Gourmet SA

Food to Watch Cricket By

By: The Cobbler King

Two of my great life-long passions are food and cricket. Not, it must be said, that interminably boring, over hyped and under-skilled 20:20 variety, but rather the original Test format and the more recent (but still acceptable) 50 over format. Here in South Africa we are deep into cricket season. In fact, we have had a considerable amount of it already – beating England on English turf 2-1 in the Tests (getting thrashed in the one days - but we can ignore that), followed by the crushing of the oddly untalented Australians in both Tests and the one days in Australia. Now we are looking forward to some similar action in South Africa.

With the impending local games, thoughts turn – as they should - to what will be prepared and eaten at these contests. Now I am not a great believer in the staid food traditions - you know the sort: red wine only with meat, starter, main and pudding in strict sequence, only buying vegetables in season etc. But, I am a bit of a purist when it comes to cricket food or food to watch cricket by. You get some people in South Africa who have to braai at a cricket game; it somehow serves a basic need in their psyches to grill and eat vast quantities of boerewors or steak on mostly boiling hot days and often in some discomfort. I am not knocking it, but to me it does not embellish the languid nature of watching a game unfold over 1, or even 5 days.

I really enjoyed the story I believe about Rafael Benitez the Liverpool football club coach, who when asked if he had ever watched cricket said that he could never explain to his wife that he was going to watch a game and only pitch up at home again 5 days later, she just wouldn’t understand. I digress but it does talk to the special nature of the event and the often idiosyncratic approach to feeding the body and the soul that is at the heart of my perfect cricket food.

A friend of mine swears by pork pies, to him they are an absolute essential at a game. It is a nicely packaged food that you can eat cold and requires, perhaps, in addition only some good mustard to thoroughly enjoy. I, however, always start off with the sandwich: the building blocks of the perfect menu.

The Italian sandwich is one such example of perfection, though it does require some preparation beforehand. This takes the form of oven grilling some Mediterranean vegetables typically red and green peppers, courgettes and properly prepared aubergines in some good cold pressed olive oil with rock salt and a little garlic. Slice a fresh or a defrosted ciabatta bread (Lupos do great pannini and ciabatta) and spread the still hot vegetables onto the bread, add more oil and some sliced buffalo mozzarella cheese, replace the top of the bread and compress. When cool, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge with some weight on it. Next day take out and slice crossways into thick slices – absolutely delicious with some raw carrots, cucumber, baby tomatoes and celery crudities.

Before I get to other good examples of the perfect sandwich, let me explain some important and necessary principles. The sandwich has to be all inclusive. You must be able to watch the game and eat without spattering yourself or those around you with, for example, beetroot, which it has to be said is great in a sandwich but very difficult to handle. The second important principle is that as, very often, you don’t have much space in which to operate, the sandwich should emerge from storage with minimal care required before being consumed, which is why I tend to rule out salad sandwiches and any sandwich which can go soggy in transit for example egg and tomato.

BLT’s are good as are ham and cheese, lettuce and smoked salmon, roast meat and pickles and one cannot forget that beloved English institution cucumber sandwiches. Go easy on anything with too much garlic or chilli. I love both, but they can have severe anti social repercussions and if you are in a large crowd and let’s say - for some unfathomable reason - the Australians are winning, tempers will fray and you don’t want any unfortunate bodily displacements to be blamed on you, do you?

Boiled eggs are an absolute must to accompany your choice of sandwich. Boil between 8-10 minutes and no more as blue eggs are a no-no. This brings me to the third principle of food to watch cricket by – ensure that your food is attractive. Comments will be passed and opinions will be formed around you and in any good cricket crowd your place in society will rapidly be gauged by your clothing and your choice and presentation of food. The clothing story is a subject for another day, but the food and other simplistic skills like your ability to clap and say good shot at the right time are very important. As the day wears on and the Charles Glass effect kicks in this principle tends to lose its importance, but for the first 2-3 hours it is critical.

You need to add good firm fruits, some Woolies crisps and maybe some biscuits to your hamper. This should keep you away from the insidious siren songs of slap chips, grease burgers, horrogs (hotdogs) and pies. All of which smell much better than they actually taste.

Beer at cricket is one of nature’s great gifts. You cannot take your own, so it is a good idea to take along a youngster of drinking age who for the price of a pint is prepared to fight his or her way through the huge crowds who seem to pass most of the game outside the ground in the bar to fetch the amber nectar on a regular basis. Wine is only available in a bottle form where the great and good gather in the various hosted environments. However, good wines are available in “box” form that if kept cool in your cooler would be very acceptable with the rest of the meal. Hot coffee in one of those really smooth steel metal containers, particularly if it is espresso is OTT but great.

If it rains you might have to eat everything in a much shorter period, so be careful not to take too much. As a general rule of thumb, enough food for three people for two meals will be enough for two healthy adults on cricket day.

The time for giving the Australians another snot klap has arrived … so here is to good watching and good eating.