Latest news with #NoSugar
The Citizen
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
Harry Sideropoulos' return is about love and finding himself again
While his new show hits the stage, Harry Sideropoulos is also launching his debut cookbook. It was food that brought Harry Sideropoulos back to the stage after almost a half-decade hiatus following the death of his mother. But food has always been his love language – and a long table, a nine-course meal and a reunion set off a chain reaction that led him back to his love for performing. Harry's a national treasure, to use the cliché. But there's no other way to emphasise and underline the immense talent this man has. He's larger than life, in person and on stage. His Big Band Blast shows were, well, a blast. No Sugar, Canderel Please a one man performance that was a comedic and social discourse tour de force. Harry's time on radio with Jeremy Mansfield on 94.7's Rude Awakening show added much of the high octane to on-air content. Harry's return to the stage is cemented in the reprise of Swinging Las Vegas that opens this month at Montecasino. It's a big band swing fest where he performs alongside the incredibly talented Craig Urbani, Nadine and Timothy Moloi and backed by the 18-piece Johannesburg Big Band. Incidentally, the band is led by longtime friend and collaborator Adam Howard, who was also the catalyst to Harry's respawning. A friendship that never ended 'I met Adam 25 years ago when we launched my very first big band swing show,' Harry said. 'He wasn't a maestro back then like he is now. He was just Howie with a trumpet and a wicked sense of humour. We became great friends. Their friendship never really ended, but life got in the way and time wedged some space between the creative pair. Harry focused on voice work, creating immersive food experiences, and healing after his mother passed in 2020. 'Something inside me died,' he said. 'I stopped performing. I just couldn't. Even when Covid lifted, the fire was out.' ALSO READ: Candlelight show's a must go … mostly Fast forward to last year and the fateful long table dining experience that he hosted as one of his dining experiences. Howard and his wife attended the nine-course extravaganza and, he said, the friendship took off right where it paused a decade or so before. 'We hadn't sat across a table in years, but it was like no time had passed,' he said. 'We laughed, shared stories, and at the end of the night, he said, I have a show I want you to be in.' Magic happened That show was Swinging Las Vegas. Magic happened. 'I was terrified,' he shared. 'I hadn't performed in years, and I wasn't sure if I still had it in me. But I knew if I didn't say yes, I might never get back on stage again. Across a table of food, extraordinary things happen.' 'That night with Adam brought me back to life.' The show was right up his alley. It is a celebration of Las Vegas through the decades, swinging from Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald to Lady Gaga and Céline Dion. 'I opened with Me and My Shadow alongside Craig Urbani,' he said. 'By the end of the number, the audience were on their feet. I walked off and thought, I think I can still do this.' It was that moment that rebooted his public career. The performance is packed with killer moments, including Elton John favourites by Urbani, Nadine's take on Céline Dion, Moloi's renditions of jazz standards and Harry performing Ain't That A Kick in the Head. 'There are duets in the show that give you actual goosebumps,' he said. 'The music, the voices, the band, it's electric.' Launching a debut cookbook In tandem, Harry is also launching his debut cookbook at the same time that the show hits the stage. It's called Every Taste: A Memory and is a tribute to food, his South African, Greek and Turkish heritage and storytelling. 'It's not just recipes,' he said. 'They are stories. There are photographs of Athens and Johannesburg, family history, and every dish is tied to a memory.' The book includes QR codes with audio stories narrated by Harry, layered with sound effects and music. 'It's theatre in a book. You can read it or just listen to it like a radio play.' He shared that in one of the chapters he recounts his personal history with swing music and ties it to Howard's own upbringing. 'Adam told me about growing up in Lancashire, his grandmother, and how she pushed him to become a trumpeter,' Harry said. 'It was always around a table of food. That's how the link came to me. It was about love, sound, memories and meals.' His own family recipes are also included in the book as well as some tweaked, Harry-fied traditional Greek and Turkish dishes such as a bite-size Baklava recipe. More in the pipeline Harry said that beyond the Vegas show, the cookbook and his dining experiences, he's also working on several other projects, including eventually bringing the recipes to life on stage. 'This isn't just a comeback,' he said. 'It's not about returning to the industry. It's about finding myself again,' he said. 'Through music. And through food. Through friends who remembered what I had forgotten.' Performances are Fridays at 19h30, Saturdays at 14h00 & 19h30, Sundays at 14h00 Tickets range from R240 – R440, and bookings are at Webtickets or at Pick 'n Pay outlets. Discounts for groups of 10 or more, senior citizens, scholars and students apply. NOW READ: A holiday to remember at Sun City
