SGSA: Culture and cuisine

Well, since culture comes from history, let's start there. SA history is, in a word: complicated. I can’t possibly do it justice here*, but let’s just give you the 60-second synopsis:

Cradle of humankind — pristine wilderness** — route to India — weird European politics — Portuguese explorers — Dutch settlers — persecuted French Protestants — English colonisation — Great Trek — bloody skirmishes with “the natives” — bloody Anglo-Boer skirmishes — Republic — apartheid — resistance — Nelson Mandela — 1994 elections — Rainbow Nation.

There. Are we all caught up now?

Our culture is as complicated as our history. But I'm too lazy to go into all that. To generalise, then: South Africans are friendly, outdoorsy and sporty. (Not me, though. Obviously.) Capetonians will tell you Joburgers are aggressive, money-obsessed yuppies who can’t drive; Joburgers will tell you Capetonians are sleepy, cliquey snobs who can’t drive.

There’s something of a class divide between the (more urban) English and (more rural) Afrikaans. There is, obviously, a class divide between white and black (and, for that matter, coloured*** – not the same as black, in SA – and Indian); there is also a class divide between the new black elite and the masses still struggling to stay alive and well in the townships, or the rural backwaters. It’s a very, very complicated country.

But you will notice one thing: almost everyone you see has a big smile. True. To my cynical friends back home: if you disagree, try leave the country for a few months, then go back. You will notice it. It’s amazing. Despite everything we’ve been through, SA is a happy country. (Where else would a dance serve as political protest?)

It's also a country that eats remarkably well. There is an Afrikaans word: “lekkerbek”. You might translate this as glutton, or epicure, depending on personal prejudice. But who wouldn’t be a lekkerbek with all that to enjoy?

In Cape Town or Joburg, you can pretty much pop into any random place you see on the street and enjoy a good meal (barring extreme bad luck). There isn’t, ostensibly, a strongly defined South African cuisine — we have the usual profusion of Italian, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese, French, fusion, etc etc, but there are certain characteristic menu items: Malay curry, smoked snoek (a strongly flavoured fish), malva pudding, Cape brandy tart, Dom Pedro (essentially a whisky milkshake, or made with other liqueurs).

More deliberately South African fare includes ostrich steak (ostrich tastes much like lean, extra flavoursome beef; the chocolate-chilli sauce it comes with at Madame Zingara’s in CT is already legendary) and boerewors (a coarse textured, spicy, herby sausage). If you eat at The Ritz in Sea Point — a proper, cheesy, overpriced revolving restaurant, but with rather fabulous food, and you really can't complain about the view — you can sample crocodile carpaccio and Namibian gemsbok fillet. Afrikaans cuisine borrows from Malay and other traditions (with bobotie, for instance: a sort of crustless mince pie involving raisins, with egg on top) and is big on stodge and sugar. Even the vegetables are cooked with sugar, and koeksusters (essentially braided dough soaked in syrup) are toothachingly sweet. (I love them, obviously.)

Traditional African kos (food) revolves around a staple diet of mielie pap (maize porridge) and spicy sauce, with as much meat as can be found. Once upon a time mopani worms were eaten for survival when meat was hard to come by; now they're just a crunchy snack.

Biltong (smoked meat, anything from beef to springbok) is the number one bar snack and of course in Cape Town, there is an abundance of seafood (I especially recommend the calamari).

And don’t forget to visit the wine farms, the cheese makers, the pick-your-own orchards…

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* Plus, being a victim of Christian Nationalist education, I’m embarrassingly ignorant and am just now reading up to improve my knowledge.

** That is, it was bloody hard to get to.

*** An apartheid word for those of mixed race. The PC term these days is “formerly known as coloured” or something of that ilk, although generally “black” is preferred for all categories known, under apartheid, as “non-white”. Complicated, huh?