It's beginning to look a lot like April!

That tingly sense of excitement that happens for children on Christmas eve.... the building anticipation of a pregnant mothers approaching due date.... the ball aching tedious kind of excitement that happens when you wait for something you bought on the internet... to me, all of these feel like waiting in line at the dentist compared to the feeling I have in early April... IT'S TASTING SEASON!!

Every year, literally TENS of people apply to trade at bushfire. The majority of these are potential food traders. Applications close at the start of April, and then the next phase of applications begins. The applicants whose application forms show the most promise are invited to an interview here at House on Fire. For these interviews, traders are encouraged to bring a sample of their menu for us to test the quality of. This simple act of quality control adds a new sense of meaning to my life, for about a month. During this periods I get presented with variety of dishes to feed my temporarily inflated sense of sense worth. A particular highlight last year was a lovely lady who made curry. The 'sample' she brought not only fed three people for two meals, but was by far the best curry I have had since arriving in Swaziland. This is exactly the kind of thing we are looking for at bushfire, and although I do enjoy it, it is an important part of the selection procedure.

Hosting traders at the festival without tasting their food is like having artists on the stage who's music you haven't listened to. Despite the obvious professional benefits that these sampling sessions have, there are still a few people who have the opinion that the sessions are a way of me having a nice free lunch donated by generous traders. This assumption is about 5% accurate. It is almost completely professional, and by not paying for it, I feel it helps with maintaining objectivity. In addition to the curry, other highlights were Italian food and bunny chow; which was actually the first one I ever had. Quite how a loaf of bread hollowed out and filled with curry hasn't become an international phenomenon makes no sense to me. I blame Atkins.

As it happens, I have my first sampling session today. Someone came into my office yesterday to hand in their application form (something that we have taken measures to avoid this year), and they were describing all of the different samples they were going to bring, and they were all ready to cook whenever I was free. Unfortunately, this meeting took place at 12:15; this meant that I was just at the start of the period before lunch when concentration flitters away, to be replaced by the angry churning monster that lives in my belly at regular intervals for a few hours each day. The presence of this grumbly little inhabitant meant only one thing. I arranged an interview/ sampling session to happen the very next day at 12:00. If they had the food with them at the time, the meeting would have been a day sooner. It turns out that all of the planning and fretting about the quality of applications can be overridden by offering to bring me prawn cakes. I'll be perfectly honest and say that the long list of items these two charming ladies proposed to sell at MTN BUSHFIRE turned into white noise after I heard 'prawn cakes'… sold. But I have since read the application, and it is strong enough to warrant an interview.

So I will let you know how this session goes, and as you can tell, I am greatly anticipating it.


Mr Rob
Bushfire Traders' Manager