I love South African dishes and I particularly love making them at home when I’m feeling a twinge of homesickness. A nice spicy bobotie with yellow turmeric rice and a glass of Alvi’s Drift pinotage with notes of plum, black cherry, vanilla and oak is just the thing. However, South Africa’s food landscape is as diverse as the people who call it home, and I delighted in enjoying old flavours and becoming acquainted with new ones.
For starters, there’s simple mielie meal and pounded beef favoured by the Zulu and Xhosa people. You’ll often find it served alongside European favourites that the Dutch settlers brought over in the seventeenth century. I also tasted the warm spices used by the Cape Malay descendants for the first time. (As you can well imagine, I had to properly stock the spice cupboard when I got home.)
Bobotie
A mince meat casserole made using traditionally beef or lamb and served with a generous helping of turmeric yellow rice. The dish is flavoured with peach chutney (Mrs H.S. Balls is the best), raisins or sultanas, and curry, cooked with a custard egg layer on top.
Cape Malay Curry
Curry features heavily in the South African food landscape and was first introduced by Indonesian and Malaysian slaves in the Cape in the seventeenth century. Cape Malay curry is distinct for being sweet, combining fruits like mango and apricots with traditional spices—cinnamon, ginger, cardamon pods, fennel seeds, curry leaves, turmeric and masala.
Bunny Chow
Speaking of curry, if you ever find yourself in Durban I’ve been told you must try this popular street food. Don’t worry, no bunnies came to any harm. Chow is just meat and potato-based curry served in a hollowed-out loaf of bread.
Boerwors
These farmer sausages are beef, pork or lamb sausages with a medley of spices that are the staple of any braai. The Dutch and Hugenot settlers introduced boerwors when they arrived in the Cape colony, and it is still served today in curry or alongside pap throughout Southern Africa.
Biltong
Biltong is dried meat popular all over from South Africa to Zimbabwe. Traditionally made from beef, wild game is also popular and it’s not uncommon to find kudu, eland or even ostrich meat. It’s not all that different from jerky (but I didn’t tell you that), just softer and chewier and heavily spiced with black pepper and coriander.
Chakalaka
A vegetable medley consisting of mielies, onions and tomato chunks. You’ll often find chakalaka served alongside pap or on a wedge of toast with an egg.
Braiiboodjie
A must-have at any braai, braaiboodjie means barbecued bread. But this South African-style grilled cheese hits the grills with a thick wedge of sharp cheddar cheese, thinly sliced onions and beefsteak tomatoes, and peach or mango chutney.
Melktert
Ask around and everyone will tell you that their auntie or their gran makes the world’s most divine melktert. They’re all wrong, because my mum has the best recipe and that’s just a fact (subject to disclosure at a later date). Melktert is a vanilla custard pudding with a dusting of cinnamon in a pastry crust created by the Dutch settlers who colonized South Africa.
Pap
You might also know it as polenta. This pounded maize meal is a staple of African cuisine the continent over because of how filling it is. Traditionally served with beef, lamb or vegetable stew.
Muriwo
Softened green cabbage slow-cooked in a peanut butter sauce. Muriwo is a popular Zimbabwean dish that goes well with a side of pap and lamb stew. My guide, Jojo, prepared this dish for us on our overland trip from South Africa to Zimbabwe, where he was from, and explained that it was a favourite at home.