Take a culinary tour of Namibia's capital — with a twist
Chef Jovanko Greyton takes you on a culinary tour in Namibia's capital Windhoek, exploring three of the city's most unique and unusual foods at his favorite local spots.
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00:00Namibia's capital, Vintook, has a vibrant local and street food scene ranging from grilled
00:07meat to salsa, signature spices.
00:09We're going to be sampling three of the more unusual foods today, and I think we should
00:13get right into it.
00:15So I'm making my way from three to one, and I'm here in the city to meet with the chef
00:18making some.
00:19Let's go check it out.
00:22Namibians love trotters, but Chef Helena's are really special.
00:25They're goat trotters.
00:26Put a bit of pepper and the tomato, cook it a bit.
00:32Ma'am Helena, you won't be putting in onions into this mixture?
00:35No, I will put later.
00:37So the onions are almost like, just so they have texture.
00:41Okay, perfect.
00:42The onions is coming.
00:45And there we have a chili for the bite.
00:48Just a little bit of a bite.
00:49A bit, not too much.
00:50I like a lot of chili.
00:53Then we throw the stock from the trotters.
00:56The dish bears witness to the value rural herders have always placed on goats, by using
01:00as much of the animal as possible.
01:03Very nice when we are hangover, very nice.
01:06So tell me, why do you like to use goat trotters as opposed to pig?
01:09It's a traditional, Namibian traditional, a lot of people, they like it.
01:14No, I'm excited, I'm excited.
01:15Let's try it.
01:16There isn't a lot of meat on this.
01:18It's mostly just cartilage.
01:20As you can see, you have this gelatin-like skin.
01:24So it's very smoky, and then it has a very soft, melting texture, almost like butter.
01:31They have this with the traditional pap, you have it with the sauce.
01:34With most of these traditional dishes, you eat this primarily with your hand.
01:37So I think what makes hers very different is the approach of using yellow pepper, and
01:42then in tomato.
01:43It's very different to how we usually see these kind of dishes being made.
01:46So she definitely has a winner here.
01:49So we're here in Karatura, which is a suburb of Vintup, and we're here to try out my number
01:53two, which is the Mupane worms, at the very popular Shetsu Market, which is also known
01:57as Single Quarters.
01:58Come with me, let's try it out.
01:59So I'm here at a stand selling Mupane worms.
02:05I love them, but I want to know, where do the pomelos come from, how is it made, what's
02:09the process?
02:10Here in Namibia, we get them from Etosha, only during wintertime.
02:13The ones that I have now, I ordered them from Angola.
02:17After it's picked from the tree, what's next?
02:20You have to dry them with salt for them not to get rotten.
02:22Okay, they dry them with salt for the bacteria.
02:24And because they get rotten so easily.
02:26Alright, so let's get some of that in a baki with a bit of kapana spice.
02:30Kapana spice is a very traditional, popular spice here, that really works well with the
02:34earthiness of the world.
02:35Get some of the spice on there, alright.
02:40I like it.
02:41Very nice, it's almost like popcorn, my favorite.
02:45The lighter ones are always the better ones.
02:47It has that earthy, like a dried mushroom, that was growing in a lot of mud.
02:52So if you look closely, you can see these tiny little spikes, right?
02:56But it's really dried out, so you don't feel it when you eat it.
02:59So I've had the mupane worms as a snack, I'm going to go chat to someone about having it
03:02as a stew.
03:03Let's see if this helps enhance the worms' bland flavor.
03:05Chef Dinela, how are you?
03:08I'm fine and you?
03:09I'm alright, I see you're busy there cleaning the mupane worms for the stew.
03:12You have to clean it nice, because there is a lot of scent there.
03:16When you wash it, you put it back again in the pot, and you add a little bit of water
03:21and a little bit of oil.
03:23You put your onions, your tomato, and Kampana spice.
03:27Kampana spice, okay.
03:28Yes.
03:29And you leave it now to boil.
03:3120 minutes.
03:32After 20 minutes, the mupane worms are rehydrated and soft.
03:35They're ready to serve, but this time with mahangupap, Namibia's traditional millet
03:39porridge.
03:41Mix it with a little worm on there, it's very interesting, it's very interesting, I
03:49love the flavors.
03:50I'm going to move on to my number one dish, let's go.
03:55So we're back in Kadetura.
03:56Thank you, Chef Ainu, for bringing me into your kitchen today.
03:59Oh, welcome.
04:00Although it does not look that unusual at this stage, you might be surprised by what
04:04my number one unusual food in Vintook is.
04:07I have garlic to kill the smell, you know.
04:10To kill the smell of the sheep's head?
04:11Yeah.
04:12And just to bring some nice flavor.
04:14I've never seen that before, you're mashing, pureeing it, yeah.
04:17Our head is already pre-cooked, just salt and water.
04:21All right.
04:22This is the tongue.
04:24You don't like the tongue?
04:26It's actually my favorite one.
04:28This is the rest of the head.
04:31Only use paprika and Kampana spice.
04:34So now, the water that you cooked with.
04:37It has all the cartilage from the head in the stock, so a good sheep stock.
04:40While we're waiting for this to cook, maybe you can explain to me the process of the sheep's
04:45head before, when it has the hair on.
04:48These people that put it in the fire, it's like kind of drying the hair off.
04:52That hair, like it's burning and it's black, and it's kind of sour if you taste.
04:58And if you do not clean it very well, the sauce will be also sour.
05:02I'm very excited to see how this is going to taste.
05:04The spring onion is just to garnish and to attract the customers.
05:09We serve our fat cake.
05:12Well, let's see how appetizing a sheep's head can be.
05:17Wow.
05:18And honestly, there's no better way to eat this, but with your hands.
05:23So here we have the canal to the ear.
05:26As you can see, it's very fatty.
05:27So as you see, this is the jaw, which is the teeth, and then the inside of the mouth.
05:33You can see the teeth.
05:34That's where the name smiley comes from.
05:36You don't eat that area.
05:37You just cut on the outside and around it.
05:39You have the red meat with the fat and the gelatin.
05:41It's the only part of the entire head that has this combination.
05:45You know, I'm a big fan of the tongue.
05:47So it's a, you have the soft texture.
05:50Oh, amazing.
05:52We're going to try and open this one to get inside of the brain.
05:55Sure.
05:56Dip it in some sauce, then you try it out.
05:58It's so velvety and creamy.
06:01All right.
06:02We've visited some of Ventoux's most amazing traditional spots, from the goat trotters
06:08to the dried and stewed Mupane worms, all the way down to my number one, which is Chef
06:12Aino's sheep head.
06:14If you're really adventurous, this is definitely something you need to try.
06:17It is 100% worth it.