With its rainbow of societies and cultures, the South African food scene provides a remarkable assortment of delectable dishes. South African food is a real representation of the nation’s rainbow culture; it has something for every person that visits South Africa. From the pleasantly unique taste of South Africa's multicultural and indigenous rainbow cuisine to exceptional culinary specialties from all around the globe.
Absolutely nothing is prepared over-done or over-handled; in fact, it is just amazing, fresh, elegant and bursting with exciting flavours. South African food is served with traditional recipes and surrounded by many years of cooking excellence, every meal is an occasion.
South Africa's cooking is unique as it incorporates many different cooking cultures into one. When visiting a restaurant in South African you will realize they have it all and more, including the exotic. So, do not miss out on the opportunity to try some of its traditional specialties when you do visit South Africa.
The more daring restaurant-diners might like to try out the not so familiar delicacies like the fried caterpillars, crocodile sirloin or lamb heads also known as the smiley. I can attest that all three these delicacies are rather tasty.
For those that are not so brave, there are many other indigenous specialities like the delicious Bobotie or the Pot-meal also known as "poytjiekos" and the kingklip a fish delicacy and that is just naming a few.
Below are a couple of well-known South African foods you want to try out if you were to visit South African in the near future. Visit - https://www.saffatrading.co.za
The Achar
The word Achar is an Indian word that describes a pickle. It is made from fresh vegetables that has been cut and sliced. A cook normally uses lime, mango and chilli to make this delicious relish. There are numerous ways in making true Achar, but normally veggies are soaked in some spices, lime juice and salt in a jar. The cook will then leave this concoction out in the sunlight for many weeks until its ready to move on to the next phase. Later on, cooking oil is added. (Which depends upon the fruit or vegetable that are being utilized in this concoction) The cooking oil is then poured over the marinated veggie concoction to preserve it. The outcome is very tasty and will compliment any sort of Indian-South-African Meal.
The South African Avocado
The South African avocado is an exotic pear shaped fruit that are grown in the Kwazulu-Natal and northern parts of the Mpumalanga province and even so far as the North East of Limpopo.
The South African avocado is extremely popular in vegan cuisine, making it an exceptional alternative to meats in salads and sandwiches, due to the fact that it is high in protein and consist of good fats and has an awesome taste. The Avocado is not sweet but rather strongly flavoured and has a nearly velvety creamy flavour. The flesh from the avo is green against the skin of the fruit, but it’s much lighter as you near the pit in the middle. Avocado is a preferred fruit in poultry dishes and sometimes it is served on a sandwich with some salt and pepper for taste.
Biltong, one more Saffa favourite
For the black African men and women and the “Voortrekkers" that were moving around in the 17th and 18th century there was only one method of preserving their meat and that was by drying and curing the meat so it could last for many months.
These days this dried and cured meat is referred to as Biltong, a prominent and well-known treat in South Africa, almost as popular as a bag of chips while watching a game of American Grid Iron or watching a local football match in the UK.
A quick overview on how to make biltong
The biltong meat is seasoned with some rock salt, soaked in vinegar and afterwards sprinkled with coriander and ground pepper. After that the meat is air-dried in a fairly dry and warm area. Normally if you are living in non-coastal regions in South African, you would be able to air dry the meat within a couple of days but if you are living on a coastal area like Cape Town you may want to invest in a biltong box. You can buy biltong on the following link - https://www.saffatrading.co.za/Biltong-and-Boerewors