Yogin Devan
Baa, baa, black sheep
Have you any trotters?
No, sir, no, sir
All gone to Kuwait
Provided the EFF does not object to the colour of the sheep, the adapted ditty is intended to deliberately downplay a grave gastronomic situation facing the community - there is a dire shortage of sheep trotters at local butcheries.
Tens of thousands of live sheep have been shipped in recent months to Kuwait and other Middle Eastern countries, thus creating a critical shortage of offal products.
South Africa and Australia are among several countries that have found a new market in the Middle East for live sheep. Apparently, the sheep are transported live because Arab customers want to ensure the beasts are slaughtered in accordance with religious customs that conform to the requirements of their halaal certifications.
That is all well and good, except according to local butchery owners, many of the sheep aren’t slaughtered in those customer nations at all. The majority of the sheep are put into feedlots to recover from their transportation ordeals and fattened up ready for resale.
After a couple of months, they are placed on the Middle Eastern market to be sold at massive profits to third countries.
While the shenanigans of capital opportunists in the Middle East should ordinarily have little interest for the people in Chatsworth and Phoenix, depriving them of their trotters is an entirely different matter.
And this is what has got their goat. You see, the South Indian fasting month of Purtassi - when those who are devout avoid non-vegetarian food, alcohol and smoking - commences on September 17 and runs until October 16. This year things get a bit tough because Navaratri - the nine-day festival that pays obeisance to Hindu goddesses - follows straight after Purtassi, from October 17 to 24, and it also entails fasting.
Some people may suffer nightmares of Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s ban on the sale of alcohol and cigarettes.
In the run-up to the long period of abstinence from eating meat, many people crave offal such as sheep trotters, tripe and head to sustain them during the fast. However, for the past few months, sheep offal items, especially trotters, have been in short supply or even non-existent.
Amroshan Naicker, head of the 56-year-old B Nagiah’s Mutton Market chain of butcheries, said it was a crying shame that the government had allowed live sheep to be exported to Middle East countries, causing a scarcity of mutton, lamb and offal products locally.
He said the price of all grades of mutton and lamb had skyrocketed, higher than at Christmas time, because of the unavailability of carcasses to meet the demand.
Naicker has lamented the fact that there is no umbrella body to articulate the problems experienced by retail butchers and to lobby the government to regulate against the export of sheep.
I vaguely recall there was an association of Indian butchers many years ago. Whatever has become of it? Perhaps it is time to revive the organisation to speak on behalf of lovers of aattukaal (trotters in Tamil or paya in Hindi) before the taste is gone forever.
About 30 years ago, a group of live poultry hawkers who plied their trade door to door in predominantly Indian areas brought the giant Tongaat Group to its knees. The company had an egg production unit. The older chickens that had lived out their egg-laying years needed to be killed to make way for young, new layers.
However, rather than culling (killing) the chickens, a ready market was found among the Indian community.
These chickens, referred to as culls, were tougher birds and were suited to the Indian cooking pot. Hence, they were sold off to the poultry hawkers, bringing in extra money for the company.
Before long, the company became greedy and upped the price of the culls. The hawkers objected. Led by the brave Shunmugam Pather, of Silverglen, they decided to boycott the weekly purchase of thousands of birds from the company. This created a problem in the production line - no new laying birds could be brought in if the older ones were not disposed of.
And there was the additional cost of feeding the culls.
Eventually, the company realised its folly and dropped the price of culls.
A similar tactic is needed to teach greedy local sheep farmers - with an eye on increased profits to be made in the Middle East markets - a lesson.
Trotters - like sheep head - is a timeless culinary classic and was once a staple dish for many low-income, large families who could not afford to get protein frequently from mutton or lamb. Nowadays, you can choose to purchase cleaned trotters that are almost ready for the pot, if you can get them, that is.
There was a time not too many years ago when there was no choice and you had to singe the wool on a dozen sheep trotters with red hot flat rods heated in a bawla (brazier) made from a paraffin container.
When I was growing up, I do not recall anybody saying they did not eat sheep tripe, trotters or head. Yet today, the thought of eating offal makes the younger generation queasy.
I believe that when we kill an animal for eating, out of respect we owe it to that animal to eat all of it, not just parts of it.
It makes no sense to me whatsoever (or it is perhaps sheer snobbishness) that we choose to eat some parts of the animal and not others. Fundamentally, there is no magical difference between any cut of meat. It is only people’s pre-conceived ideas about what is “good” and “bad” that stops them from even trying things that aren’t normal.
Chatsworth-born-and-bred Deena Naidoo, winner of South Africa’s first MasterChef TV competition, beams with pride and delight when cooking offal.
He has the knack of elevating the humblest ingredients with meticulous but adventurous spicy flavours.
His sheep trotters with sugar bean curry is to die for, say those who have had the good fortune to relish it. While sheep trotters have become hen’s teeth, I wish blessings upon those observing the Purtassi fast.
Devan is a media consultant and social commentator. Reach him on: [email protected]
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