Episode: 3912
Title: HPR3912: Emergency Show: Biltong and Rooibos
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3912/hpr3912.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 07:51:17

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3,912 for Tuesday, the first of August 2023.
Today's show is entitled, Emergency Show, Bill Tong and Ruibo's.
It is hosted by Shane Shannon and is about four minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is, Shane brings us a taste of South Africa with some local tea and jerky.
You are listening to a show from 2018 that was posted to the Reserve Q. We are airing
it now because we had free slots that were not filled.
Please consider recording a show for Hacker Public Radio.
The project will stop if the listeners do not continue to contribute shows.
Hacker Public Radio Audience.
This is Shane Shannon speaking from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.
And I think this will be an evergreen episode, number one, because I don't have much to say.
And what I say today won't change probably in 100 years, so here we go.
I'll try to stick this episode in the Emergency Show so that it can be used whenever
and because it will be an evergreen topic, it's just fine.
So I come originally from South Africa and I was born to two English speakers in South Africa.
But my parents knew Afrikaans and they knew some Afrikaans culture as well.
So I'm going to talk about two foods that I think come from the Afrikaner culture.
The first I'll talk about is a tea, a nervous tea from South Africa, from some kind of red bush.
And it's called Roybus R-O-O-I-B-O-S.
And it's a flavorful tea, but it's very light with opium bland.
If I was going to compare to anything I would say, you would have the lightness of something
flavored with vanilla when you're not overdoing it.
Maybe the best way to describe Roybus is to call it mild.
And here in Canada you can get the tea bags for Roybus, almost in any grocery store.
I hope you can find it in the area you're in.
There's one something with ocaffine in it.
I believe this has no caffeine.
Try this herbal tea called Roybus.
Very mild yet still flavorful.
And the second South African thing that I want to talk about is a treat called Bill Tongue,
B-I-L-T-O-N-G.
So this is strips of meat that have been salted and spiced and then left out to dry.
So it's a very South African thing.
They would do this when the weather was the hottest I think.
And that's how the meat is preserved by drying and not by smoking or anything like that.
So my father still attempts to make it.
He dries it in a warm shed that he has.
So I still get to eat Bill Tongue even though I haven't been back to South Africa since I was five years old.
It's kind of like beef jerky except because of the variety of spices.
I find it a bit more flavorful.
And I think it may even be a little bit tougher to chew.
So that's it.
Two South African things, even though here I am living in Canada.
These are the only parts of my South African heritage that I actually know about.
Roybus T, R-O-O-I-B-O-S, and Bill Tongue, B-I-L-T-O-N-G.
Okay.
Thank you, Hacker Public Radio Audience.
Why don't you tell me about some foods or teas or snacks or smoked meats from your culture?
Do a show about it.
Goodbye for now.
On this otherwise status, today's show is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
