Hey there! I’m Mary-Lou, just another South African living in New Zealand. As well as the author, recipe developer, photographer and videographer behind Salty Ginger.
How did we land up in New Zealand?
New Zealand was never really on our list of places to live, but in 2019, my husband (Dave) and I, with our two dogs found ourselves moving across the world to Christchurch.
We landed in Christchurch during the very first minutes of the very first day of May 2019. It was on that cold, wet, autumn morning driving through the quiet streets that I caught the first glimpse of the city we would now call home.
Why did I start Salty Ginger?
While we were settling down, as human nature dictates, I started to really compare and contemplate the differences between South African cuisine and what the Kiwis (and Aussies) had to offer. Because we are all former British colonies there is a sense of familiarity in the food. However, there are a lot of differences too.
This is due to the ingredients available (and how the ingredients are named), as well as the other cultures (both indigenous and imported) that have had an impact and moulded the overall cuisines as we see them today.
This led to the birth of Salty Ginger! A place in which I could explore my South African recipes with the ingredients we have available here, as well as some of my favourites from across the world!
A little bit about my history...
I was born in Cape Town into an Afrikaans-English family in the '80s. When I was in Grade 1 we moved across the country to Durban where I went to primary school and began high school only to be moved to Port Elizabeth (now known as Gqeberha) when I was 15.
It was in PE I attended Nelson Mandela University and left with a degree in Biochemistry, got married to Dave, moved to the Witbank coalfields, and took a sharp left into the field of Environmental Management.
But I have loved baking since I was a kid. And I rediscovered this love in the last few years. This blog will serve as a place for me to share my mostly South African recipes, while I also experiment with and share recipes from around the globe - specifically those which tie into my wider heritage such as German, Dutch, Greek, English, and Irish.
Thanks for visiting! I would love to hear from you. You can subscribe to my mailing list (link in the sidebar where it says “subscribe”). If you have any questions or comments, you can contact me here, or on Instagram.
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