Fish

If you follow our blog regularly, you’ll know that here at N1, in addition to providing the best quality meat Cape Town has to offer, along with a wide variety of frozen foods and pastries, we also love trivia, and we often share some of our favourite fun facts on a vast number of topics.

Another festive season is upon us, and as we are wont to do at the end of every year, we look back at all the articles that went up in 2019 and we snuffle out our five favourite foodie knowledge nuggets.

1. Berry Berry Good for You – The Benefits of Superfood Berries

World Food Day is celebrated every year around the globe on 16 October in honour of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in 1945. Each year the celebration is themed and this year the focus is on Healthy Diets for a #ZeroHunger World!

Saturday, 9 February, is World Pizza Day and if you’re like the majority of us, when you hear the word ‘pizza’ you probably start salivating. Surely one of the world’s most ubiquitous and much-loved foods, pizza is to modern day pop culture what cucumber sandwiches must have been to the Victorians in the 1800s.

Another year has begun and along with iconic new year’s events like the dropping of the ball on Times Square or celebrating with fireworks in Sydney Harbour, there are a whole host of foods which have become synonymous with ushering in a new year around the globe.

The Comrades Marathon is a South African institution, as much part of our history as mining and braaing. Run for the first time more than 90 years ago and 89 km long, it is considered the world’s largest and oldest ultramarathon. If you’ve ever wondered where the name Comrades comes from, it was inspired by the League of Comrades of the Great War.

It’s nearly Easter and that means time to stock up on pickled fish, braai meat (remember N1 meat suppliers Cape Town and Johannesburg for the best in high-quality Halaal certified meat) and hot cross buns as we pack cars and prepare to spend time with family and friends. While here in South Africa we all have our own Easter traditions, it’s always interesting to see how other countries embrace Easter around the globe.

Easter in Europe

We all know how essential iron is – it helps to circulate oxygen throughout our body; it makes other proteins which are necessary for respiration and energy metabolism; and it assists in optimising our immune system. Around 70% of our body’s iron can be found in haemoglobin and myoglobin – the former is found in red blood cells, the latter in muscles.

Winter is officially upon us, and while some of us love the cold and chilly season, for many of us the change in season is not always something to celebrate. Winter woollies, crackling fires and hearty stews might be enough to keep some comfortably cruising through the cold months, but for many others it’s a more stressful time as seasonal affective disorder (SAD) sets in. Also known as winter depression, SAD is known to affect those sensitive to light – or the lack thereof, as is the case on grey and dreary winter days.

Easter is around the corner and for many of us that means savouring hot cross buns and pickled fish. The practise of eating fish at Easter has its roots in religious history – it’s the food Jesus was offered after His resurrection, and over time it seems that pickled fish became a well-established tradition as it allowed followers to prepare the dish well in advance of Easter weekend, thereby honouring the religious holidays and not working on Good Friday or Easter Sunday.