Food for Thought: Thoughts on Food

May 22, 2013

In the two months (to the day!) we've been in South Africa, I've been asked a lot what the food is like here. While I've mentioned earlier that the food is very "fresh", I realize that doesn't exactly provide much in the way of insight into South African cuisine. It really is not its own creation (as is the case with say Chinese or Indian) which makes it difficult to describe. There are influences from many different cultures, with India playing a significant role, and things like curry being very widely available. That being said, here are a few of our general observations on food and eating in South Africa:

1. Red Velvet Cake is everywhere. At the counter of every coffee shop, on the dessert menu at every restaurant, lining the tables at markets. You can find it in cupcake form and full-on cake form. Apparently it's a new trend.

2. The produce is prepackaged/bagged. It's often hard to find one lemon or one papaya, as they already weighed and packaged in multiples.

4. Eating out is substantially cheaper than it is in North America (or Europe, or Australia), however food from a grocery store is roughly the same price. Adds a whole new appeal to eating out.

5. Wine is also quite inexpensive compared to North America, and is available at the grocery store (aisles of it, not just a few store-label bottles), but you have to go to a bottle shop for beer or liquor. Also adds a whole new appeal to drinking wine.

6. Main grocery stores: Pick n' Pay, Woolworth's and Spar. While it sometimes takes some work to locate which store carries which product, it is possible to find nearly everything and every brand imaginable (Heinz Ketchup, Nutella, etc). The main fast food places here are McDonald's, KFC, Wimpy's and Nandos (South Africa's version of Swiss Chalet). I haven't seen Subway, Burger King or Starbucks to date.

7. Rusks and Crunchies: Rusks are a hard biscotti-type thing, but not usually as sweet, and often eaten with tea. Crunchies are a granola-bar type square, sometimes with chocolate on top, often eaten with coffee/tea.

8. Biltong: essentially jerky, but not quite the same taste or texture; it comes in slices, rods, strips or chunks. This is the snack when it comes to pretty much everything: after golf, while hiking, watching a rugby game, on a road trip, etc.

9. Ostrich meat- burgers, steaks, biltong...you name it.  Similar to Bison in that it dries out easily and is best when not overcooked, it makes for great braai meat (those are ostrich steaks on the braai in the picture below, right).

10. Braai:  a BBQ, but typically with coals or wood rather than gas or propane, and usually with nice meats (rather than budget hot dogs or hamburgers). It is inherent in the culture here. We experienced our first SA Braai a few weeks ago: