First course, and yes, it’s all in Frogspeak… 

Until someone gets around to do a proper translation, we’ll break down the lyrics, in case another someone cares to know what it’s all about. 

Shakshuka, for those who’d have dodged the ’90s craze with serious fastbreaking, is a simple yet delicious dish made by poaching eggs in a tomato/onion/sweet pepper stew, with lots of extra goodness, varying from cook to cook.  

It can be fast and piping hot, sauté’d in a wok with smoked chili and lots of garlic, or slow and laid back, simmered long enough to melt celeri and fennel (paprika and garlic, always), and is better reheated.  

You can wrap shakshuka in malaweh, or stuff half a buttered Parisian baguette with it — you can add fish, or sausage, or tofu if you can’t help it. It works as breakfast, as five’o’clock at night, and it’s always easy to make some more, and accommodate however many stomachs demand. 

It’s kid-easy to prep, and a great place to start learning for those who’ve never cooked before, as it’s nigh-impossible to ruin beyond salvation, but if you put enough love and skill into it, it can be quite sublime. 

It’s a true world food, too, as it’s deemed a local dish in so many different places, and wherever it’s on offer, locals trust it as since-the-dawn-of-times homestyle cooking, when the key ingredients weren’t readily available outside of the Americas before the 16th century …just like potatoes, eggplant, and so many other staples of our “true local” cuisine, wherever we are. 

In essence, shakshuka is made from a a few simple, handy ingredients, plus warmth and time, much like one’s true family is one of blood often, but also of chance encounters and people whom we come to share our lives with.  

It’s soul food, ‘roots’ food in the deepest sense, that makes you feel like home anywhere, and every home deems its own version self-evident, yet unique. 

Which is how we feel about the music we make, and crucially how it’s made : we go with simple things, musicians and wordsmiths of all backgrounds and proficiencies, and depending on the day, we stir fry without a click, or slow cook on four burners.  

It oughta feel just as right making as it should having it, for we do what we do for the family first, and we eat our own chew. 

That’s what the song’s about, and as for the title… well, just call it ShakShuka, we’ll know what you mean. 

ttfn,  
       theSC.