If I were to hazard a guess, I’d estimate that I’ve lost about 15-20 lbs (7-9 kg) since moving to South Africa.

Trust me, I’ve seen photos of me from when I arrived and, well, to say I was developing a gut would be an understatement. Yet almost 10 months later, here I am tightening my belt another notch and finding that the clothes that were a bit tight when I got here now have a bit more breathing room.

And all this has gone on while I’m eating and drinking my way through the Western Cape!

The food here is just better…in variety and quality…than the food in the US. It’s far less processed and pumped full of growth hormones.

(That’s very obvious when you see the size of whole chickens here…)

Typically in the US you get the big 3: beef, pork, chicken. Here in SA, we get those plus:

• Ostrich (which is a red meat, like steak)

• Lamb

• Venison (Springbok, Kudu)

…and other meats that would be considered ‘exotic’ in the US. In our house, we eat an obscene amount of ostrich and lamb. Why you ask?

It’s amazingly inexpensive.

Let’s compare, shall we?

In the US, Lamb Chops run about $13-15/lb (R450-525/kg). Here, for the same thing, it runs about $4.80-5.80/lb (R170-200/kg)…and even that’s not really true because it’s almost always on sale.
Ostrich steaks in the US? About $20-30/lb (R700-1100/kg). Here, $2-3/lb (R100-120/kg).

Both of those are less expensive than the big 3 so it’s no wonder why ostrich and lamb are the two major mainstays of our diet.

Ostrich is great because it’s a lean red meat. We do steaks, filets, burgers, and even use ground ostrich in our spaghetti sauce.

With all we eat (and we eat a lot) and now my eating 3 meals a day, I’m surprised I’ve dropped weight…but I’m not complaining.

Oh, what can I say about wine? I’ll have to do a whole post, or series of posts, on the wine farms and pairings we’ve been to in the past 10 months.

South Africans drink wine…a lot of wine…and now so do I. I was never a big wine fan prior to moving here as I found it harsh and it usually gave me heartburn.

That’s because I was drinking plonk, or US wine.

Here in South Africa, wine is a way of life. From a chilled Chenin Blanc on a warm day to a nice glass of Pinotage by the fire in the winter, there’s a wine for every occasion.

Confession: There’s currently over 100 bottles of wine in the house. Thankfully, Kim says when you have that many you’re officially a wine collector!

I don’t drink nearly as much beer as I used to… I may have 1 or 2 every few weeks. Instead my drinking now consists of low calorie, carb-free booze like:

• Gin

• Scotch

• Whisky (and Whiskey)

• Bourbon

• Wine

There’s rarely a day that goes by where we’re not having a glass or two of wine or a couple of cocktails.

It’s just… life here.

So…what does this mean?

Dunno, really. I don’t think there’s anything profound for me to say about this aside from the food and wine here in South Africa makes the same in the US look like a week-old McDonald’s cheeseburger and flat soda.

Yeah, I said what I said.

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