Seswaa with Bogobe, Botswana Dish Seswaa with Bogobe, Botswana Dish

Seswaa with Bogobe

I had a photo request from a photo researcher through Photographer’s Direct, a stock photo portal site that I subscribe to and provide pictures for. Unfortunately, I uploaded my image too late so the client didn’t get to see it. The stock photo request was for a Botswana food dish called, seswaa (also known as chotlho).

My interest in food photography is centered around culturally specific food. I’m interested in what makes Italian food Italian, Thai food Thai, etc. So I was interested in this request so that I could add it to my photo library. I researched this dish a lot before actually making it. At its essence, seswaa is really boiled meat (beef or goat) which is then pounded beyond recognition (this was sort of the description in Margarita’s International Foods website). The only spice allowed is salt. Not really appetizing is it? It’s usually eaten with a cornmeal mush called bogobe and maybe some boiled leaf greens like African spinach or cabbage.

It was really difficult to make this dish appetizing for the camera (it actually tasted alright). Sometimes, you just have to put it on the plate and hope for the best. What you get might surprise you. In styling food there’s some general advice that usually works, like create height. If you look at a lot of food shots, the food will always have some height—not like those food towers, but just some height so that it doesn’t look flat and blah. I did that here and I think the image improved a little bit. I also did a lot of turning of the plate. Some perspectives are better than others. This was the best one.

Published 5 October 07 · Up Next: · Previously: 

You Might Be Interested In

Comment


Jonah - not a bad job. I used to eat this when I was in Malawi on a work transfer. I don't really care for the cornmeal mush but the meat was not bad with lots of salt. You are right though it wasn't appetizing to look at.

— George · 31 August 06

not even hot sauce ?

— georgea · 30 November 06

Jonah - is it cooked in a fast boil?

— murano · 25 December 06

Dijo tse di monate fela thata lekeletsa le tle le ikutlwele

— Tebogo Dipheko · 19 July 07