Tannie Evita is back with Evita’s Bossie Sikelela – a book as full and rich as the grande dame herself. Quirky, amusing, sometimes with a moral, and hugely informative on subjects as diverse as fly fishing, recession-budgeting and allergy control, saving the rhino and the medicinal properties of plants.

Packed with recipes, Tannie’s tips and tales of her adventures as she “left the safety of her kitchen for a world tour of South Africa’s unique recipes, tastes, foods, feasts and firesides.”

It’s more of a bedside table book than a coffee table book – it’s a book that you will not only use when you suddenly get a craving for Pofadders, Skilpadjies, Reconciliation Bobotie, Avocado Ritz Crayfish Cocktail, warthog, guineafowl, lamb shanks, meatballs, pizza or homemade ricotta, but one that you will spend many happy hours paging through.

Every page is fascinating – made more so Linda Vicquery’s delightful design and illustrations.

Cook from it, read it and enjoy a belly laugh with Tannie Evita from time to time as you travel with her as she “exposes the tasty, soft underbelly of our rainbow culture in all its diversity….”

Take up the invitation from ‘the most famous white woman in South Africa (if not Africa!) to ‘join me in celebrating the culinary art of our multi-talented nation’ – it’s fun (the unfolded dustjacket turns into a poster showing a roadmap of Tannie Evita’s culinary journey), it’s funny, it’s enchanting and it’s full of recipes and other titbits.