What do people eat in South Africa?
South Africans eat pap, a maize porridge, at almost any meal, and grill meat on a braai whenever they can. Breakfast is between 6:00 and 9:00, lunch around 13:00 and dinner at about 19:00.
Typical dishes and their calories
Breakfast
Breakfast is often pap, made thin and served with milk, butter and sugar. A rusk dunked in tea or coffee is the other classic, and Ouma is the brand most homes know. Some families eat Maltabella, a sorghum porridge, instead. A plain rusk with coffee is often the whole meal.
Lunch
Lunch is around 13:00 and looks a lot like dinner: meat, chicken or fish with vegetables and a starch. In the Cape that can be bobotie, spiced mince baked under an egg custard and served with yellow rice and chutney, about 450 kcal a plate before the sides.
Dinner
Dinner is at 19:00 or 20:00. In many homes it is stiff pap with a tomato and onion gravy and meat, called pap en vleis. A plate of stiff pap is about 270 kcal. Umngqusho, samp and beans cooked slowly, is the Xhosa classic, and potjiekos is a stew of meat and vegetables cooked in a cast iron pot over a fire.
Starters
Most meals do not start with a starter. At a braai, people eat while the fire burns down: biltong, air dried spiced beef, at about 140 kcal for 50 g, and braaibroodjies, toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches made on the grill. Chakalaka, a spicy relish of beans, peppers and onion, goes on the table next to the meat.
Desserts
Malva pudding is a soft sponge with apricot jam, soaked in a hot cream syrup and served with custard, about 330 kcal a portion. Melktert is a milk tart with cinnamon on top. Koeksisters are twisted, fried dough soaked in cold syrup, and the Cape Malay koesister is a soft spiced doughnut rolled in coconut.
Drinks
Rooibos, a red herbal tea native to South Africa, is drunk at all hours. Beer goes with every braai, and a 340 ml bottle of lager is about 140 kcal. South Africa is one of the ten biggest wine producers in the world. Umqombothi, a thick beer brewed from maize and sorghum, is made at home for ceremonies.
Street food
Bunny chow comes from Durban: a quarter loaf of white bread hollowed out and filled with curry, eaten by hand, about 850 kcal. A kota is a quarter loaf filled with chips, polony and cheese, and a gatsby is a long Cape Town roll packed with fillings. Vetkoek, fried dough with mince or jam, is about 270 kcal each.
Normal there, odd elsewhere
A braai is a social event as much as a meal, and in the townships it is called shisa nyama. Biltong can be made from springbok, kudu or ostrich as well as beef. A bunny chow has no bunny in it, and the bread you scooped out is used to mop up the curry. A sweet porridge with sugar is a normal breakfast for adults.