La Bamba Beef Chips

The Legend

Oh La Bamba Beef chips...they bring me back to my childhood and school years in Cape Town. I remember heading off to the shops after school with my friends to buy packets of La Bamba with a moerse bompie while we "skinnered" (gossiped) in the park. Let's face it, most coloured kids gorged themslevs on La Bamba back in the day. It was delicious and cheap. I remember a girl named Simone used to carry this huge red bag filled with La Bamba and mebos sweets around school selling it all at 50 bop a pop! She made her cash.


So what happened to La Bamba? Back in high school they suddenly stopped making it and it could found nowhere. Then the rumours started flying, one particular one was that there was a man who ate La Bamba everyday and then suddenly died. I had asked how, and apparently he just dropped dead. 

"I knew I should have not bought them wholesale at Makro...."

Autopsy reports claimed that the victim developed severe mental and physical addictive qualities over a space of intense chip eating over the course of 5 years.

Lol, I know it's not nice to laugh at, but it's pretty ridiculous...all over a packet of chips that contained ridiculous amounts of MSG, tartazine and artificial flavourants. Anyway, what 'doos' eats that stuff in copious amounts everyday?
Someone still tried to put a flame to one of those chips to see if it went pitch black to prove how bad it was, but I think any chip would have gone pitch black to an open flame.


Since La Bamba's demise, other crap have continued appearing on shelves in the local corner shops.....such as those horrendous Spookies.
The only longest standing chip that has stood strongly and probably has some form of health standard is Papa Bites. Oh yes, there was nothing like asking for a packet of "green onion papas please" at the tuck shop. Come now, we all had our favourite one.

What about prince charming?

There are so much colouring books and merchandise on the Disney princesses but the Disney princes don't appear anywhwere. I flipped through Disney Princesses activity book whole waiting in the check out line at Checkers one day, you see Princesses Ariel, Jasmine, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty (whose evil step mother used to be my fave as kid!) and Belle/Beauty and the beast chick.

Who said big sleeves and big hair were out?

Sadly they didn't include Nala the lion who hooked up with 'ol Simba. Simba was the Lion King of Africa, literally, but he was actually a good looking lion. Now before you think I'm into beastiality or something shit stupid like that, you have to admit he was a handsome lion. Most of those characters are based on their voice actors' faces so they do have anthropomorphic qualities amidst their hairy mugs. To be honest, Simba looked like a hot surfer dude, all anti-meat and killing of animals as he lived the 'alternative lifestyle' with that meerkat and warthog on the outskirts of the sahara. Let's face it, Simba's mane looks like a well maintained coif.

I just can't wait to be king.......

I think this guy has a likeness of what Simba could have looked like if he was human. This guy was not Simba's voice, it was actually Matthew Broderick. 
Most of the Disney Princes have all looked polished, buff and completely dumb. By dumb I mean they are not able to talk at all. Technically they are Ken dolls....nothing but an accessory.

Although, I won't lie Aladdin kind of broke your average prince charming by being the first non-white knight in shining armour. Plus, in his story he doesn't save the princess but she saves him as she becomes the sugar mommy and makes him rich. I thought Aladdin was good looking, and to be honest he does look like he could typically belong anywhere between Rylands and Grassy Park in Cape Town....you know the kind who drives his Citi Golf every Thursday to Galaxy and on Saturdays to Camps Bay and to the city to vang on kak.

Tell it to my heart....

I personally love this song by Taylor Dane. She was a big name in the 80's and well known for this killer track which came out in 1988 along with that cool video. She is still around, but not as big on the music scene as she used to be back in the day.
Talking about scenes, these days the only time she does get to make one is when she is spotted on the red carpet in some of the most atrocious outfits. Just 'cos your music career went doesn't mean your taste had to. This one here is her latest crime.

Clearly she has not let go of the fact that body con has come and gone for her. Here are some more previously bad f-ups by the great Dane:

And on a last note, seeing ow we reminiscing the good and bad, remember these 3 former heart throbs??

Here's a lil' clip to take you back to those primary school parties when the slow jams came on and Adnan "the Hitman" Harris was still something to talk about. 

Oh the yaaaad nommers!

Happy Eid Mubarak(-at)

Yip, last week was Eid Mubarak, and I missed out on all the good food while living here in Korea, where even just finding halaal food is quite hard. There are a few good Indian cuisine restaurants but nothing can compare to proper Cape Malay cooking from Cape Town.

I think Cape Town celebrates our mixed Asian culture with a far more unique taste, literally and figuratively. Regardless, if you are muslim or not most of us us Capetonians like our barakat! For those unenlightened ones, barakat is what you take home after a big party or family event. Food is an incredibly important part of an event for most of us Capetonians, especially if you invite the church people or holier than thou elders who will judge you on what you serve and if it complaces with their satisfaction levels.

Although, barakat is not something to be taken too lightly. Let's not deny it....we all have that one family member (mainly an aunty) who comes to all events with that empty 2 litre Country Fresh ice-cream bakkie in the Pick 'n Pay packet looking to swoop down on the leftovers in the kitchen and table before home time in the aim of not cooking lunch or dinner the next day. Ja, and there is "niks skaamte" for those people, for some reason they reckon it's their right I suppose. It's also just plain greediness.


Although, I won't keep myself above it as I once made a small barakat when I had a plus one invite to the prestigious Fleur de Cap awards in Cape Town not too long ago. These weren't your ordinary snacks and treats with Frutus, NikNaks and blocks of chocolate cake from a bakery factory from Grassy Park. It was off the hook insane. We talking about Lindt, those other fancy sweets you get at Clicks, Lindt chocolate fountains, Lindt ice creams, prawns al la mode, lamb and caviar. I restrained myself to just stashing as much of the Lindts in my bag. Plus, the crowd that was there probably didn't even understand that barakat even existed!

Donkies are a girl's best friend!

This morning I was surprised to find a whole pile of Korean Won pennies outside of my door. I don't know why, but the first thing I thought was that this must be all the coins I had used for Coke in the vending machine down the hall. Look....it was the morning, I don't deal with mornings too well.

Seeing all those donkies just reminded me of this picture I had seen in the Cape Argus a while ago of this local bergie (that's vagrant for you non-capetonians!) who dolled up as Marilyn Monroe. I know my gran could not get enough of this one.
The model's name is Angelique Hendricks and this idea was part of some ad campaign for promoting Cape Town City by showing the natural wonders our South Easterly winds can bring. Whatevs.


The poster had apparently went all over the world, and the article went on to how this stroke of fortune would go on to change this homeless woman's life. Just how did this change her life you may ask? Well, the big shots who came up with the ad said they gave her "a number of copies" of her own poster which she could go on to sell back on the streets herself. They added she could keep the "entire sale price" which was R100 at the time.
That's nice, why not send her back on the streets again to beg people to buy those posters. That's a major life change. Apparently, you could also get copies from someone from an office in Cape Town and they were going to set up a trust fund for her.


I don't know what has happened to ol' Angelique since then, and how far her R100s got her round the Cape. 

Let's just give a big AWEH Angelique
 and all the sold out bombshells!