Traditional foods in your country

[Snip 13]

Since there are so many different people from all over on DC I thought it might be fun to see what all our traditional foods are

So here goes South Africa!
Breakfast: Maize porridge with butter milk and sugar
Dinner: Boerewors with pap and tomato and onion gravy or Samp and beans with Morogo (wild spinach) and Seswaa (beef on the bone cooked slowly with spices for a few hours and pulled into shreds)

 

[Zhizara]

Good idea, but we Americans don't know many of your terms. Would you explain what Boerewors with pap, and Samp are?

 

[CraigC]

I bet you would find quite a few countries, like the US and Italy that have regional foods that are traditional. In the US most foods are representative of the cultures that immigrated here throughout our history as well as from native cultures. My ancestory is German and Irish.

Craig

 

[Snip 13]

Hi Sure I'll explain. Pap is maizemeal made from white corn that is cooked either firm like polenta and served with meat and veg. Samp is dried white corn kernels that are beaten in a large mortar and pestle until the out husk comes off and then cooked and served like rice. Boerewors is a South African ground beef sausage spiced with things like coriander seed and cloves.

 

[Snip 13]

Hi CraigC I was actually just curious to hear what dishes are eaten in all the different countries. I'm half South African and Half Irish myself and married to a German man. SA also has many dishes influenced by lots of cultures, I guess most countries do bur we do put our own spin on things. I prefer German and Italian food myself, nothing like a good Eisbein or Lasagna!

 

[MSC]

Hi Snip, I see you're located in Botswana, and even though I've read the McCall-Smith books, not really acquainted with Botswana 'cuisine', if there is such a thing, or is it much like South African?
Please tell us about the differences between the two.

 

[Snip 13]

Hi there MSC
Yes, I'm South African and I've been living in Botswana for 7 years now. Both countries have similar traditional food but not exactly the same. Botswana's traditional dish is Seswaa (slow cooked, pulled beef) with pap(maize porridge) or samp(dried de-hulled white corn kernels) and beans served with wild spinach (morogo).
South Africa's tradional dish is Pap serevd with tomato and onion gravy. Beef slow cooked on the bones and Morogo.
I'm Afrikaans myself and we eat our pap with tomato and onion gravy and boerewors (beef sausage) our typical veg would be green beans cooked with onion and potatoes mashed together with butter salt and pepper, sweet pumpkin mashed or spinach.
Locals in Botswana also eat a lot of goat meat, fatcakes and sorghum. They prepare the whole sorghum as a starch with meat or make a soured porridge with milled sorghum for breakfast. I could go on for hours so I think it's better you ask if you want to know anything else. Odette

 

[ChocolateFrosting]

Hello! Good question Snip

Traditional British food is always a bit hit and miss... here goes.

Scones (cream teas - clotted cream and jam) apparently there's a small riot going on that the moment because the various cream tea connoisseurs are fighting for protection and recognition of their traditional teas (Devonshire, Cornish, Yorkshire etc). Quite funny really.

Fish & Chips - Went to NZ a while back and they boast that they have better F&C then us. Honestly... ... they do, kinda (but theirs doesn't come in newspaper!) Plus their Cadburys isn't very nice and ours is lush - lol

Roast dinners & Yorkshire puddings! Yummy.

Cheddar cheese!!

Marmite's ours too. Yum

(^^combine the two for a tasty sandwich!)

The Victoria Sponge
The Digestive biscuit is Scottish, as is the shortbread.

That's a good start I think...

Looking forward to all the posts to come!

 

[Snip 13]

Thanks Chocolate Frosting!
Finally someone that gets where I was going with this. What foreigners think is the traditional food isn't always. I knew about fish and chips and the yorkshire puds. Love Yorkshire puds, we have a few good fish a chip shops in SA too. They serve the fish in newspaper. And we eat our scones with Jam and Cream. Must be the european influence. What exactly is clotted cream, heard of it but I'm not sure?
In SA there is also a big difference between african tradition and afrikaans.
Afrikaans TRaditional food also included skilpadtjies (minced and spiced lambs liver covered in Coldvat) grilled till crispy on the outside and eaten with relish. We also do Kaaings with maizemeal. Kaaings are the fatty bits of the lamb with a bit of meat on cooked till real crisp like crackling yum!!!
We eat melkkos too which is milk with small dough like crumbles added to it and cooked till the flour in the dough thickens the whole mixture and is cooked through. Then we serve it in bowls with cinnamon sugar and butter.

