South Africa: Food and the National Dish

A cuisine that mirrors an unusually diverse country

South African food genuinely reflects the country's diversity, Indigenous African, Dutch and British colonial, Indian and Cape Malay influences all sit alongside each other, sometimes in the same meal, producing a food culture famous for variety more than for one overarching style.

The national ritual: the braai

The braai, meat grilled over open coals, most often boerewors sausage, steak or chicken, is South Africa's most widely shared food tradition, genuinely treated as a social occasion bringing together family and friends rather than simply a cooking method. National Braai Day, held on 24 September, Heritage Day, is a non-profit initiative begun in 2005 and endorsed by the National Heritage Council in 2008 that promotes the braai as a unifying tradition across South Africa's different communities.

Meat, maize and a genuinely layered pantry

Beef, boerewors sausage and biltong, dried cured meat, anchor much of everyday South African cooking, alongside maize porridge (pap), a staple across many South African households. Curry spices, reflecting Cape Malay and Indian influence, and a wide range of vegetables round out a pantry shaped by the country's varied settlement history.

History behind the grill

South African cooking grew from Indigenous African foodways joined, from the 17th century, by Dutch and British settlers, enslaved people brought from Bengal, Java and Malaysia, and Indian indentured labourers in the 19th century, and the braai is now a shared ritual practised across the country's different communities. Bunny chow, a hollowed-out bread loaf filled with curry, developed among Durban's Indian community and has been dated to the 1940s; its precise origins are disputed, with one story crediting workers who needed a quick meal they could carry on short breaks. It stands as a distinctly South African dish born from that specific community's history.

Dishes to know

Five more to recognise across South Africa:

• Bunny chow — a hollowed bread loaf filled with curry, a Durban

Indian-South African invention.

• Bobotie — a spiced minced meat dish topped with an egg-based

custard, a Cape Malay specialty.

• Biltong — dried, cured meat, a genuine everyday snack nationwide.
• Pap — a maize porridge, a staple across many South African

households.

• Chakalaka — a spicy vegetable relish, often served alongside pap

and meat.

Drinks

Rooibos tea, made from a plant grown in the Cederberg in South Africa's Western Cape and protected as a designation of origin in the EU, is a genuine national product with a distinct flavour unlike regular tea. South African wine, produced across several established regions including Stellenbosch, and locally brewed beer are also widely enjoyed.

Eating as a traveller

Vegetarians will find pap, vegetable and curry-based dishes manageable, though meat is central to the braai tradition. Tap water is safe to drink in the cities. Attending or being invited to a braai is a genuine, widely shared way to experience South African hospitality and food culture together.

What to take from the table

The braai, grilling meat over open coals as a shared social occasion, is the tradition that most unites South Africa's genuinely diverse food culture, one national ritual bridging countless different culinary backgrounds.