INDABA FINALE

Oh yeah, I did have a pansit moment in Durban but the Chinese noodles topped with beef in oyster sauce I found at the NGO exhibit center is too heavy and stale I decided to stick to exploring South African cuisine like mala magodu (lamb tripes) with pap (ground maize porridge) which is so very pinapaitan, siopao-like buns dipped in oily skop (strips and lumps of meat from boiled cow's head) which so adobo, oxtail stew which is like kare-kare minus the vegetables and thick sauce, a foot-long portion of barbecued boerewors (beef sausage), the famous bunny chow (curry-in-a-bread), tons of lamb and beef curry (I wonder why those taste much better in Durban than in Hyderabad), Neville's daily breakfast fare of purine-heavy butter sauteed mushrooms, delicately baked potatoes, what I thought were hybrid pork-and-beans (sweet but minus the pork), sausages of the dark-hard and light-soft varieties, fresh sliced strange fruits bathing in yogurt, eggs over easy it's almost raw (I always had two), toast smothered with a butter and marmalade spread, pulpy orange juice, grilled ripe tomato, and that wonderful freshly brewed coffee...

And I had my church too courtesy of a hastily arranged and almost-a-goner last-minute city tour which first presented me with a glimpse of the gold-domed Juma Masjid Mosque (built in 1904 and the largest in the southern hemisphere) as we slow drove through the Dr. Yusuf Dadoo Street after a 45-minute shopping spree at the Victoria Market on our way to the Emmanuel Cathedral (also built in 1904 and one of South Africa's national monuments) to fulfill Attorney Carol's wish to pray on that feast day of the Immaculate Conception...

But still, the outcome of the Durban Indaba in terms of realizing an international treaty on climate change mitigation and adaptation is a big hole of a disappointment...

PHOTOS: My Chinese noodles with beef in oyster sauce (top), the Juma Masjid Mosque (middle), and the Emmanuel Cathedral (bottom).