Hungry? South African Food Offers An Amazing Variety in Dishes

Many people get fed up of eating the same thing for dinner week after week. For those who have an adventurous palette South African food can be a great change! The incredible blend of cooking style, presentation and spices can be attributed to this nation’s incredible history. South Africa has emerged as a polyglot cuisine.

Many factors have contributed to this, such as: European colonization, the adaptation of the native Bantu cooking, and massive immigration of foreigners and workers. The Dutch settlers brought with them their specific forms of agriculture, and the British merchants imported the "mixed grills" that now include African game meats. French cultivated the vineyards, known worldwide today. The Malay contribution was the curries, adding spice to a traditionally drab English-Dutch influence. The Indians of the British Empire who came to construct railroads influenced South African cuisine with dals, lentil soups, and curries.

Game meat or as it is often called: wild meat, and lamb, the famous South African lobster, and a wide variety of fish add to a truly cosmopolitan cuisine. However in the smaller towns where mostly native Africans reside, the main meals remain starch and stew based. South Africa's most unusual meat is called Biltong. It’s a spicy form of jerky, usually wind-dried, and is commonly used in traveling. This can be found not only country wide, but throughout Africa.

African villages boast of the more traditional African foods. The villager’s diet often consist of milk, curds and whey, and dishes of steamed or boiled green vegetables, peas, beans, and cereals. And of course not a day can go by without the starches: cassava, yams, and sweet potatoes. Outside of Muslim Africa, alcoholic beverages contribute to an integral part of the African diet. South Africa is celebrated for the production of good quality white and red wines. In addition to this South Africa also produces a tangerine based liqueur called Van Der Hum. Tusker, the famous Kenyan beer, is exported for those who want to recreate a meal. Beer goes well with most African cuisine.

South Africa is home to numerous population groups with different languages, cultural backgrounds and origins. The province of Natal is home to about one million Indians, whose forefathers came to South Africa to work on the sugarcane plantations. In addition to this there are also about three million people of mixed race, commonly dubbed "coloureds," living in the Cape region. They are descendants of the first Dutch settlers and the native population of the Cape (Khoikhoi) or the Malays, who were taken to South Africa as slaves from East India in the 18th century. Thus South African cuisine is a true reflection of the cooking talents and traditions of all these peoples.