The Food, Part I

Obviously, any trip anywhere requires at least a mention of food.  At least, it does if you travel with me.  And obviously, being in a continent like Africa you’re going to encounter many different foods that you wouldn’t otherwise find in other parts of the world.

For the most part, while camping we had fairly basic and familiar food: pork, chicken, boerwoers (basically the South African equivalent to Bratwurst, but much better), bacon rashers and lamb, grilled over the fire and served with flame-grilled veggies, salad and potatoes or rice.  Since the places we are visiting have pretty decent supermarkets at least 100 miles either way of where we were heading we were able to stock our little truck fridge with fresh veggies and meats.  It was a nice change from the rich foods we’re used to eating on the boat, and given that most days are spent driving in a car for hours on end, heavy food is not necessarily what we needed. 

Mornings consist of coffee or tea and rusks, which are similar to biscotti but a bit heartier.  We buy sandwich meat and cheese for sandwiches at lunch; sometimes we eat at the campsite or have to stop off the side of the road to quickly eat before continuing on. 

Occasionally, we’ll dine out, and one night in Zambia we treated ourselves to some “authentic” African cooking.  This included an African beef stew (named something but I can’t remember), nshima (a grit-like side dish), crocodile bites and Mopani worms.

Yep, worms.  Apparently a delicacy in Africa, the Mopani tree produces a particular caterpillar that are laid out in the sun to dry out, then fried to a crisp.  But from what we’ve been told by others since this experience, these were not indicative of what true Mopani worms taste like.  Good thing too, because they were gross.  Not crunchy like they’re supposed to be, but chewy and bitter.  I managed to swallow down a bite but could not finish the rest.  Anya didn’t even bother swallowing it but instead spit it out.  Matt, being the good eater that he was, ate at least 10 even though he didn’t particularly like them.  The crocodile bites tasted like (surprise!) chicken.  They really weren’t bad at all, and were served with a spicy chili mayo to help add a little flavor to them.

Otherwise, during most of our time in the bush of Namibia, we’ve relied on our cooking/caveman hunt and gather skills and made dinner.  Actually it was the boys who’ve done most of the cooking.  We agreed that one couple would cook one night, and the other couple would clean up and the next night switch. Twice Ron and Anya made a Potjie (pronounced like “pwork-ey”) which is a stew slow cooked for hours and hours and hours.  It was absolutely delicious.  One night was lamb (and me not being a lamb eater, I had two helpings!) and the next time was cola chicken.  Matt’s contribution one night was chili, and I decided that it had been way too long since I’d made beef stroganoff so I decided to give that a try.

Otherwise, other foods that are popular in South Africa (or Namibia, or Zambia) are as follows: biltong (jerky), double starches with every meal (meaning, you eat rice and potatoes, or potatoes and nshima, or rice and French fries, or potatoes and sweet potatoes), rusks (I’ve already mentioned these), butter (on EVERYTHING), peri peri (a very spicy mix that you put on chicken), All Gold tomato sauce (ketchup but soooooo much better than Heinz!), beetroot, braai spice, and Feta cheese.

The feta cheese.  Oh. My.  This is by far the best feta I’ve ever eaten.  Okay, now I’ve never been to Greece, so I can’t be completely certain when I say that the feta in Africa is by far the best tasting feta in the WORLD, but I’m willing to travel to Greece to taste compare.  Seriously, I don’t know what they feed their sheep and goats, but they can teach American dairy farmers a thing or two.  So sweet, tangy, salty and creamy.  And lucky for me, Greek salad is the quintessential salad in this area.  Which means, feta for every meal!!

Anyway, it’s safe to say that we are not going to bed hungry on this trip.  When you want food, you can find it. 

More food reports to come.  On that I promise you!!