 

[Zhizara]

There are also regional foods: Here in Louisiana, we have cajun seasoning, blackened fish or chicken, gumbo, Andouille sausage, jambalaya.

For definitions/recipes, there are others here at DC who can fill you in on these better than I can.

 

[Snip 13]

Sounds Yummy! I've heard of most of those dishes but I would really like to know what blakened fish is? And if anyone has a good Cajun spice blend for me that would be nice. Want to make Cajun style prawns

 

[pacanis]

"green beans cooked with onion and potatoes mashed together with butter salt and pepper"

This sounds good. How do you make it? Do you mash everything together and how "mashed" is it?

 

[Snip 13]

It's really yummy! Just take about 500gr of greenbeans, chop them into about 1 and a half cm pieces, dice one large onion and 2 large potatoes. Put everything in a pot and boil till tender. Mash with a fork (a masher makes it too mushy) Add cracked black pepper, salt and plenty of butter and enjoy! We also eat swiss chard this way.

 

[pacanis]

A lot of us make something similar, but tend to do it right there on our plates

 

[Snip 13]

I can't believe I forgot about biltong and drywors! and I call myself South african LOL!

 

[ChocolateFrosting]

Thanks Chocolate Frosting!
Finally someone that gets where I was going with this. What foreigners think is the traditional food isn't always. [...] What exactly is clotted cream, heard of it but I'm not sure?

No problem! I love traveling and sampling different countries' food so I'm all up for hearing about some local grub!!

I think that's what is so nice about food, it's a truly global thing. Something that starts in one country travels all round and get changed or adapted and become part of the local life. It's a truly global enterprise!!

As for clotted cream, it's essentially really thick cream.

Apparently made by:
You heat up upasterised cow milk using steam or something similar like a water bath, then let it cool. The creamy bit that rises to the top is clotted cream.

I must confess to not knowing how it was made, and having to have a quick check of wikipedia - I learnt something new today

 

[ChocolateFrosting]

There are also regional foods: Here in Louisiana, we have cajun seasoning, blackened fish or chicken, gumbo, Andouille sausage, jambalaya.

For definitions/recipes, there are others here at DC who can fill you in on these better than I can.

That sounds so yummy! It reminded me (guiltily) of the 'Princess and the Frog' Disney movie. I love cajun food and jambalaya! Although, I never get it quite as good as the authentic stuff. Clearly missing a trick there.

"Just hit it with a couple a shots of tabasca and it's the bee's knees"

 

[Snip 13]

Clotted cream looks and sounds really yum! We just get double cream but it's not the same. Must make a point of finding some.
We have biltong and drywors but I'm sure you know that and Souskluitjies (a sweet soft almost custard like dumpling) boiled in a light sugar syrup with cinnamon served with custard. Mosbolletjies (a aniseed flavoured rusk that is baked in a loaf tin) we don't dry it out then pull the soft rusks off with your hands and dunk them in Moer koffie (Like filter coffee, just boiled in a pot with a muslin bag)
Beef wellington is that british?

 

[Rocklobster]

French-Canadian. Is that French? Or, is that Canadian?

Pea Soup
Sugar Pie
Smoked Meat
Pulled Toffee
Creton
Butter Tarts
Tourtiere
Poutine
Baked Beans

 

[CWS4322]

If you can get unpasturized cream, clotted cream is quite easy to make. I believe the recipe I used was in the Joy of Cooking. It is heavenly with stewed rhubarb. Another reason for getting a dairy cow...

RockLobster's list is a good start for French Canadian. There is also C-pie which is pasta, three types of meat (veal, pork, beef/chicken), and potatoes.