South African food: discover traditional cuisine

PAP – a staple dish made from finely ground maize meal, cooked into a porridge-like consistency. It can be soft, crumbly (stywe pap), or smooth (slap pap). Often served as a side dish with meat, stews, or tomato-based sauces.

VETKOEK/AMAGWINYA – deep-fried dough, sometime called fat cake, made from flour and yeast, filled meat, tuna, curried minced meat, cheese, syrup. A popular street food across South Africa.

BUNNY CHOW – a hollowed-out loaf of white bread filled with spicy curry, often chicken, lamb, or beans.

SAMP – a dish made from dried corn kernels that are stamped and chopped until broken, but not as fine as maize meal. Often cooked with beans to make umngqusho, a dish particularly associated with Xhosa cuisine. Nelson Mandela’s favorite food.

MABELE PORRIDGE – similar to pap but made with sorghum meal.

ROOSTERBROOD/ROOSTERKOEK – grilled bread rolls cooked on an open fire.

MOSBOLLETJIES – a sweet bread made with grape must or aniseed.

GEELRYS – yellow rice with raisins, a classic side dish.

SAMP AND BEANS/UMNGQUSHO – coarsely ground corn kernels (samp) cooked with beans and flavored with butter, onions, and spices. Hearty main meal. Served alongside braised meat or morogo (wild spinach).

CHAKALAKA – vegetable dish and also a fairly spicy relish. Made of beans, onions, peppers, carrots, and a unique blend of spices to create a punchy side that is great alongside meat.

ROASTED MEALIES – fresh corn on the cob, grilled over an open flame until charred and tender, often enjoyed with a sprinkle of salt or butter, a popular street food.

FRUIT CHUTNEYS – ondiments made by simmering local fruits like apricots, peaches, or mangoes with sugar, vinegar, and spices to create a sweet and tangy preserve. Served with meats and curries.

PAMPOENKOEKIES – pumpkin fritters, either savory or sweet.

BILTONG — dried meat (seasoned with coriander seeds and salt). Although it’s commonly beef, different variants also exist using springbok, kudu, eland, chicken, and ostrich. Biltong is first cured in vinegar, then air-dried and cut into strips. Usually eaten on its own as a snack, or it can be added to other meals like potjiekos.

BOEREWORS — a minced sausage, that contains no less than 90% of meat, which is usually grilled. Spiced with nutmeg, coriander, cloves, lamb or pork fat. Served with roosterkoek bread roll.

BOBOTIE – minced meat lamb or beef, with onions, milk-soaked bread, and dried fruit, usually raisins or sultanas, flavored with turmeric, cumin, curry powder. All is topped with an egg and milk mixture and baked, served with yellow rice.

POTJIEKOS – a one-pot stew of meat, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, or pumpkin, rice or potatoes, all slow-cooked with Dutch-Malay spices. Other  ingredients include fruits and pasta. The dish is cooked in layers and should not be stirred until it’s ready to be eaten.

CAPE MALAY CURRY – is a distinctive chicken, lamb or beef curry developed by descendants of enslaved people and political exiles from Indonesia, Malaysia, and other parts of Southeast Asia, brought to the Cape by Dutch colonists in the 1600s. Unlike Indian curries, it often includes fruit (raisins or apricots) and sugar. It typically uses cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, turmeric, ginger, and cloves, but not much chili—it’s fragrant rather than fiery. The sauce is usually based on onions and tomatoes, no cream or coconut milk and is served with rice.

BRAAI/SHISA NYAMA – meaning “burn meat”, or grilled meat over an open fire – boerewors, lamb chops, beef, chicken.

DENNINGVLEIS – a sweet and sour slow-cooked lamb stew with tamarind, garlic, onions, allspice, bay leaves, sugar, pepper, and vinegar.

WATERBLOMMETJIE BREDIE – a stew featuring waterblommetjies (Cape pondweed flowers) cooked with lamb, potatoes, and spices.

BOKKOMS – air dried salted mullets.

SNOEK – battered and fried mackerel, usually served with french fries.

PICKLED CURRIED FISH – snoek or hake, pickled in a tangy curry sauce with onions and served cold.

EGG CURRY – hard-boiled eggs cooked in a spiced tomato-based curry, flavored with onions, garlic, and curry spices. Popular in the Indian-South African community.

AMASI – fermented cow’s milk with a tangy, yogurt-like flavor, often eaten with maize meal pap or on its own.

MALVA PUDDING – a baked dessert from flour, soda, milk, butter, eggs, and the key ingredient, apricot jam. The pudding is topped with a rich sauce made from cream, butter, sugar, and vanilla.

KOEKSISTERS – fried pastry coated in sweet syrup. A crunchy street food dessert.

MELKTERT – sweet, creamy milk tart dusted with cinnamon. A dessert with Dutch origins.

PEPPERMINT CRISP TART – a layered dessert of biscuit, caramel, whipped cream, and peppermint chocolate bars.