'NUM NUM' TIME

A local trying out a Mum Mum outside Fiezel's Pastry shop                                                                                         Zam

What on earth is Num Num, you may well ask?

Well, it seems as though they are becoming a rather fashionable foraged fruit and I fully understand why. They are eye scrunchingly tart, yet delicious. Here is South Africa they are also called a Natal Plumb, but their proper name is Carissa and now that I have got my Num Num goggles on, I just seem to notice them everywhere in our city.

Edgy stuff, foraging above the N2                                                                                                                                      Zam

Mum Mum war wound  Zam

Take care; they come with a health warning. If you manage to get past the long angry thorns to grab a few, then you must eat only the ripe ones, because the green fruits are poisonous, dangerously so according to Wikipedia. More than once have I had an iffy stomach from over-enthusiastic foraging.

I am working on a project with the prestigious Monte Nelson Hotel, where I take guests foraging in the city, and afterwards we go back to the hotel, where executive chef Rudi Liebenberg prepares a meal with our foraged bounty and serves it to the lucky guests, right there in the kitchen, at the ‘Chefs Table'. 

Anyhow, a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to chomp a wedge of mouth puckeringly yummy Num Num Tarte Tatin that Vicky the head pastry chef made. After two messy attempts a while back, I was again inspired to give a Tatin another crack, but first I had to mission a few hundred meters down the road to pluck a few Num Nums, then it was a short trot in the other direction to buy a little puff pasty from Fiezel at his authentic Pastry shop.  (Really good buttery pastry, I tell you)

I was thrilled with this, my first successful Tarte Tatin                                                                                                       Me

So armed with a non-stick pan, butter, sugar, pastry, Num Nums and Vicky’s method in my memory bank, I made my first successful Tarte Tatin. I must say I jolly pleased with the result, as were Fiezel and his staff. Yeah for us…

 Mum Mums, Natal Plumbs or Carissa                                                                                                                                     Zam