Local Dishes

1. Bobotie

   Bobotie (spiced minced meat baked under an egg-and-milk topping)

   Usage

   Minced meat with spices, baked under a topping of egg, milk and turmeric. Served with yellow rice and a sweet chutney. Contains meat, egg and dairy

2. Boerewors

   Boerewors (thick coiled sausage)

   Usage

   Minced meat and fat with spices and salt in a continuous casing. South African law requires at least 90% meat. Normally grilled over coals

3. Biltong

   Biltong (air-dried cured meat)

   Usage

   Salted, dried meat sold as a snack; beef is the most common. Sold both sliced and in sticks

4. Droëwors

   Droëwors (dried sausage)

   Usage

   A thinner boerewors dried into a snack, seasoned with coriander. Made with beef rather than pork, since pork fat spoils while drying, and stuffed into sheep casings. It contains no preservatives, so it moulds in humid storage

5. Potjiekos

   Potjiekos (stew cooked in a three-legged iron pot over coals)

   Usage

   Ingredients are layered in a lidded cast-iron pot and cooked over coals for 2–8 hours without stirring. Meat (beef, lamb, pork, chicken or fish) with potato, onion, carrot, mushroom and beans; beer, wine or cream may go in as the liquid

6. Braai

   Braai (meal of meat grilled over coals)

   Usage

   Meat grilled on a grid over hot coals. Boerewors, sosaties, chicken, pork or lamb chops and steak are the staples, with braaibroodjies, mielies and foil-wrapped potatoes on the side. Fuel is hardwood (camel thorn, mopane, rooikrans) or else charcoal or gas. The meat itself is called braaivleis

7. Braaibroodjie

   Braaibroodjie (sandwich toasted on the braai grid)

   Usage

   A filled sandwich toasted on the braai grid, usually with cheese, tomato and onion. Made on the dying coals once the meat is done, as a side

8. Tjop

   Tjop (chop)

   Usage

   A bone-in chop, most often lamb, and a braai staple. An informal word

9. Sosatie

   Sosatie (marinated meat skewer)

   Usage

   Cubed meat (lamb, pork or chicken) marinated 1–3 days in water, vinegar, apricot jam, curry spice, garlic and black pepper, then skewered with onion, sweet pepper and dried apricot and grilled over coals. Can also be baked at 180°C

10. Skilpadjies

    Skilpadjies (lamb liver parcels grilled in caul fat)

    Usage

    Coarsely ground lamb liver mixed with coriander, chopped onion, salt and Worcestershire sauce, rolled into balls about 80 mm across, wrapped in netvet (caul fat), pinned with a toothpick and grilled over coals until the fat crisps. Avoid it if you do not eat offal. A larger version is called pofadder

11. Mieliepap

    Mieliepap (maize meal porridge)

    Usage

    The staple, cooked from coarse maize meal and water. Named by consistency: stywepap is the firm and most common form, slappap is the loose breakfast version, krummelpap is the crumbly one. Layered with bacon, cheese and vegetables it becomes paptert

12. Krummelpap

    Krummelpap (crumbly maize porridge)

    Usage

    Mieliepap cooked with little water so it stays crumbly, served with braised meat and gravy. Also called poetoepap

13. Stampmielies

    Stampmielies (pounded hulled maize kernels)

    Usage

    Maize kernels with the hulls pounded off in a mortar, then boiled or fried as a side dish

14. Chakalaka

    Chakalaka (spiced vegetable relish)

    Usage

    Kidney beans, tomato, carrot and onion cooked with curry powder and garlic; peas or green beans may go in too. Served with bread, mieliepap, stampmielies, stews or curries. Its strong flavour is often tempered with maas (soured milk). Also spelled tjakalaka

15. Tamatiebredie

    Tamatiebredie (mutton and tomato stew)

    Usage

    Mutton stewed slowly with tomato, spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves and sweetened with raisins. "Bredie" is the general word for this kind of stew; the lead vegetable is prefixed to it (pumpkin, green beans and so on)

16. Waterblommetjiebredie

    Waterblommetjiebredie (lamb stew with Cape pondweed buds)

    Usage

    Cubed mutton or lamb stewed with the flower buds of Aponogeton distachyos. A winter dish, on menus only in July and August when the buds are harvested

17. Vetkoek

    Vetkoek (deep-fried bread roll)

    Usage

    Bread dough of flour, water, salt, sugar and yeast, rolled into hand-sized balls, flattened, proved and deep-fried. Filled with curried mince or cheese, or eaten with syrup

18. Potbrood

    Potbrood (bread baked in a cast-iron pot)

    Usage

    Yeast bread baked over coals in a platpotjie, a flat-bottomed cast-iron pot

19. Roosterkoek

    Roosterkoek (bread cooked on the braai grid)

    Usage

    Bread dough cooked directly on the braai grid (rooster) over coals, then broken open and spread with butter or jam. A camping staple

20. Frikkadel

    Frikkadel (meatball)

    Usage

    Minced meat with breadcrumbs, grated onion, tomato, egg, salt, vinegar and spices, rolled into balls and baked or deep-fried. Served with rice, fried potatoes or mieliepap. Note: not the same as the Dutch frikandel, which is a skinless deep-fried sausage

21. Bokkoms

    Bokkoms (whole salted and wind-dried mullet)

    Usage

    Young harders (Liza richardsonii, southern mullet) salted three days in coarse salt, then strung in bunches and dried in wind and sun for about five days. A West Coast speciality, most of it produced in Velddrif. Eaten with bread, jam and coffee, or with a white wine

22. Snoek

    Snoek (Thyrsites atun, a Cape sea fish)

    Usage

    Thyrsites atun, an elongated sea fish reaching 1.8 m and 9 kg, running in shoals off the Cape from September to June. Grilled, or sold smoked as gerookte snoek

23. Blatjang

    Blatjang (sweet-sour fruit chutney)

    Usage

    A condiment of fruit cooked with spices, often sweetened like jam and preserved with vinegar, citrus or tamarind. Served alongside bobotie and curries

24. Slaptjips

    Slaptjips (thick soft chips)

    Usage

    Thick-cut fried potato deliberately left soft rather than crisp. A fast-food staple and the standard filling in a Gatsby

25. Gatsby

    Gatsby (a long sandwich meant to be shared)

    Usage

    A foot-long roll split lengthways and packed with hot slaptjips plus a filling — steak, fish, calamari, chicken, sausage or curry. One is cut into four and shared; halves and quarters are also sold. It appeared in Cape Town in the 1970s

26. Pampoenkoekies

    Pampoenkoekies (small pumpkin fritters)

    Usage

    Pumpkin folded into a batter and cooked as small rounds. Sweetened and served as a side dish with a meal

27. Melktert

    Melktert (milk tart)

    Usage

    A custard of milk, flour, sugar and egg baked in a sweet pastry shell, dusted with cinnamon. The milk-to-egg ratio is higher than in European custard tarts, so the texture is lighter

28. Malvapoeding

    Malvapoeding (warm sticky sponge pudding)

    Usage

    A spongy, caramelised pudding made with apricot jam, soaked in a warm cream sauce as it comes out of the oven and served hot with custard or ice cream

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