09 Jun 2010 Simba uncovers creative South African flavours
Simba has announced top four flavours in the What’s Your Lekker Flavour? competition and launched the chips. This great marketing idea has clearly engaged many thousands of consumer and uncovered some funky, creative and truly South African flavour profiles.
The flavours that will soon have South Africas taste buds tingling are Walkie Talkie Chicken, Vetkoek & Polony, Snoek & Atchar and Masala Steak Gatbsy. All four flavours are available in 30g and 125g bag sizes and will go on sale at the beginning of June at all leading retailers. The four finalists will soon be famous too as their faces can be seen on the packaging of their flavour chip.
Aletta Crofton is from Green Point, Cape Town and her flavour is Walkie Talkie Chicken. Her entry was inspired by a photo of a young girl from Sterkstroom holding a cooked walkie in one hand and a talkie in the other. “Her sticky lips and fingertips made it obvious that she was enjoying something very special! When visiting friends in the Eastern Cape a while ago, we sat around an open fire with a pot of chicken stewing over the flames, chatting and laughing while waiting on our meal. The children fought over the walkie talkies!” said Aletta.
Ayanda Thabede is from Morningside, Johannesburg and his flavour is Vetkoek & Polony. The inspiration for his flavour is based on childhood memories of his Aunt making the kids in his family a meal every day before they all went to school. This meal has remained a firm favourite of Ayanda and his mates. ”I grew up eating amaGwinya and if you have never smelt the aromas of freshly baked vetkoek, wafting from your Gogo’s kitchen, then you haven’t lived! Add polony to the mix and you have a flavour combination that is delicious in its simplicity,” said Ayanda.
Brendan Johnston is from Mondeor, Johannesburg, and his flavour is Snoek & Atchar. “One afternoon while relaxing in Pimville, a friend of his mentioned that she had a craving for snoek and atchar. She mentioned she was going to go and buy this delicious snack from the corner shop. As soon as the words had left her lips, everybody reached for their wallets to give her cash so that she could get orders of this for them too. It was that spontaneous reaction to a favourite local meal and largely unknown delicacy that was my inspiration,” said Brendan.
Monray Sackanary is from Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town and his flavour is Masala Steak Gatsby. In Monray’s opinion, this is the crème de la crème of Gatsbys. “What is a Gatsby you ask? It’s the bunny chow of Cape Town a fresh footlong bread roll is stacked with delicious fillings like cheese, onions, polony and chips and then smothered in a delicious sauce. Every fishery or take-away joint that one finds in Cape Town will have Gatsbys on the menu. It is the perfect meal to have when you have a big appetite as it is a huge portion of food and is very affordable,” comments Monray.
The public can vote for their favourite flavour as many times as they like by SMSing the name of the flavour to 32313. The winning flavour will see one of the finalists receive fame and fortune in the form of R200 000 in cash, and 1% of sales of the winning flavour. This could mean that the winner will receive up to R500 000 per year for as long as the flavour is on sale. South Africans who vote can also win – Simba will give away four R50 000 cash prizes as well as daily cash prizes of R500.
This competition received over 187 000 entries and some very original and exciting flavour suggestions were put forward via SMS, MMS, mail and the website www.lekkerflavour.co.za. It stands to reason, says Simba, that with so many entries received there would be duplicate flavour submissions. The majority of entries were representative of some of the foods that South Africans are fond of such as Bobotie, Oxtail, Fish & Chips, Pap & Wors, Snoek, Prawns and of course, Biltong. In instances where there was more than one submission, the judges used the inspiration as a deciding factor. The judges strictly applied all the criteria and especially noted the images, descriptions, photos or inspirations that were put forward with each entry. The top four finalists submitted entries that were in line with the criteria and were well thought-out, original, imaginative and innovative.