Same as traveling to any new countries, before you go there it’s important to learn first about the local foods and beverages, because not every meal can suits your stomach.
South African cuisine mostly dominated by corn-based and meat-based food, as this country has a large area of farm and cattle breeding. Now I want to talk about braai, who not point to a specific dish, but rather a social gathering custom of many African countries.
Example of traditional braai (photo from Daily Mail)The word braai is Afrikaans for barbecue or roast. Braai can be use to describing how food is cooked, the equipment of cooking, or called an event where family and friends converge on a picnic spot or someone’s home.
The traditional braai of South Africa is not about the food recipes. it’s about the people who enjoy this great tradition where the men cluster around the fire, nursing the coals to a perfect grey. The main difference between braai and barbeque, it’s mostly using open flame rather than a gas.
Meats are the star of the South African braai. They typically include boerewors (sausage), sosaties (kebab, grilled marinated meat on a skewer), marinated chicken, pork and lamb chops, steaks, of different flavors and thickness, and possibly even a rack or two of spareribs.
There is also a Braai Day, a celebration of South Africa’s rich cultural heritage and its unique national pastime, the braai. It aims to unite all South Africans by encouraging them to partake in a fun and tangible activity shared by all demographic groups, religious denominations and body types. It’s celebrated every September 24 (South Africa’s Heritage Day)
Now, the best beverage to acoompanying braai, is of course wine. This might not yet a familiar knowledge among European and United States tourist, but South Africa is the eighth largest wine producer in the world.
Vineyard in South AfricaIt is down south in the Cape, where climactic and topographic conditions simulate those of the old wine countries, that the continent’s best vineyard lies and where the finest wines are produced. Traditionally South African red wines had a reputation for being coarse in texture with rustic flavors.
