Mother Tongue

As Mother’s Day approaches, Lesego Semenya – a.k.a. Les Da Chef – remembers a dish he associates with his late mom, Gloria. Ting ya mabele is the kind of recipe that’s passed down by mothers to their children

- Lesego Semenya

One of the things I always do when introducing myself to people is mentioning that I was born and raised in Soweto. Growing up in South Africa’s largest and most vibrant township was a mixture of school, playing in the street or in the nearby veld, watching the weekly convoys of family gatherings and getting dressed up for church. Having visitors on Sundays was an excuse for my mom, Gloria, to cook up a storm, and this recipe is from those days.

Ting became synonymous with special occasions, but my mother would also always make it in winter. Because of its pungent aroma when it’s fermenting, she’d wake up an hour before we had to get up for school (she was a teacher and principal) and start cooking the sour porridge.

We came to associate the darkness of winter mornings with ting and my mom making sure we ate it before we left. As kids we didn’t know how she made it, so when she wasn’t around sometimes my brother would try to replicate it by mixing vinegar into his breakfast porridge.