Korea Herald
06-03-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
Foodie tour of Namwon uncovers surprises
Meltingly tender pork paired with wine stands out in city best known for mudfish soup NAMWON, North Jeolla Province — Namwon is a foodie city. And that is increasingly palpable as trendy eateries like a gluten-free, sugar-free bakery for the health-conscious and a bar known for pairing wine with jambon, jamon and salami open up around the city. It's worth the roughly two-hour high-speed KTX ride from Seoul to sample the food options in Namwon, because unlike in the capital, venues are much less crowded, meaning more space to kick back and relax while indulging in great food. Namwon classics like a fish soup called chueotang is one way to bring a visit to Namwon to a successful close. The Chop Shop This bar opened in 2019 but dates back by at least two decades, when Park Hwa-chun began raising a new breed of pigs called Berkshire-K. Meats produced here ranges from jambon, dry-cured with sea salt and spices, to jamon, redder and saltier, but still silken, to salami, a rough textured sausage. 'We pair them with wine, which balances out saltiness. Ours isn't that salty in the first place compared to what you might have tried elsewhere. We've figured out 'Korean salty,'' said Park Ja-yeon, Hwa-chun's elder son who runs the shop. The 32-year-old Park doesn't just serve travelers stopping by, he has also been organizing interactive programs for elementary to high school students to see how meat is processed. For college students, such programs are more intense, allowing them to tour processing factories nearby. Factories aside, The Chop Shop is the only establishment in Korea that not only processes meat, but also maintains pig farms, Ja-yeon said, mentioning their pig farm 500 meters above sea level. This means shorter summer weather, which helps with raising the pigs. 'We traveled down here to see if the meats taste as good as online reviews say,' said Lim Young-eun, a 20-something Seoulite who made the trip with friends last year. 'Taste is a bit subjective. What I can definitively say is that they aren't smelly. No aftertaste. I think that alone is a big plus,' she added. Jambon, jamon and salami are not household terms in Korea, yet that does not mean they cannot be everyday foods for Koreans some day, according to the younger Park. 'For some young people I serve every day, this might just turn out to be their comfort food,' Park said. No Sugar Having opened in December, No Sugar is a bakery that seeks to cater to the health-conscious looking to cut back on foods with added sugar. While removing sugar entirely from its lineup, the bakery has not sacrificed variety. On the shelves were rice sticks, brown rice chocolate loaves and madeleines. 'We want bread that's healthy with flavors,' said Lee Sung-hee, who heads the shop that is partially funded by the government. The city of Namwon won a Korean government grant to boost its local economy, and agreed to jointly run the shop with a co-op set up by Namwon farmers. Lee, a native of Namwon, said her bakery advances a bigger cause, noting the proceeds are distributed to residents nearby aged 80 and older as an allowance. The bakery has a high ceiling and floor-to-ceiling windows that afford a view of the surrounding landscape. This offers 'the kind of peace and quite' hard to come by at packed shops in Seoul, said Pyo Ye-lim, a Seoul resident. 'Seoul hot spots with something that tastes just as good are always packed,' she said, noting she deemed No Sugar just as tasty and much less stuffy inside. One complaint, if she were to make one, was how the bakery seemed less invested in actively drawing people in, Pyo added, pointing out it could not be reached by public transportation. Chueotang Chueotang, a soup that highlights loaches, also known as mudfish, is a Namwon classic. Thanks to immediate access to the freshwater fish, the southwestern city offers different varieties of the soup. Prepared with soybean paste and vegetables like radish greens and chives in addition to the mudfish, the soup is generally not spicy. Perilla powder is sprinkled on top to add to the savory taste. 'We come here almost every weekend,' said Kim Nam-jeong, 77, referring to her husband of the same age with whom she has frequented Hwangto Restaurant for the last 15 years. The couple, who have called Namwon their lifelong home, said they feel at peace when visiting the restaurant, which can seat up to 70 people. It is well known among locals — 7 out of 10 customers are locals, according to the restaurant manager. Chueotang is believed to boost stamina, and the squiggly fish is sometimes offered as a separate fried dish. Try the crispy fried fish bone, which crackles when chewed. Gwanghalluwon Strolling through Gwanghalluwon, a garden compound, is a gratifying way to conclude a food tour of Namwon, said Kim Sun-joo, a guide at the city-operated garden with a pavilion. The garden from the early Joseon era (1392-1910) was built to portray the eternal universe envisioned by Joseon officials. 'There's philosophy behind all these pavilions, halls and ponds,' Kim said. 'They're food for thought.'
