On a clear Sunday morning in 1997, 10-year-old Clement Pedro and his six-year-old sister Mikhaila were seated in the back of their mother Verna's pale-yellow VW Beetle, headed to the hospital to visit their dad, Peter. As per Verna's instructions before they'd left home, the kids weren't making a peep, so that she could concentrate on shifting the gears. “You'll crack the Da Vinci code before you find a gear on a Beetle,” laughs Clem as he tells the story. Then, he turns serious. “It's only now that I realise how stressful that time must have been for my parents. My dad had serious spinal surgery, so he was in hospital for a while and when he came home, he was on his back for the longest time.”
That Sunday, however, Clem and Mikhaila were merely thrilled at the novelty of a car trip with their mom, who'd only recently passed her driving test. “I made my first braai that Sunday,” says Clem. “It's weird, because I hadn't ever had any instruction from my dad; it was purely based on what I saw him do.”
Back from the hospital, Clem had packed the family's small stainless-steel braai with firewood that he had chopped himself (another first – albeit under the watchful eye of a nervous Verna) and proceeded to braai lamb chops and boerewors. “And it was good; it was perfect,” he says, smiling. “When we went to the hospital again for evening visiting hours, we took my dad a little Tupperware with the meat I'd made that day, and some potato salad. My mom still talks about the day I made that braai.”
The Beetle, Ning-Ning – named after the onomatopoeic noise its engine made – is a cast member in many of Clem's fondest childhood food memories. His dad, who worked for a large telecommunications
