Heritage Day: Your right to braai freedom

Braaing is a national sport, and it's easy to see why. It combines the South African love for talking crap and our innate disdain for the idea of toiling over a stove when it's so much easier and more pleasant to throw a carcass on a fire and wait for it to burn.

Heritage Day will see South Africans gathering around fires to enjoy our favourite game - and Jan Braai is on a mission to make sure everybody plays.

Born Jan Scannell, the braai master has traversed the country in a bid to blow life into our patriotic embers and get us celebrating our mutual South African heritage.

"We really just want South Africans to unite over our fires on Saturday," he said.

"Part of the aim is to shed light on South Africa's heritage - not just the well known bits."

His National Braai Tour, which has so far taken him from Cape Town to somewhere in and around Port Elizabeth, has given him some interesting insights. For instance: "Oddly, and I have no idea why, coastal people seem to braai thinner wors than people inland."

Inland folk also have a tendency to eat more pap , whereas their coastal brethren are more inclined to less heavy starches like rice. Perhaps the necessity of having a beach-ready body has something to do with it.

"In KwaZulu-Natal, they use more spices than in other parts of the country, which is always a great thing for me when I go there because I love spices," he added.

Like many other sports, braaing can sometimes be exclusionary. Anyone vegetarian has undoubtedly felt this as they chew on limp salad while everyone else wolfs down food that used to have a cute face.

Braai says this culinary apartheid is entirely unnecessary.

"You can definitely have a great vegetarian braai. Vegetables caramelise nicely when you cook them on a fire and taste even better than regular veg. Then you can even braai some fruit for dessert," he said.

For Jan Braai and his merry band of Heritage Day cheerleaders, there's one major reason for us to gather around a fire this Saturday - the company of fun friends, annoying family and some dry wood, celebrating what we love about each other.

JAN'S BEST BRAAI TIPS

Here are some of Jan Braai's top tips for hosting a successful braai this Heritage Day:

• Make sure you use dry wood.
• Ensure there's plenty of ice to keep the drinks cold and treat burn injuries.
• Because they spend their lives eating vegetables and the like, animals are naturally occurring vitamin pills, so don't be scared to eat lots of meat.
• Have all the pretty people stand next to the braai. The smoke will be attracted to them.
• If you have any doubts about the size of the fire, then it's probably not big enough.