Armed with their aprons and braai tongs, VOC’s men proved they are more than just big talkers when they were crowned the ‘Festival of Flavours braai masters’ on Heritage Day in Saturday, 24 September. VOC and People’s Post went neck against neck in a braai competition at the event to celebrate Braai Day, which marked on Heritage Day.

It was a double whammy for VOC, as earlier in the day, Saturday Live duo Moegamat Zain Majiet and Fadiel Toefy took on the staff at Fairfield Meat Hyper for a braai-off as well. They too took home the first prize, with lots of laughter and hilarious moment in between.

But it was the team at Vangate Mall that outdid themselves. The VOC team stood tall and proud as they showed off their culinary skills to a crowd of spectators cheering them on.

“If there’s one thing we at VOC know how to do…that is to eat. So when it comes to lekker braai, we had to pull out the stops,” said VOC sales manager Hassiem Bastra.

Each team consisted of three people who were solely responsible for the braai-ing aspect and one person who was responsible for marinating the meat. Each team chose one member to participate in the trolley dash where they could gather ingredients from Pick ‘n Pay which lasted about 10-15 minutes.

The teams had to work with the same basic ingredients and two secret ingredients that consisted of peanut butter and vanilla essence. The secret ingredients was selected by the Vangate Mall marketing team to add a bit of a twist to the traditional braai-ing method and as a challenge to the participating teams.

Each team had to braai sticky and hot chicken wings and drumsticks for the judging panel which consisted of People’s Post wditor Cecilia Hume and VOC’s Malika Noordien amongst others.
With only two hours to braai, VOC’s Nur Morton, the ‘queen of marinade’ came up with the winning combination.

“I made a dip to go with the chicken by adding a teaspoon of vinegar, some tabasco sauce, ginger spice, orange juice and peanut butter. I also used that very dip and added it to the existing marinade,” Morton explains.

The guys responsible for the braai were Tauriq Dante, Rafiek Dante and Fasiegh Petersen.
The judges had no idea who braaied as the dishes were simply marked A and B. Each dish was judged on creativity, presentation and taste.

The VOC team took home the title and received a R500 voucher towards a charity of their choice, namely Mustadafin Foundation, as well as three hampers for the participants.

The Festival of Flavours was a huge success and the involvement from sponsors was admirable. Sponsors included Pick N Pay, Zebros, Coca Cola, Vodacom, VOCfm, Peoples post and Vangate Mall, AMC, Highlite, Ocean basket, Nandos and Spur Vangate.

Marketing manager, Gouwa Waja said they plan to have an annual Festival of Flavours at Vangate Mall. VOC