The exploitation of food prices

I have become lazy in the kitchen.

I have not cooked for a long time but yesterday I got a hankering to cook. It must be remembered that I am “on” the Banting Diet. But I have become a cheater of late. The lure of fizzy cool drinks, the odd chocolate and potato crisps has proved too great for me. I bow my head in shame.

However, my wife and I have re-resolved to rededicate ourselves anew. With steely resolve in her eyes, a new path of righteous Banting dieting is to be followed. A monthly diet program has been found and printed off the internet. I have promised not to dip into my supplies of chocolates and chips at the office. Much water is to be drunk. Obediently I am following the path, and I have already been to the loo several times. I also feel slightly nauseous from the volume of water I have drunk, but onward to the brighter goal of less me!

With this in mind and also after having eaten a bread roll made from Almond Flour at a braai on the weekend. I decided I would make burgers for us on “Worker’s Day”. So off I went shopping, armed with my wife’s credit card (heh heh; save my money). Firstly, I popped into Checkers to find a “bargain price” of R120 for 300 grams. What the hell? It is normally about R150 I believe. With agony in my miserly heart, I recklessly decided to buy the stuff. I also bought the equivalent quantity of some or other kind of “husk foodstuff” called ground psyllium husk powder for about R60, and then some sesame seed also for the same ghastly price of about R60. I then bought 4 burger patties for about R50.

I went to a “hyper shop” where I got a bargain pineapple for a mere R5, now that is cheap. I also bought some regular rolls for the girls as I can’t afford to waste the “Banting” rolls on the girls – too expensive!

At about 6pm I start cooking, the family are mightily impressed, even if a little concerned. The concern comes from the speed of the cook (me). Finally, I get to use my fancy food processor that dear Steemit helped me acquire. I mix the dough; I call my wife as the dough is supposed to look like playdough but it doesn’t to me. She assures me that the consistency IS right. Into the oven for an hour. The remaining precious Almond Flour is just over half of what I started with.

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(I admit my onion slices lack finesse)

(keep the place clean, I am supposed to be helping, not adding work)

(add a little sugar and butter to caramelise)

Then I fry onions and caramelise them. While onions are cooking, I try cut the pineapple. Now it is the most amusing thing when I must cut a pineapple. I don’t want to cut too much off so I always make a mess by leaving too much behind. I give up and trusty wife of many skills comes and cuts “the Gordonian Knot”, removing just enough of the skin. Eventually the onions are done and I do the burger patties but as you all know, what once filled a pan when raw, is only just over half a pan when cooked.

(the R5 pineapple!)

(big at start)

(small at finish)

The poor family commences eating at about 8.30pm, two and a half hours after I started. But they seem to enjoy it. They are surprised at how nice the rolls look. Of course the kids have to test the “almond” rolls. Not too impressed with the flavour I think.

How on earth does my wife cook so quickly? Dinner never takes more than half an hour to prepare when she does it. I think it will be quite a while before I make another attempt, just as well as I don’t know if they can survive such a long wait on too regular a basis. I have been trying to keep the place clean as I go along but the kitchen still looks like a bomb has hit it after we have created the burgers.

(the rolls are a lot smaller than they look, but are nice)

(the final product - a lot of effort for something so small)

My accounting brain is in a quandary and greatly bothered by the costs. The almond flour bread rolls cost more than the beef burger patties, and those were at about R80 per kilogram. Michele and I were still “peckish” after the burger, so we had another almond flour roll with cheese. Banting is certainly not a cheap lifestyle. I better get my act together and shed those unnecessary kilograms, my wallet cannot sustain this lifestyle.

The costs of food have escalated in South Africa and outstripped the annual wage increases. The basic wage starts off at R200 per day. How can a human being be expected to survive off that? Don’t forget that this wage is after fierce negotiations between the Government and Industry over a period of more than 20 years. This struggle for survival of the poor black people has been continuing for well over a hundred years.

I remember my Dad telling me that during the Second World War, if people were caught adding higher margins to the prices of food, they would be arrested for profiteering. The same ethics are no longer applied in this country. The cost in general of a loaf of bread (800 grams) is about R10. I think the pensions of the old people is about R1600 per month.

In the Black communities, many of the old Goggo’s (grannies) use their pensions to raise grandkids.

It must be a bitter pill for them to swallow when they see how many billions ex-president Zuma and his Indian sponsors, (the Guptas), have stolen from this country. But no different to Mugabe of Zimbabwe. The self-professed Leaders of the Poorest of the Poor live lives of opulence. Weddings costing many hundreds of thousands of Rands, blue light brigades, private jets and the finest of clothing. All shamelessly shown on the local television channels, as State television presenters gush over various government luminaries and others related by favourably awarded tenders.

The ANC government still has a great deal of goodwill among the masses but their patience is starting to wear out. Let’s hold thumbs that they will get their act together for the sake of all the people of this land.