour on it tonight. I will pass it on to one of my Grandchildren (ya you guys one of the 16) as I know he is studying  Africa in school right now Vicky from Canada

Vicky, glad to know your grand child is taking African studies. It's one of those things we criticized when we were in college. We read very little about our own continent. History was all about Europe, Asia and the US. Geography was about Sweden, Norway, Japan, Australia, etc. If I were to go back to school I would study just stuff about Africa. Pass on this link to him. It has a more elaborate list of links called Africa on the web. http://bridgeafrik.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_weblinks&Itemid=23

Dodger, Derek is right. My favourite beer is the Irish brand Guinness. I got addicted to it as young as 18 in spite of the numerous local brands in Cameroon. We have brands like: 33 export (the oldest beer brand in Cameroon), Millenium, Beaufort, Castel, Kadji, etc. In Cameroon a meal served is considered incomplete if there is no beer. We have an old joke: 'the best remedy for hangover is a beer.' How strong is Australian beer?

Skiproosel, I promise an African recipe before weekend.

Little_Kopit, the thing is, after living in Asia for this long I have grown so used to overpopulation that I look at the population of my country to be so small. Cameroon could just be one city in China. In Africa we refer to Nigeria as 'the China of Africa' because of their population 112million atleast, and their business attitude of pouring goods into neighbouring countries. ;D I hope there is no Nigerian here to shoot me. They are our neighbours to the west.
I think Australia must have a lot of uninhabited land. Is it allowed to buy land in Australia? It's one of those things Africans are thinking about putting and end to now. Foreigners have bought too much land in Africa.

Cheers to everyone!

How long have you been living in Asia?

Derek wrote on May 14^th, 2008 at 12:49am:

How long have you been living in Asia?

5years, it's as hard to leave as to stay here.

G'day Bridge I am partial to abit of Biltong or Jerky & so set about making a Biltong Box.
The first happy snap gives an overall idea of the size.

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee181/hughesmeister/IMG_1430.jpg


Next one shows the internal layout. I have made the box fly proof and I spray the bench or whatever with surface spray to keep the ants out.

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee181/hughesmeister/IMG_1426.jpg


This snap shows the bottom drip board which I wrap in aluminium foil to keep the drips from staining everything.

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee181/hughesmeister/IMG_1427.jpg

I have wired in a Batten Holder underneath the drip pan with a 60W light bulb it generates enough heat to dry the Biltong in about 3 days. In my neck of the woods the humidity can play hell with the drying process and can induce mould growth. This light/heat source fixes these problems.

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee181/hughesmeister/IMG_1428.jpg

I found an old refrigerator rack and fitted it to the top of the box & with the use of heavy duty paper clips pulled apart make mini meat hooks that work well. I can get a full rump or topside in here without any problems. I just hang the slices from the rack so they will not touch. I get around 15 full length slices of meat done at a time. I haven't got any at the moment so I need to get some Coriander Seeds and knock some up :)

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee181/hughesmeister/IMG_1429.jpg

Have a nice day :)
Skip

Hey that looks the goods Skip,
Have you tried the marinade I sugested in the Jerky post? I think that would work well,
you could also put a little smoke generator in the bottom (pan of alcohol with a tray of wood chips over it)

Mick.

Great art really!

What's the weight like?

Mick, I haven't made any for a while but will buy a full Rump or Topside when they come on special and will definatelty  try your recipe, the smoke would be an excellent idea to try. When making Biltong the meat slices are buried in salt for a few hours to remove excess moisture. I will post a few snaps here when I make some (soon).

Bridge the box is light I reckon about 7KG's tops! :)

Regards Skip

Cool, I think 7kgs is not bad given that it could fit at the back of a van.
Good work!