Food in South Africa

First thing to know is that in here we eat everything with fingers. Of course there are cutleries, but we tries to do as local poeple as much as possible. 

I'll give some pictures and recipes to give you an idea. .

Here the traditional local plate, Pap, Mopani Worms, Chakalaka and Morogo. I'll explain all of these dishes in this page. 

First of all, the "pap", it is betwenn  mash and soft bread, we eat it with meat.

• Pap

To make traditional Zimbabwean Sadza (pap) you will need:

• 2 – 4 cups white mielie meal / cornmeal / maze meal.
• water

To make the Sadza (isitshwala):

First boil about 4 cups of the water in a pot.

Set aside about 1/4 of your mielie meal and mix the rest with about 3 or 4 cups of water to make a thick paste – make sure you have a strong arm and wooden spoon!

Then slowly add this paste to the boiling water, stirring all the time.

Then slowly add the remaining mielie meal to the pot. The sadza should be very thick and smooth, it should then begin to pull away from the sides of the pot and form a large ball. Cook for a few minutes more.

That’s it, then transfer it to a bowl and serve your sadza (pap) with relish or meat.

•  Chakalaka

It is a simple, spicy dish of onions, tomatoes, peppers and beans. We eat it with pap, meat during braii (barbecue) and it's a nice dish which can be eaten with anything.

To make it you need:

3 spoons of oil

2 Onions,

2 Bell peppers

2 Hot chile peppers

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Curry

3 Tomatoes,

Baked beans in tomato sauce

Salt and pepper

Method

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium flame. Add the onions, bell peppers, chile peppers, garlic and curry powder. Saute, stirring frequently, until the onions and peppers are cooked down and wilted, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Stir in the baked beans, salt and pepper and stir to heat through. Serve hot or cold.

• Mopani Worms

 

Here Mopani worms are cooked and eaten with or with sauce. I'heve tried without sauce, it's crispy and it tastes like nuts and it's full of proteins. You probably think something like "It's yucky, how can they eat something like that??" the answer is CULTURE. Yesterday I was talking about food with a friend, he tolds me, you french guys, you eat frogs and snails, Chinese poeple eat dogs. We eat worms! So think about the diference before saying that it's disgusting please.

• Beef Stew

Beef stew is a kind of "Boeuf Bourgignon", we eat it with chips, pap, or rice. Spicy and a bit fat but very nice, here the recipe:

30 ml oil
500 g beef, cubed
6 tomatoes, grated
250 ml coconut, milk
chopped dhania
chillies, chopped
salt to taste

Heat oil and brown the beef. Add remaining ingredients and simmer gently until meat is cooked - about 45 minutes.

• Amarula Cream ®

To give you an idea of the taste of this drink, it is close to Baileys® but a little bit sweeter. Every year, at the end of the summer (in February and March) everybody picks the Amarula fruit and bring it to the factory which is situated 5km far from the lodge. Then they buy it per Kg, like you buy fruit in a supermarket (local people make a bit of money and the factory doesn't have to have Amarula trees fields and to pay staff). We drink it a lot, it is a soft alcohool, with lot of ice exactly like Baileys®. 

If you want some more informations you can click on the picture of Amarula Cream® following.

Amarula fruits