Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Meat, mealies and Malay Curries

 
El Apartheid intentó separar a las gentes de diferentes países, pero las tradiciones culinarias de muchas de las culturas que forman Sudáfrica se ha mezclado durante siglos.  La nación del arco iris cuenta con una cocina que fusiona elementos Europeos, Africanos y Asiáticos. Por otro lado, la combinación de los climas Mediterraneos y subtropicales hace que cualquier cosa pueda crecer, desde limones y uvas a mangos y papayas. Veamos en este post las principales características de esta cocina tan colorida.

Meat

South African of all colours love meat more than anything else, and the braai (barbecue) is a sacred (sagrada) national institution. If you are invited to one in somebody’s garden you have to bring something, for example sosaties (meat kebabs) or boerewors sausages.(salchichas) For something more exotic, there is ostrich (avestruz) or crocodile. You eat these accompanied by delicious relishes (salsa de pepinillos) made with tomato, onion and chillies. And also by lots of ginger beer (cerveza de gengibre) or Castle lager.

Mealies

For millions of South African living in poverty,(pobreza), maize (maíz) is the staple (alimento de primera necesidad) of their diet and grows all over (crece por todo) the country. But all South Africans love this versatile cereal. No braai is complete without some mealiepap, made from ground (molido) maize. You can buy green mealies, roasted on the cob (asados con mazorcas) from women at the side of the road, or eat porridge (avena) made from mealie-meal for breakfast.

 


Malay Curries

With people of Malay and Indian descent living in South Africa for hundreds of years, it is not surprising that curry and rice is a national dish. Curries here are equally hot (picantes) as Indian ones and the Tandoori restaurants are excellent. Bobotie is another Malay-influenced dish – a variation of beef (ternera) curry with fruits and nuts (frutos secos) and an egg sauce (salsa de huevos) on top. Every South African housewife (ama de casa) has her favourite version, which she loves to cook for any visitor.

No comments: