The gourmet South Africa

I was raised to eat quite a lot, three times per day, grandma’s divine food. When I moved to university, in Bucharest, I had to cook for myself from the first year so I learned the basics as roasted chicken legs with rice, fries or vegetable, boiled or fried eggs and lots of pasta in different sauces. When I landed the job in my third year, I skipped the lunch part – already made sandwiches, salads and Snack Attack’s decadent chocolate mousse were the substitute. I lost some weight, partly because I enjoyed going to gym every week, but I put some back on during my last weeks at Wall-Street, in November last year. My gym subscription expired – as I was using the gym as the university’s student and I was no longer a student – in fact, I graduated last year, July.

I had to rethink my diet here, in South Africa. I mean, rethink with big R, as I stepped in the country of outdoor braais, boerewors and red meat. Not to mention the traditional dry meat, biltong and drywors (dry sausages). That is, camping loving people who don’t stress that much about food (sorry mom, can’t cook big meals three times a day). Their relationship with food is simple – eat to live, not live to eat – but I must say that it can turn to be vice-versa for me, as the food is rather delicious than just simple – maybe that’s why I feel I’ve caught extra weight sometimes.

I started to cook more often, mostly oven bakes, while Ricky remained in charge of making the fire for the braai and wait for the meat to be ready. First let me introduce you in the world of the braai. South Africans are an outdoor nation who love their braais – to remind yourself, that’s how you say barbeque in Afrikaans. Most of all they like to have their sausages, boerewors, right on the grill, together with chicken, beef or pork – spicy versions are common, as chilli and curry can be found as quick as you say it – Indian influences, of course.

Then there’s the side salads (greek, beetroot, corn etc) – I usually make them, whether for us or to bring it at a friend’s braai, and the baked potatoes – the sweet potatoes, called patats, are killer and I must say I prefer them to the old fashioned potatoes everybody cooks. And since the British had a huge impact on South Africa’s development (and cuisine), a garlic bread is always welcomed. As it is bacon and scrambled eggs in the weekend mornings, when I got the chance to cook with my husband. I absolutely love these moments. So far for the braai.

I must confess that I even don’t eat that much fries any more and I choose salads or fish when we go out for dinner. The only decadence I won’t ever give up is big steaks, T-bone steaks to be exact. However, I still cook pasta and rice like I used to do in Romania and vegetables have become VIPs, with stir-fry or veggie bakes among my favourites.

But I truly indulge myself in sushi, shrimps, mussels and snails, as they come quite affordable in restaurants – I’m thinking now of Ocean Basket, where they serve only delicious seafood and where sushi rolls or the traditional British fish and chips can be tasted for as little as 3 euro. The yummy shrimps and buttery rice are oh-so heavenly, but I guess I shouldn’t make you craving for food now. Did I mention the flavour of the hot grilled oceanic fish called snoek? I guess not.My only point was to stress out that South Africans really enjoy their traditional foods, the same way we do about polenta (mamaliga in Romanian) and fresh cottage cheese with cream.