Eating in South Africa

World Cup fever is still blazing at the office ... people are "working from home" so they can watch the important matches and the discussions about instant replays and bad ref calls get more and more heated every day. I don't mind ... the focus on World Cup reminds me of 9.5 glorious weeks I spent there ... working, meeting new friends, eating and drinking!

Here are some of the traditional food and drink of South Africa ... some of the pictures are mine, some are from the web.

The South African version of a barbecue is the "braai" (used to describe the meal, the process of cooking and the cooking area/tool). South Africans are fanatic about their braais ... within 24 hours I was invited to a braai, some of my co-workers were even showing off pictures of their braais. Most have dedicated areas of their homes set up for their braai ... so they can cook out in winter. One friend even had heated tiles in his braai. This is my friend Christopher (from NYC) getting ready to braai!

Another tradition South African meal is the potjiekos (pronounced poiki) which cooked in this three legged cast iron poiki pot which is either placed at the base of the braai or hung from a hook installed in the braai. The dish is layered, starting with meat, then potatoes and then vegetables. It was very yummy and takes about 2 hours to finish ... which goes by quickly when drinking South African wine!

This is a bunny chow ... no bunnies are ever harmed in the making of this dish. It is a quarter or half of a loaf of bread that is hollowed out and filled with curry (veggie, beef, chicken, mutton, etc). The idea is that you look like a bunny eating it. The one I had did not look this gourmet ... it was from a take out place and was absolutely delicious.

This is another thing South Africans are fanatical about ... biltong ... what we consider beef jerky. Everyone has their own special recipe ...their meat of choice, their spice blend and they method for curing and again. This was not my favorite ... but I tried it several times ... I had to!

I don't remember what this is called but it was good. This was on my last day and I guess they wanted to make sure I wouldn't starve on my long flight home!

There were so many other amazing things I ate in drank during my visit ... like rooibos tea which made me think of hibiscus, and Amarula, a cream liquer that is made from the marula tree ... this tastes a little like Baileys and I often had this for dessert. There were some other stuff that I didn't care for like boerewors, a dried sausage that was in the same category as biltong in my mind and mielies, the local starch that is made into a porridge (yuck)!