South African Cuisine - Typical South African Foods and Dishes

Typical South African Foods and Dishes

• Amasi, sour milk
• Biltong, a salty dried meat (similar to jerky), although the meat used is often from different types of Antelope or other venison.
• Biryani
• Bobotie, a dish of Malay descent, is like meatloaf with raisins and with baked egg on top, and is often served with yellow rice, sambals, coconut, banana slices, and chutney.
• Boerewors, a sausage that is traditionally braaied (barbecued).
• Bunny chow, curry stuffed into a hollowed-out loaf of bread. A bunny chow is called Kota by the locals.
• Chakalaka, a spicy South African vegetable relish.
• Chutney, or Blatjang, a sweet sauce made from fruit that is usually poured on meat.
• Frikkadelle - meatballs
• Gatsby food mainly popular in Cape Town, comes in the form of a long roll with fillings of anything ranging from polony to chicken or steak and hot chips.
• Gesmoorde vis, salted cod with potatoes and tomatoes and sometimes served with apricot jam.
• Hoenderpastei, chicken pie, traditional Afrikaans fare.
• Isidudu, pumpkin pap
• Koeksisters come in two forms and are a sweet delicacy. Afrikaans koeksisters are twisted pastries, deep fried and heavily sweetened. Koeksisters found on the Cape Flats are sweet and spicy, shaped like large eggs, and deep-fried.
• Mageu, a drink made from fermented mealie pap.
• Mala Mogodu, a local dish equivalent of tripe. The locals usually enjoy mala mogodu with hot pap and spinach
• Malva Pudding, a sweet spongy Apricot pudding of Dutch origin.
• Mashonzha, made from the mopane worm.
• Melktert (milk tart), a milk-based tart or dessert.
• Melkkos (milk food), another milk-based dessert.
• Mealie-bread, a sweet bread baked with sweetcorn.
• Mielie-meal, one of the staple foods, often used in baking but predominantly cooked into pap or phutu.
• Ostrich is an increasingly popular protein source as it has a low cholesterol content; it is either used in a stew or filleted and grilled.
• Pampoenkoekies (pumpkin fritters), flour has been supplemented with or replaced by pumpkin or sweet potato.
• Potbrood (pot bread or boerbrood), savoury bread baked over coals in cast-iron pots.
• Potjiekos, a traditional Afrikaans stew made with meat and vegetables and cooked over coals in cast-iron pots.
• Rusks, a rectangular, hard, dry biscuit eaten after being dunked in tea or coffee; they are either home-baked or shop-bought (with the most popular brand being Ouma Rusks).
• Samosa or samoosa, a savoury stuffed Indian pastry that is fried.
• Skilpadjies, lamb's liver wrapped in netvet and braaied over hot coals.
• Smagwinya, fat cakes
• Smoked or braai'ed snoek, a regional gamefish.
• Sosaties, kebab, grilled marinated meat on a skewer.
• Tomato bredie, a lamb and tomato stew.
• Trotters and Beans, from the Cape, made from boiled pig's or sheep's trotters and onions and beans.
• Umngqusho, a dish made from white maize and sugar beans, a staple food for the Xhosa people.
• Umphokoqo, an African salad made of maize meal.
• Umqombothi, a type of beer made from fermented maize and sorghum.
• Umvubo, sour milk mixed with dry pap, commonly eaten by the Xhosa.
• Vetkoek (fat cake, magwenya), deep-fried dough balls, typically stuffed with meat or served with snoek fish or jam.
• Walkie Talkies, Grilled or deep-fried chicken heads and feet, most popular in townships and sold by street vendors, sometimes in industrial areas with high concentrations of workers.
• Waterblommetjie bredie (water flower stew), meat stewed with the flower of the Cape Pondweed.