South African cooking has four roots: indigenous African grains and stews, Dutch and Huguenot settler food, the Cape Malay kitchen brought by people enslaved from Indonesia and Malaysia, and the Indian food of indentured labourers who arrived in Natal from 1860. They have not merged into one cuisine so much as continued alongside each other.
Braai
A braai is a barbecue and also a social form; the word is a verb, a noun and an occasion. It is done over wood or charcoal, never gas, and the person at the fire is not to be relieved. Boerewors, a coiled farmers sausage of coarse beef with coriander and clove, is the standard, alongside lamb chops, steak and sosaties, skewers marinated in curry and apricot. Sides are pap, a stiff maize porridge, with a tomato and onion relish, and chakalaka, a spiced vegetable relish. Braai Day is celebrated on 24 September, which is also Heritage Day.
Potjiekos
A three-legged cast iron pot set directly in the coals and left for hours, layered with meat and vegetables and never stirred. It descends from Dutch settler cooking on the trek and remains a weekend ritual.
Cape Malay
The kitchen of the Bo-Kaap community is aromatic rather than fiery. Bobotie is spiced minced meat with dried fruit under a baked egg custard, served with yellow rice and raisins — arguably the national dish. Denningvleis is a sour lamb stew, and koeksisters are plaited doughnuts soaked in syrup, distinct from the Cape Malay koesister, which is spiced and rolled in coconut.
Durban and Indian food
Durban has the largest Indian population of any city outside India and its own curry tradition, hotter than the Cape version and heavy on chilli and masala. Bunny chow is a hollowed half loaf of white bread filled with curry, invented so that workers barred from restaurants could carry a meal; it is eaten with the hands and there is no cutlery involved.
Snacks and staples
Biltong is air-dried cured beef or game, closer to Italian bresaola than to jerky, and droewors is its sausage version. Bunny chow aside, the everyday township meal is kota, a quarter loaf filled with chips, polony and atchar. Pap and shisa nyama, grilled meat bought by weight at a butchery and cooked on the spot, is the standard weekend eating in Soweto and worth seeking out.
Drink
Wine from the Cape is world class and cheap by international standards. Rooibos, a bush tea from the Cederberg and grown nowhere else, is caffeine free and drunk everywhere. Amarula, a cream liqueur from marula fruit, and craft beer from a rapidly growing scene round out the list. Tap water is drinkable in the major cities.