It's a great day for a spitbraai!

According to the braaiwords dictionary, a "spitbraai" is "a form of braaing that involves a big piece of meat on rotary action shaft which evenly distributes heat over the meat that you’re braaing." But that definition does not do justice to the marvel of modern machinery we encountered at our first spitbraai.

Vince has been wanting to try a spitbraai ever since we moved to South Africa. You can rent a machine and do it yourself. Or you can even hire an entire service who will come to your house and do it for you. But after tending several day long pig roast luaus at our Jersey shore houses, that would never do for Vince. He is a hands-on braai guy.

While the pig is the typical animal in the US to cook at a luau, it is the lamb that is the headliner at a South African spitbraai. Luckily it was in someone else's backyard. But Vince insisted that we come early to take notes.

This spitbraai was owned by the father of Sean, our braaimaster of the day. Sean's father had even improved on the design adding clamps, counterweights and a rib spreader to his purchased spitbraai.

It was quite an impressive contraption! (The potatoes underneath were a nice touch too.)

Vince helped Sean remove the meat which practically fell off the bone.

Lou and Serge were ready for clean-up duty.

Happy dogs!











Vince informed me that the next time he is reunited with his welding machine in Missouri where it resides in our friend Ric's barn, he is building his own spitbraai. You will not get any argument from Lou & Serge!

a toast by the bride's daughter

And the reason for the spitbraai in the first place? A celebration in Johannesburg, SA for the recent marriage in Australia of these two crazy kids. An Australian (guess which one!) and an Ohio (USA) Buckeye who met in Istanbul, Turkey. Congratulations!