Namibian Food and Drink

Seeing the Joy of Cooking on Ian's bookshelf yesterday, reminded me that I haven't given much consideration to Namibian cuisine. Every country we've visited has its own particular foods and drinks and Namibia is no exception. Because of its colonial heritage, there's significant German and European influence here. For instance, the breads are good here in Luderitz, especially the brotchen that we buy fresh every day at the supermarket and the hearty dark, seeded breads. The strudels aren't bad either!

Eisbein seems to be on every menu in every restaurant in Luderitz. This is a pickled ham hock, prepared in the German tradition, usually served with sauerkraut. I've avoided it. Sausages and wursts are common and folks still “braai” in the Afrikaans tradition.

The local beers, both produced by NamBrew, are Windhoek and Tafel, brewed locally, but in the German tradition. They're quite good and we've loaded a case aboard for future consumption.

Tripe, also known as afval, is a traditional food here. The Afrikaans word afval translates to offal (or in my vocabulary ... awful). It's cow and sheep stomach and it's sold in most grocery stores. They make it more palatable (as if) by preparing it in a potjie (the traditional slow-cooking pot) and adding curry. Of course, my mom grew up on a farm and they ate pickled tripe and there are a zillion recipes for preparing tripe worldwide, so this isn't just an African thing. Then there's pluck which is a hardy combination of heart, lung, kidney and livers of animals prepared with potatoes and onions and served in a spicy sauce. No matter how well it's prepared and how lovely it's presented, I just can't get my tongue around it.

David has tried all sorts of game meat … kudu, springbok, oryx … and he compares them to the venison and elk that he's eaten in America.  They're served as steaks and in stews and ground up for meatballs, etc. It seems reasonable that native folks would eat what was plentiful and the “boks” (bucks) are plentiful here. There's also zebra, crocodile and ostrich available. Ix-nay on the zebra and croc (I'm sure they taste like chicken), but ostrich was actually pretty good.  Biltong, dried, salted meat like jerky, is eaten frequently here and is sold here in bulk or you can grab a piece out of a jar at the grocery check-out. It's available in all those “gamey” varieties.

I saw “mahangu” in the flour section of the OK Grocery and wondered what it was. Mahangu is grown as a subsistence cereal crop here in Namibia and we'd know it as pearl millet. It's served at most meals to stretch the budget and fill the bellies. It can be cooked into a thick porridge and shaped into balls to be eaten by hand with stews. It can also be fermented and turned into an alcoholic drink called oshikundu, sold by local women on the streets up north.

There's local asparagus, Luderitz oysters and crayfish, Kalahari truffles, and omajowa, the large fleshy mushrooms that appear for a brief period at the foot of termite hills in the north shortly after the rains in February. But, the pièce de résistance … a delightful, pop-in-your-mouth snack that's sure to please … mopane worms. Actually, they're the caterpillar phase of the Emperor moth (gonimbrasia belina) and not worms and they're found in mopane trees, hence the name. They're considered quite the delicacy and provide a major source of protein for some of the Namibian indigenous people.

They're prepared by squeezing out their green guts and boiling them in salt water. They can then be dried or prepared fresh … sauteed in oil with a little garlic, onion and tomato or some spicy peri-peri sauce maybe. The locals tend to eat the dried ones like peanuts … salty and crunchy. Yum. No … I did not try them. I think they'd be considered meat and, well, I don't eat meat. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. And, no, this is not a recipe for our cookbook.

Uniquely South African...Food and Drink

Visiting and traveling in a new country always leads us to experimentation in the eating department … sometimes by choice, other times by necessity. South Africa is known as “the rainbow nation” because of its diversity of people and cultures, each contributing to South African cuisine. We had breakfast at a park camp while traveling recently and we were encouraged to have mealie pap for breakfast. It's the most common hot breakfast porridge (cereal) in South Africa. I think we'd call it grits in the USA. Corn meal or flour is called mealie here. It was bland and filling.

Bunny chow is an interesting concoction and famous in Durban if you're into fast, unhealthy foods sold at the local corner store. Take a half loaf of unsliced white bread, dig out the center and fill it with curry (or other things like chips smothered in cheese sauce). Stick the white bread you pulled out of the center on top to resemble a bunny's cottontail and you've got bunny chow. We tried it for lunch one day. Once was enough.

Biltong is dried, salty strips of meat, much like jerky. The usual is beef, but it's available in all sorts of game varieties … kudu, crocodile, ostrich. We saw signs offering biltong most everywhere we traveled.

We're not sausage fans, so when we saw boerewors at the braai at  Shaymoya Lodge, it wasn't an option for me. Add to this the fact that these long sausage are coiled up like intestines or dead snakes and I have to admit, it was not appealing. I'm not feeling guilty about it either.

Ostrich is farmed commercially here in South Africa and available in most grocery stores. It's a lean red meat that tastes fine. You can buy it as steaks or mince (ground). Since I don't eat read meat, but I do eat poultry, it was a quandary. Since ostrich is a big bird, I tried it and liked it and we often have it in place of ground turkey.

Sauces and accompaniments are interesting here in South Africa. Spicy is the key word. Chakalaka is a spicy relish that South Africans like to put on lots of things. When they're not using chakalaka, they pile on the PeriPeri sauce made from African bird's eye chili … think tobasco sauce with more zing. For the more sedate, Mrs. Ball's Chutney is a classic favorite.

In the drinks department, there are some uniquities, too. Rooibos (roy-boss) tea, for instance, is a big seller here. Literally, “red bush”, rooibos is an herbal bush tea made from the leaves of the local Aspalathus linearis plant. I've tried it, but it's not a favorite of mine. Perhaps, it's an acquired taste.

The most popular South African beers are lagers: Castle, Hansa and Carling Black Label. Craft beers and microbreweries are becoming more popular, we're told. We'll certainly sample some if given the opportunity.

Tisers are carbonated fruit juices that are absolutely wonderful. They're available in apple, white and red grape, pear … all of which we've tried and love. New flavors include pomegranate and mango which obviously need to be tried before we leave. By the way, the company is 50% owned by CocaCola.

We've mentioned Amarula before. It is a cream liqueur made from the marula fruit. It's splendid. There's a wonderful African elephant on the label begging for more explanation. Here's the story … legend has it that elephants love the marula fruit (something like a mango) and when they eat rotting fruit on the ground, they become drunk. Scientists have discounted these stories, but the myth persists.

This is a mere sampling of the varied cuisines in South Africa. There's lots we haven't tried yet, like bobotie or koeksister, for instance. From the native cultures to Malay to Indian to Dutch to British to Asian … all have contributed to a melange of tastes and culinary offerings. We're game to try them all (other than the boerewors, that is!).