Delicious and soul-warming traditional food, prepared the way our mothers cooked

Mogodu in the North offers nostalgic, mouth-watering traditional dishes that are perfect for winter and prepared the way our mothers cooked them.

Former club DJ and founder Andy Bophela says that, from a young age his strict mother made him cook the family meals as a way to keep him off the streets. 

He did not know then that, in adulthood, he would turn his skill into a career.

“You can never go wrong with a cabbage and meaty bones broth,” says the 37-year-old, explaining the latest hearty winter dish addition to the Mogodu in the North menu.

“Our staple dishes include mogudu (tripe), inyama yenhloko (deboned cow head), chicken feet and umleqwa (free range, hard-bodiedchicken). When we first started cooking these dishes, we attracted over 600 Uber bikes [to collect them from our apartment] every month.

“My mother was a disciplinarian and a good cook, and at that time, cigarettes were booming on the streets. I’d like to believe that is why she made me start cooking,” Bophela says. “My speciality at home was phuthu [crumbly pap] and chicken stew. We made it at home with Knorrox stock cubes, Aromat and onions, and let it cook in its juices until it was tender, and that’s it.” 

The Mogodu in the North restaurant menu includes “smiley” (sheep’s head), cow head meat with noodles, Durban-inspired beef stew, ubhontshisi (pinto beans) with meaty bones, creamy samp, ujeqe (dumplings) and uphuthu.

Located in Fourways in northern Johannesburg, the restaurant trumpets its authentic approach to preparing traditional food.  

“How we prepare the food was a shocker [for some people] in Joburg, where the food tends to be over-seasoned — we simply braise it with minimal, high quality spices,” Bophela says.

“We prepare our smileys on a spit braai to give them that rotisserie taste, and we add noodles to our cow meat. It’s those small things that make us unique.” 

Born in Pongola in northern KwaZulu-Natal, Bophela is a qualified chemical engineer who had a love affair with music. This led him to the spinning decks with the stage name DJ Andy Tylo.

“Even though I didn’t get the point where I was a household name, by the time I left the Durban nightlife music scene I was a recognised DJ playing in famous clubs on Florida Road and around Durban such as Liv, Afro Lounge, Eyadini and Kwa Max,” Bophela says. 

At the end of 2018, DJ Andy Tylo had begun to make an impression on the Joburg nightclub scene before the Covid-19 pandemic and divine intervention caused a U-turn in his plans. 

“The gigs dried up; my rent and bills were piling up, and we panicked. It was around the same time that I accepted Jesus Christ in my life. I was ready to leave the entertainment industry, but that was all I knew,” says Bophela.

He and his wife, Phindile, started cooking out of their apartment kitchen in 2021, which attracted a lot of Uber Eats orders and foot traffic.

“My wife bought the first pot and told me to just cook, even though I had doubts,” Bophela says. “When I started, we sold out the first two days, even when we increased the quantity. The body corporate said we couldn’t continue to cook from the apartment, so we looked for a space and found it in Fourways, where we are today.

“The name ‘Mogodu in the North’ was originally from an idea for an event, which didn’t go well. But when we started cooking traditional food, we kept the name.”

Here is Bophela’s recipe for a hearty and delicious winter stew.

Meaty bones with cabbage

Ingredients

• 1kg meaty bones 

• 1 beef stock cube

• 1 small cabbage head, roughly chopped 

• 200g mushrooms, washed and chopped 

• 1 medium onion, chopped 

• 1- 3 medium carrots, grated

• 1tbs barbecue spice 

• 1 tbs paprika spice

• 1 tbs mixed herbs spice

• 1 tbs cayenne pepper spice

Method

• Wash the meaty bones under water.

• Add them to a deep pot and cover with water. Add the beef stock cube and bring to a slow boil for about an hour and a half or until the meat has softened. 

• Add the roughly chopped cabbage to the pot and cook for 10 minutes.

• Add the mushrooms, onions, and grated carrots. 

• Add the barbecue spice, paprika, mixed herbs and cayenne pepper to the pot.

• Mix the contents and cook until the cabbage has softened.

• Serve with fluffy phuthu.