Typical Dishes
Cape Malay Cuisine
- Bobotie: South Africa's national dish — a spiced minced meat casserole (turmeric, cinnamon, chutney) with an egg-milk crust and raisins. Served with yellow rice and sultanas. The flavors are a revelation. Best in Bo-Kaap in Cape Town.
- Samoosas: Fried pastry pockets with lamb curry filling (Cape Malay version of the Indian samosa). Available everywhere as a snack.
- Koeksisters: Braided, fried dough, dipped in sugar syrup. Sticky-sweet, perfect with coffee.
Traditional African Cuisine
- Pap (Mieliepap): Maize porridge — the staple food. Available as "slapppap" (soft, like porridge) or "stywe pap" (firm, like polenta). With Vleis (meat) and Chakalaka.
- Chakalaka: Spicy vegetable relish made from tomatoes, beans, carrots, and chili. The perfect side dish for everything.
- Umngqusho: Samp & Beans — dried corn with sugar beans. Mandela's favorite dish.
- Potjiekos: Stew from the cast-iron tripod pot (Potjie) over an open flame. Meat, vegetables, potatoes — slowly simmered, never stirred. A Potjie competition is a South African happening.
- Bunny Chow: Hollowed-out white bread filled with curry — Durban's most famous contribution to world cuisine.
Snacks & Street Food
- Biltong: Air-dried, spiced meat (beef, springbok, kudu). South Africa's answer to beef jerky, but 1,000 times better. In every supermarket, at every gas station — and in various moisture levels (wet, medium, dry). Perfect with beer!
- Droëwors: Thin dried sausage — the sausage version of Biltong. Addictive!
- Gatsby: Cape Town's legendary sandwich — half a loaf of white bread filled with chips (fries!), steak or polony, and atchar. The ultimate township fast food.
- Vetkoek: Fried dough ball, filled with minced meat curry. The South African doughnut.
