Everyday is a braai day in South Africa!

Heading to Paris or Rome? Looking to spend some time in Asia? Or are you just planning a road trip across a South African province?  As any traveller will tell you, enjoying the local food is one of the greatest experiences one can have whether you are traveling abroad and savouring another country’s local cuisine or right here enjoying the food from different parts of your home country.

The Great Karoo

It’s been more than two and a half weeks since my last post and no I haven’t gotten bored of blogging or been thrown into jail. I’ve been away on holiday visiting the ‘parentals’. My holiday voyage didn’t take me to Asia or Italy but instead it took me inland from wet Cape Town to the dusty and dry desert town of Beaufort West in the Great Karoo.

I grew up in Beaufort West and moved to Cape Town a couple of years ago. The foods that I make and eat nowadays are a far cry from what I had growing up in Beaufort West. I am not specifically talking about a particular cuisine as I am talking about ‘braaing’, a social custom much like barbecuing. ‘Braaing’ is considered to be a very common in South Africa.

Having a ‘braai’ or a ‘BBQ’ isn’t always possible for someone like me living in an apartment in the city as an apartment doesn’t always come with a ‘braai’ or ‘braai’ friendly area. It is always a great treat to go home and have something as simple as ‘braai vleis’ and all of the typical side dishes that goes with it.

Join me on my holiday pilgrimage to Beaufort West as I road trip inland and discover what makes us South Africans tick. 

Beaufort West

As always my arrival in Beaufort West was greeted with a typical 'braai' but not so typical South African 'braai' menu. A typical 'braai' menu that you will find at any 'chop and dop' social will have bread and salad as side dishes and meats as the star. A ‘braai’ would generally include boerewors, sosaties, kebabs, marinated chicken pork and lamb chops, steak, sausages of different flavours and thickness, and possibly even a rack or two of spareribs. The drinks van range from wine, brandy whiskey to an ice cold beer.

For snacks and pre-drinks we had whole-wheat crackers with Philadelphia cream cheese and a drizzle of sweet chili sauce on top followed by a glass of 10 year old Talisker single malt Scotch whiskey chilled with ONLY two cubes of filtered ice. More than two cubes of ice WILL water down the Scotch. 

'

The meat that was served was medium to medium rare A4 lamb chops spiced with 'braai' seasoning and a generous piece of juicy boerewors. Always a winner at a 'braai'. Nothing fancy but it really does hit the spot!

As always the side dishes included 'braai broodjies' and a green salad. A 'braai broodjie' is a toasted tomato and cheddar cheese closed white bread sandwich grilled on open coals. The filling for the 'braai broodjies' can change from 'braai' to 'braai' according to the host's personal liking. A typical 'braai broodjie' filling can range from just tomato and cheddar cheese too tomato, onion and cheddar cheese.

The salad that was served was NOT a typical salad that you would find at a traditional 'braai'. This lovely salad was a warm exotic mushroom and rocket salad with parmezan shavings on top. Simple but delicious.   

Here's how:

1) Saute your exotic mushrooms in butter.
2) Place the mushrooms on a bed of fresh rocket.
3) Generously sprinkle parmazan shavings on top.

Serve with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

A couple of my regular readers, but NOT subscribers, you know who you are, has asked me to do a piece on South African 'braais'. I hope you found this post as interesting and mouth watering as I have. As always, read eat and enjoy!