Hey Soutie - SEND BILTONG !
With more Madeirans living in South Africa than there is on the island of Madeira itself it is a small wonder why a "klein stuk biltong" is so hard to find in Madeira...

Every weekend we had the option of putting up a vleisbraai (a South African barbecue) depending on the weather. Maybe, next to the swimming pool, or at a picnic spot somewhere in the veld. Often at the dam..., Hartebeespoort, or even Bon Accord, just any dam; as long as we "got" a swim alongside the pap and vleis (the South African maize/corn meal dish with a juicy tomato/onion sauce on hot charcoal grilled barbecue flamed beefs, boerewors, or chicken). But, as every South African knows, I'd be lying to you if I told you we did this every weekend. Perhaps, in a more truthful vein, once every 4 weeks. In the meantime we had to contend with an alternative that was in no way less a great tradition of the South African culinary scene: biltong and droewors (literally "dry sausage")...

Pieces of biltong hanging dry or cut into slices - a mouthwatering picture for many South Africans. Picture courtesy of the Africa International Shopping Mall

If we couldn't eat it minutes after it was cooked from its raw state we devoured it in its conserved and dry form as strips of meat or cured dry beef sausages (boerewors).

Now, thousands of miles away from the hot South Africa sun, what do we do with our weekends when we cannot find an ideal version of the great braaivleis weekend. There aren't any dams in Madeira; there is only a salty sea with rocky beaches - which does not help you too much when you have had your fourth Castle Lager. The humidity is much higher than in S.A.: dry meat goes green soon if you leave it somewhere too long...