Staying with all things good is Kitta Burger from Plaaskombuis on the farm Steenbokfontein i.e. the farm where the Saturday markets (on the last Saturday of the month) are held as well.
Kitta Burger is quite a celebrity. She’s been featured on an episode of Plaaskombuis on VIA (DSTV channel 147) where she was interviewed by Elma Postma whilst showing Elma and the audience how to make proper Namaqualand boerekos. She has also been featured on Pasella.
Kitta is from a farm called Steenbokfontein, a stone’s throw from the Atlantic Ocean, in the district of Lambertsbaai. And yes, she has a real farm kitchen – in the original farm house built in 1864 – with an old Dover stove which is the envy of everyone who sets eyes on it. It takes some long and hard thinking to come up with something to top the sensory enjoyment of a Dover coal stove burning, spreading its heat through the room and listening to the sound of a pot, or a few pots, bubbling on top.
Kitta’s Namaqualand food ranges from melt-in-your-month lamb braised in the pot, sago pudding, flavoursome stews, syrupy koeksisters, golden aniseed sweet potatoes – a dish she has become known for – and scones the way your grandmother used to make them. In fact, some of Kitta’s recipes she has inherited from her mother and her grandmother. This is wholesome, comforting boerekos that you do not find easily anywhere else. These days people all over the world refer to food made in this unhurried style as slow food.
It was more than 25 years ago that Kitta decided to start a food business, so to speak, on the farm. At that stage she couldn’t even bake a scone! This is hard to believe. Maybe she’s embellished the story a bit, one thinks. Especially when you are munching on a skaapwagtersny of her home-baked bread. Add Kitta’s creamy mussel soup – another recipe that she has become famous for – to that and you have a meal fit for a king.
Bookings for Kitta se Plaaskombuis are essential. You will want to make the next booking for the first weekend available in your diary thereafter in order to be able to return again – as soon as possible that is.