I don’t know what it is about the word ‘Africa.’ It tends to make people think of elephants, giraffes, black people, malaria, colors, drums, sunsets, sand and I could go on and on about the common words that spring to the tips of many people’s tongue when they hear the word ‘Africa.’ I am not going to blog about any of those items. The subject is food and the place is South Africa, more specifically the Southern tip around Cape Town. At the University of Gastronomic Sciences, we commonly are seeking the local delights of a place. In other words, “What exists here that does not exist anywhere else?” It was not until my voyage to South Africa until my somewhat cloudy belief was verified: Rather than be fixated on discovering an unknown dish, we should seek more to understand what people eat and how they have adapted their methods of cooking and dining and drinking to their way of life.

(…you would also find biltong: dried meet: similar to beef jerky but not cooked first)