MEAT from exotic animals such as crocodile, kudu and springbok is not often to be found on dinner plates around Driffield.
But all that could soon change when a new South African food store opens in Market Walk on Monday.
Entrepreneur Tony Schneeberger has spent the past year carrying out market research in preparation for the launch of Braaiman - a shop and mail order company specialising in the best food and drink on offer from the Rainbow Nation.
Chief among the products on sale at Braaiman will be a South African food favourite known as biltong - cured, air dried, seasoned strips of tasty
boneless meat.
It is a great South African pastime to watch a rugby match while cutting wafer thin slices from a chunk of biltong and Tony is hoping he can increase the popularity of this pure protein snack in Britain.
It could easily become a great pub snack alternative to peanuts or pork scratchings and Tony has gone to great lengths to make sure that the biltong he makes is the genuine article.
For, at great expense, he has imported a special drying cabinet for the meat from Cape Town.
He uses the finest Aberdeen Angus beef to create the biltong but, before it is hung, it is first cut into strips and marinated in a rich, secret mixture of ingredients, including herbs and spices, salt and vinegar.
Tony now lives in Driffield with his parents Joan and Eric but he was brought up and has lived most of his life in Rhodesia and South Africa, where his father was a civil engineer and his mother was a nursing sister and where he acquired his love of rich and spicy sunshine food.
In recent years, many people have moved back to Britain from South Africa and the surrounding countries in the wake of troubled times and political unrest in places such as Zimbabwe.
Tony believes there is a gap in the market to serve these people with food and drink from their former homelands.
But he also believes there is the opportunity to introduce the British to a wide range of new tastes and products, such as droewors, a distinct type of dry cured sausage which he will be making on site in Driffield alongside biltong.
Tony says that he will be investing in vacuum packing equipment so that he can make his snacks attractive to hikers and sportsmen, although they are also idea for diabetics.
Tony is fluent in English and Africaans and over the past year he has made numerous trips to South Africa to source the specialist equipment he uses, along with the fine wines he will be selling, such Klein Constantia, Neethlingshof and Fairview - none of which are easily available in this country.
And,of course, he has taken great care in sourcing his exotic meat, including crocodile, kudu, blesbok, ostrich venison and wild boar.
All of these products will be available via mail order at his website www.braaiman.com but he is also hoping that local people will take advantage of the wide variety of goods on offer and, to try and tempt them, he will be creating barbecue packs during the summer, which will include a little of everything, including the temptingly named sosaties or kebabs, as we would call them.
"I have worked hard towards the opening of this shop", said Tony. "I hope it will bring a little South African sunshine to Driffield and I hope that lots of local people will pop in and sample my food and drink."

story courtesy of the Driffield Times - www.driffieldtoday.co.uk

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