South African Foods
South Africa is a truly beautiful country filled with plenty of amazing cultures, people, traditions and architecture. One of the things that South Africa that makes it truly memorable, is the amazing and truly unique foods that are created because of the amazing combination traditions. Many food recipes that can be experienced in South Africa have influences from all around the world from cooking styles to ingredient choices.
Because of South Africa’s diverse history, many of South African families have adapted traditional recipes from their history to create iconic and truly unique recipes that can only be found in South Africa.
Bokkoms
Bokkoms is a rather acquired taste that finds its origin in the Western Cape of South Africa. This region of South Africa, as well as many of the coastal regions use fish as a main source of food and one of the more loved meals in the Western Cape is Bokkoms, fish that are salted and dried in the sun and wind to make a form of fish biltong. The flavour and texture of bokkoms is quite unique and is actually enjoyed with pasta.
Biltong
Surely the most iconic snack in South Africa, Biltong is enjoyed by almost anyone and is surprisingly easy to make. Biltong is meat that is salted, spiced and dried by hanging. Biltong is considered biltong when there is more than 90% and is popularly made from Beef, Eland, Kudu, Springbok and Blesbok. Biltong can be compared to Jerky from America with one of the differences being that Biltong is saltier, where Jerky is sweeter.
Bobotie
Being one of my favourite South African Dishes, Bobotie is a proudly South African dish. Bobotie is a delicious and rather simple to make mince dish that is mixed with curry and other herbs, placed in a oven bowl and layered with eggs. Depending on where you live, the recipe can change to be sweeter, spicier or have other ingredients added.
Potjie Kos
One of the most traditional South African meals that is proudly South African. Potjie Kos is the method of cooking where meat and vegetables are cooked in a cast iron pot over an open fire. Different recipes have different ingredients making each potjie different than the last. Potjie Kos takes a long time to cook and is a great conversation centre that allows people to socialize while the delicious food cooks.
Boerewors
Boerewors is the traditional South African Braai staple. Boerewors is a combination of beef / pork / chicken, mixed with herbs and spices and stuffed in to an intestine. Boerewors is very versatile piece of meat that can be braaied on an open fire, chopped and served with rice, eaten on a bun and many more. The choice of meat and herbs greatly affect the way the boerewors tastes as well as the texture.
