John Platter's 1993 South African Wine Guide

Platter, Erica

JOHN & ERICA PLATTER

Durban Curry is a finalist in the 2015 World Gourmand Cookbook of the Year awards, in the last eight of the headline category: Best Book in the World. Chosen from entries from 205 countries. The grand winner to be announced in Yantai, China, in June 2015. Real-life back stories and vibrant documentary photographs set this bright and beautiful book apart from the crowd. It traces the origins, development and current place of a dish which sailed from Asia to South Africa 150 years ago, and has become a national culinary treasure, made, loved and celebrated by all communities, very different from the mother “kari” of India, reflecting the people, produce, and flavors of a new homeland. There is not only one Durban curry. There are hundreds of variations, and though red and hot are generally agreed attributes, there are more exceptions than rules in Durban curry-making. The authors have gone into the kitchens and cauldrons and pots of cooks both humble and grand; explored local markets and spice emporiums; coaxed family recipes and signature dishes from the best cooks on this stretch of the Indian Ocean coast; winkled out the history and secrets of Durban’s most famous fast-food invention, the Bunny Chow; tracked down the best traditional and modern “sides.” The book includes the easiest instructions for homemade spice, masala and chilli-powder mixes; the most piquant pickles and chutneys and achars; and the authors have nailed down legendary South African wine authority, John Platter, to suggest (some surprising) liquid accompaniments. This is a great reading as well as cooking book. A collection of people and recipes and pictures that make you smile – and want to head to the kitchen, or curl up on the couch. The dishes are simple to make, the ingredients easily found world-wide. South Africans “in exile”, all who hanker after the flavours of home: this is your book. Adventurous, enquiring foodies from anywhere, keen to explore keen to explore different flavours from unexpected places: this is your book.

Durban Curry: So Much of Flavour: People, Places & Secret Recipes

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Friedman, Clinton

Regional & International

Jacana Media

Turning off the beaten track, and avoiding the usual African cliches, the Platters carve out their own quirky road, illuminating people and places along the way. spitting and swallowing their way through Africa from top to toe, they follow the wine trail from Ethiopia, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco through Kenya and Tanzania, right down to Zimbabwe, South Africa, Madagascar, Reunion and Mauritius.

Africa Uncorked

Travel

PLATTER, JOHN

Africa

BPR Publishers

This is not just another wine book. It is the story of John and Erica's search for the courageous and passionate winemakers of the African continent. Sniffing, spitting and swallowing their way through 13 very different wine-growing countries.

Africa Uncorked: Travels in Extreme Wine Territory

Beverages & Wine

Kyle Cathie

Best-selling wine journalists John and Erica Platter explore the wines of Africa, from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe, in this one-of-a-kind travel and tasting book. While most readers will not have the opportunity to taste the wines of Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Reunion, and Mauritius, these two peripatetic South African wine writers share their sniffing, spitting, and swallowing experiences, allowing all to experience the unique wines of Africa.

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Wine Appreciation Guild

John and Erica Platter, the couple who helped bring South African wine into the main-stream with the country's first wine travel guide, have now fixed their trail-blazing tendencies on the rest of the continent with their remarkably original book, Africa Uncorked, Travels in Extreme Wine Territory. It doesn't meander through the manicured rows of the common wine locales-it's wine tasting with a machete and a typhoid shot. But that sort of thing has never dissuaded the Platter's. For wine journalists living in a place like Shaka's Rock KwaZulu-Natal, the rough road is "Polo" to their "Marco".Africa Uncorked hikes to the outer regions of wine: from, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, to the Indian Ocean Islands of Madagascar, Mauritius and Reunion; back onto the East African mainland to Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania; through Zimbabwe; and west to Namibia. They make interesting and unusual wine and food discoveries, bump into some extraordinary characters and pass through places that have been red-taped to tourists for decades. Unlike many wine travel narratives, the wine at the end of the road does not over shadow the road itself-the wine in the glass mixes with the collected impressions of the people and places along the way.The Platters also take a long look at the forces that have made the modern state of African wine what it is-from poverty to politics and religion-and represent them with the delicacy and insight of immediate experience. This book is a genuine first!

Double Storey

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Books by Platter, Erica