South Africa really has a multiplicity of identities and so determining which the four favourite dishes were was quite challenging: Depending on which apartheid-created or ethnic group each individual felt they were a part of, affected responses to my “what is your favourite South African food?” question. There were a few crossover dishes like, isitambu (or, for example, mngqusho in Xhosa), amagwinya (or vetkoek in Afrikaans) and pap (which I chose not to include because it’s the exact same thing as ugali as shown in the Kenya section). To add to these factors, there is a strong fast-food culture as well as the obvious presence of European- and American-influenced restaurants and dishes.

Overwhelmingly though, “braaing” was a consistent favourite. I was fortunate enough to get to film one and so will be including a video of that too in the South African features.