Thoughts About Food in South Africa

One of the reasons I travel is to try new foods. Usually they are unique and tasty but I can’t really state that for SA. The food, in general, is very similar to England and so, pretty dull. The African food, where we can get it, is uncommon and tasty.

Breakfast is either muesli or eggs, bacon, grilled tomatoes and toast. I don’t know what the Africans eat.

Lunch and dinner are pretty standard English or American fair…John often has pizza.

The few African meals we have had are memorable. First, in Lesotho we went to dinner in the home of a local named Teboha. He met us at the lodge and walked us to his home. It was after sunset but before moonrise so it was a very dark walk. When we arrived, we met his father, Musi, who sat with us while Teboha cooked. Dinner was a bowl with mealie pap, greens (cooked and nicely seasoned) and a chicken leg. All of it was very tasty. We ate in his house which was one room (25×10) with a bed on one end, a sofa and two chairs on the other and lots of shelves.

On the Wild Coast in the town of Nqileni, I joined a Xhosa woman named Khuluwa for her daily chores and she served me lunch of maize (corn) and beans. It was not unlike rice and beans and was tasty.

Finally, also in Nqileni we went to a restaurant called Indala’s Fire. Not your typical restaurant, the building was a round hut about 20 feet in diameter with a thatched roof, bright yellow walls and a floor made from cow dung. There were three benches along the wall for customers to sit on. Our hostess showed us the menu, then asked us to write down our order. She served filled pancakes similar to crpes. The menu had two main dishes—chicken spinach curry and three nut vegetarian but she was out of the vegetarian and also no spinach so we had chicken curry with carrots, green peppers and butternut squash.

The stove was a one burner on the floor. To make the pancakes, she heated the wok-shaped skillet, liberally sprayed it with cooking spray and added the batter and swirled it around until it coated the bottom and sides then let it cook about 5 minutes, flipped it to cook for another minute then took it out and started another one. I asked her about the batter and she stated it was Longlife milk, flour, eggs, sugar and salt. Longlife milk is typically a liter-sized carton of milk specially preserved (irradiated?) so that it lasts for months on the shelf without refrigeration as long as it’s unopened. Once opened, it needs to be refrigerated and lasts about four days.

Then she took another pan and started heating it. It contained the chicken curry filling—enough for many pancakes. It had been sitting on the floor next to the stove. After she heated it, she filled and rolled the pancakes and served them. They were delicious! The pancake was spongy, the filling was tasty. And we also shared a Bulungulu Special for dessert which was another pancake filled with a sweet mixture of raisins, nuts and dates; again it was delicious. This was easily the ideal meal we have eaten in SA.

Along with food comes drink and there is one beverage worth mentioning. As I wrote earlier, the food is very English and so tea is very common. There is the standard black tea but everyplace we’ve been also serves Rooibos tea, which is a red tea made from a local plant. Rooibos has no caffeine and is quite nice.

Finally, every country has fast food and in SA it is KFC. There are a few McDonalds but every reasonable sized town has a KFC.

More Source:

South African Recipes: Traditional Recipes from South Africa
Food For Thought South Africa | Facebook
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Bringing dry goods into South Africa | WordTravels Forum

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Submited at Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 5:00 pm on Africa by sofia
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