Low GI Hamburgers- vegetarian or otherwise

We went, last night, to the Five Flies Restaurant, in Keerom Street, in the city Centre. They have being doing this birthday celebration thing, where prices are taken back 10 years - so your whole 3 course meal costs under R100 - which is fairly amazing. (You need to book weeks in advance, and the restaurant is completely full).

The place has a slightly snooty reputation and, being opposite the High Court and near the financial district of Cape Town, is obviously well positioned.

The dishes were a little sparse, but adequate and the clientele the usual "Cairp Tahn" fare of 99.5% white and 0.5% coloured. Black Africans - 0%

The waitrons were ALL white, except for the Maitre D - who was black, but with a pronounced former model C (read white) school accent. In this day and age, I think this is utterly unacceptable. How is it possible that an institution like this, situated where it is, is staffed ONLY by white waitrons?

Likewise, I had tea the other day with an ex colleague from Gauteng, in a place called Bravura in Greenpoint. (It used to be Melissa's, but now seems to have changed hands). Again, exactly the same thing. ONLY white waitrons! I had brought along some hand painted Kelp Vuvuzelas to show my friend. She asked one of the waitors what he thought of them. He had never heard of a Vuvuzela, in the first place, and had no idea what they might be used for, in the second. My friend was so astonished that after the tea, she asked a second waiter whether he knew what a Vuvuzela was. He not only had never head of one, but couldn't even pronounce the word!

These are the kind of goons given preferential racial employment within spitting distance of the Greenpoint stadium - which is one of the venues where the 2010 FIFA World Cup is going to be played for the first time on African soil, in less then a year's time! This means, basically, that they have never opened a newspaper, and never even so much as glanced at a soccer match on television. Because, of course, in South Africa, Soccer is regarded as a black sport and Rugby a white sport and ne'er the twain shall meet.

Of course, there is a history to this all. The apartheid state funded and supported Rugby and tried to keep black people out of it. And soccer, which became the sport black people followed and played, was naturally completely inadequately resourced. But one would not expect the Greenpoint white waitron goons to know this. I would not be surprised if they had never heard of apartheid!

Several of the people at my table at Five Flies ordered the Lamb Hamburger, and were very pleased with it. The potato chips left a bit to be desired, but the Hamburger itself was very good.

Here is a really good recipe for a low GI healthy hamburger patty (veg or otherwise). It's from the amazing Eating for sustained energy 1, by Gabi Steenkamp and Liesbet Delport - works really well and is fabulous. You need to do the BBQ sauce as well to get all the GI values right -The end product is really great!

Hamburger patties and BBQ sauce

1 x 410 g tin brown or sugar beans drained
1T vinegar
1T Worcester Sauce
½ t crushed garlic
200g ostrich mince or 1 cup dry soya mince reconstituted
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 slice brown bread crumbed
1 cup oat bran
1t beef stock powder
1t Marmite
2 t dried mixed herbs
1t dry parsley
Black pepper
1t salt
1 egg

BBQ sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 large apple, finely grated
¼ t crushed garlic
1 t olive oil
4T tomato sauce
1 tomato finely chopped
½ cup water
4t brown sugar
2t Worcester sauce
1t salt
2t mustard

Process together beans, vinegar, Worcester Sauce and garlic. Add mince, onion, herbs, breadcrumbs, oatbran, beef stock, pepper and egg and mix lightly to a firm consistency. Form into meatballs. Fry in olive oil at a fairly low heat.

BBQ sauce

Saute onion and garlic in the oil until transparent. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes