---
title: "South African food: An (incomplete) glossary"
description: "The lowdown on local grub, from biltong to tripe and trotters."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "DM168 HERITAGE"
author: "Rebecca Davis"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/rebeccadavis-2-2/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-09-25-south-african-food-an-incomplete-glossary/"
published: "2021-09-25T20:05:12"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 794
---

# South African food: An (incomplete) glossary

> The lowdown on local grub, from biltong to tripe and trotters.

By Rebecca Davis · Published 25 September 2021, 22:05 SAST

## Content

*First published in the****Daily Maverick 168****weekly newspaper.*

**Biltong:**Americans will tell you that they have their own version of biltong, but beef jerky is a pale imitation of our flavourful, spicy, incredibly expensive snack. Woolies biltong is one of the most costly substances on Earth, narrowly beating saffron and beluga caviar.

**Bobotie:**One of those love-or-hate dishes, your appetite for bobotie is largely predicated on your fondness for the combination of hot egg and raisins.

**Boeber:**Cape Malay drink made of rose water, milk and vermicelli, used to break the fast during Ramadan – aka the most delicious thing your parched mouth ever tasted, though you might feel differently if you tried it under normal circumstances.

**Boerewors roll:**A previously staunch vegetarian friend recently fell off the wagon, lured by a boerie roll. She ate it with her eyes closed: an indication of the ecstasy this spiced sausage in a hot dog bun can induce.

**Bunny chow** (similar to Spatlho and Kota): This is what Tim Noakes sees in his nightmares. Take half a loaf of white bread and stuff it with meat and chips or curry and salad.

**Chakalaka:** It is illegal in South Africa to say the word “chakalaka” without doing a sassy face or a little hip shake, even though you are just referring to a kind of relish.

**Chicken Licken Hotwings:**Arguably, our national dish. Can also be procured from KFC. If you’ve never indulged, you are the definition of a “coastal elite”.

**Chicken runaways:**Also known as the “walkies” in “walkie talkies” (chicken feet and beaks).

**Come Dine With Me SA:**Our version of the TV cooking show is better than the UK’s because the contestants on the local iteration are usually reeling drunk and include one woman who collects fairies.

**Frikkadel:**Basically a meatball that went to an Afrikaans school.

**Gatsby:**Related to the F Scott Fitzgerald novel only in terms of its excess, this Cape Town favourite requires a roll stuffed with masala steak, eggs, cheese and chips – and three days off work to sleep it off.

**Koesisters:**If you want to spark the national civil war South Africa has thus far avoided, bring up the great koesister/koeksister debate. They are two completely different sweet treats: the first is a kind of spicy donut; the second a syrupy pastry. It would be great if the second type could change its name and apologise.

**Magwinya:** At the end of the day, isn’t there more that unites us than divides us? Proof: in both Afrikaans and African culture, almost nothing is considered more delicious than deep-frying doughballs into little fat cakes (vetkoek to Afrikaners).

**Malva pudding:** A warm malva pudding administered in the heart of a foreign winter can move a homesick South African expat to tears.

**Melktert:**Suggest that this is basically a custard pie at your own peril.

**Monkey gland sauce:**What is in this disgustingly named condiment? Nobody knows.

**Mopane worms (with peri peri sauce):** The kind of thing that Americans would only eat on survival shows where they stand to win a lot of money. We South Africans are made of stronger stuff.

**Mrs Ball’s Chutney:**Technically more of a jam than a chutney, but that hasn’t stopped Mrs Ball from becoming hands-down the most popular white woman in South Africa.

**Nando's:** The Portuguese chicken franchise is SA’s proudest export other than Charlize Theron, Trevor Noah and the Ndlovu Youth Choir.

**Pap:**We didn’t invent it, but we perfected it.

**Polony:**The sort-of-meat choice of many South Africans, despite the world’s deadliest listeriosis outbreak in 2018, which killed almost 200.

**Potjiekos:**In a way, potjiekos is a metaphor for South African society – in that you shove a lot of disparate elements into a confined space and then let resentments simmer to a boil.

**Pumpkin and spinach:** If you have to guess blindly what two vegetables will be served at any South African dinner, it will be these two.

**Samp and beans:**This South African staple, made of maize kernels and sugar beans, can be enjoyed modestly or extravagantly.

**Smileys:**A grimacing, decapitated sheep’s head that you are certain to enjoy over and over again – as it revisits your nightmares after eating.

**Tjop en dop:**Heaven, for most of us. If you do not like to braai, please do us all a favour and emigrate.

**Tripe and trotters:** We are a country with a tremendous appetite for stomach lining. Pair with some curried pig’s feet for the ultimate culinary experience. Many love it; others think it’s offal. **DM168**

*This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper which is available for R25 at Pick n Pay, Exclusive Books and airport bookstores. For your nearest stockist, please click*[*here*](https://168.dailymaverick.co.za/available-here.html)*.*

![Image](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/DM-25092021001.jpg)