South Africans set new world record for the longest kebab: event largely ignored by mainstream media

On the 17th of October, Arcelor Mittal Steelworks in Newcastle KwaZulu-Natal, played host to the world record attempt for the world’s longest kebab.

The charcoal being prepared next to the assembled Sosatie

This spectacular event was somewhat overshadowed by minor political squabbling as well as an international financial crisis. I’m sure that currency speculators also used the opportunity to plan the 37 per cent devaluation of the local currency.

This is the Solidarity Team preparing their section of the Sosatie.

Anyway, all of that aside, the event was truly amazing when you consider that it took 40 teams 2 days to prepare and cook the 2000 metre long kebab. The event was also associated with 15 charitable organisations and the final Kebab was distributed amoungst local feeding schemes in low income areas.

The South African Kebab is known locally as a Sosatie (pronounced “sauce-sah-tee”).

The term is derived from Cape Malay, where “sate” means skewered meat and “saus” means spicy sauce. The traditional preparation involves mutton chunks marinated overnight in fried onions, chillies, garlic, curry leaves and tamarind juice, then threaded on skewers and cooked on a barbecue or grill.

One of the conditions set out by Guinness World Records was that the Sosatie had to be cooked as one continuous piece. The Sosatie was skewered on 5mm steel rod and mounted in sections that were suspended above the fire on metal rods. The sections were then coupled together to form one continuous piece.

The effort was hampered somewhat by scattered rain, but this did not dampen the enthusiasm of the participants. The final length was 2.1 kilometres, some 600 metres more than the previous record.