Having just spent 9 months in Latin America we consider ourselves to be something of chicken experts. For several months in Central America, if we weren’t eating chicken with our rice and beans it was because we were eating eggs with our rice and beans. So imagine our surprise here in Africa to find equally great chicken once again, but this time the chicken owes its success to the mix of cultures here in South Africa.
Although it is obvious that this country consists of people of English decent and African decent, it might be less obvious how many other cultures call South Africa home. There are the Afrikaans, descendants of the original Dutch settlers, sometimes called Boers. …

When we were at our first Braai a few weeks ago biltong was mentioned but we’d yet to try it. Similar to beef jerky, but made of just about anything, our CS hosts ensured we went to Mozambique with a good supply of the stuff. When we ran out, some other South Africans staying at the same place as us, ensured we’d continue to have enough.
On our way into Kruger National Park we read in our guidebook that the park actually began as a refuge for the animals from biltong poachers. Ironic then that the first gift shop we walked into had entire wall of biltong from a host of different animals ranging from the traditional beef …

We were sitting on the beach, around 10am, waiting for our surf lesson to begin. In front of us went one, then another, and finally a third before our lesson started. The first two fishermen were carrying barracuda, apparently safe to eat here, the third was carrying something else equally large that we could not identify.
Over the cosrse of our days in Tofo we were able to literally follow the entire process beginning with what I just described on the beach. The fishermen would return from the morning with their catch, we even passed them as we set off on our SCUBA trip. Then they’d walk the fish up the beach to the main market and parking area and sell …

As we travel we obviously like to try the different foods an area offers.  Often this goes beyond just the cooking style or cuisine of an area.  In the Andes we were able to try Llama and Alpaca (even on a pizza in Bolivia) and weren’t permitted to leave Peru without trying Cuy (guinea pig).  In Brazil we enjoyed Piranha soup, we went to Oaxaca with the sole purpose of eating a grasshopper, and when we came home the only thing I wanted to eat was buffalo (bison).
The nice thing about all these foods is that they are truly local, providing us with a rich cultural experience while allowing us to directly support the local economy as well.  Many though …