South Africa Food

Part of my visit to South Africa was eating. People online sometimes publish reviews, so I decided to offer a blog with pictures. I didn't include all the conference food, and I missed a couple of pictures, but this is a pretty good record. I sampled from a variety of price points; there are even two fast food places on this list.
Overall, South African food is better than American. I got a wider variety of meats and fresher side dishes than I would in America. Not trucking things around helps. In particular, convention buffet food was outstanding, compared to the States. There's no rubber chicken and overcooked green beans. It's not a shock that something from the Convention Center, made for about 1000 people, rankes on my top dish table.

Least Favorite Food

3rd - Moyo Durban

2nd - Hungry Lion

worst - Delta pancakes from Dakar to Cape Town

Most Favorite Food

4th - Inverdoorn breakfast and peanut butter biscuits

3rd - Convention Center chicken with mushrooms in leek sauce

2nd - Sibaya Casino lamb mince curry

best - Five Flies

Meal prices include one soda or juice and tip (South Africa tips are 10 to 15 percent). Since I don't drink, alcohol is not included, though I will note that South Africa has an extensive wine industry and there were plenty of available wine lists. One US dollar was worth just less than 8 rand at the time of this trip.

Travel to Cape Town

Pictures 1 and 2: Paschal's Atlanta Terminal C: house salad with ranch, meatloaf with mac & cheese, green beans, and corn muffins [$13] -- Service was excellent, as this is the one sitdown location inside the TSA pseudolockdown. I wanted broccoli instead of green beans, but they were out; how much broccoli is really ordered at a Southern soul food place? The meal was a notch above airport food, and the service helped too.

Picture 3: Atlanta Bread Company Terminal C: shortbread cookie [$1.50] -- Nice and soft, which isn't a bad thing for shortbread. It's like those you can get in other mass market coffee-sandwich shops. They're probably all one giant holding company, Panera/St Louis/Atlanta/Tucumcari Bread Company. Unfortunately, the good seating area behind the store was full.

Picture 4: Delta Flight 34 from Atlanta to Dakar: Biscoff cookie, chicken with corn and black beans, potatoes, roll, cheese, salad, brownie -- I also got peanuts, but gave them my middle seat neighbor to generate goodwill for the eight hour flight. That was probably the right move with this coach airline food. There was some taste, but the roll was cold and hard, and the potatoes were mushy.

Picture 5 and 6: Delta Flight 34 from Dakar to Cape Town: Nut pancakes, then chicken sandwich -- It's interesting to see American foods reinterpreted in Senegal. The packages have French and English writing. The cookies use wheat flour, and the chips have a little different taste. At breakfast, the local orange fruit was tasty, but the pancakes were horrid. Low taste and extremely mushy. I should have given up; this was the worst food on the trip. The sandwich had good bread and flavor; I would much rather have it over either of the past two meals. Why do they serve small cups of water, though? There's plenty of drink service.

Cape Town

Picture 7: Fire and Ice Restaurant: ostrich burger, pineapple, fries with red pepper mayonnaise [R94] -- The Protea Fire and Ice is a hipster hotel in Cape Town, drawing a 20-something crowd to its bar and eatery. So what's hip in South Africa? American burgers, fries, and milkshakes! Really. The fries were done to the proper crispness. Ostrich has a deeper flavor than beef, and I wish it was available more in America. Unfortunately, the bun needs to be thicker, particularly on top; it's more a roll than a burger bun.

Picture 8: Beleza: Vegetarian breakfast of 2 scrambled eggs, banana, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, toast [R50] -- Beleza is an easy walk from the Fire and Ice. It feels exactly like a cafe in a hip liberal neighborhood of any American city. I can imagine my brother and sister-in-law going to Beleza in Massachusetts; one couple there sort of looked like them. There's nothing wrong with the place, the service and food were decent, but it's not extraordinary in any way.

Picture 9: Cafe near St Mary's: chocolate muffin and Appletiser apple juice [R30] -- heavy walking led to a need for more calories. The muffin was pretty good. Dressing up apple juice in a cute bottle doesn't make it much better; it's apple juice.

Pictures 10 through 13: Five Flies: hanger steak salad, Springbok Wellington with roasted butternut, chocolate cake with ice cream [R310] -- very flavorful, though a little too much fat on the steak. Good tomatoes and I appreciate salad without nasty iceberg lettuce. Springbok is a very low fat meat, so much so that it's almost dry and needs the sauce. Unsurprisingly, it's very much like deer venison. The pastry was flaky and excellent. The butternut was a good contrasting taste. As for the cake, it was a bit better than the Steak and Shake walnut brownie sundae. This may not sound like high praise, but given how much I like the walnut brownie sundae, it really is.
Combining an wonderful location with different rooms (like the pseudo-courtyard with glass roof), good service, and excellent food, Five Flies was the best dinner I've had a long time. In a mid sized city like Louisville, this would be one of the top 5 places in the city. It's well deserving.

Picture 14: Hungry Lion: Two piece chicken, fries, roll, grape Fanta [R28] -- well, I wanted to experience all levels of food. The most interesting thing about this meal was the fact that the store has a halal certificate. Also, in the central district of Cape Town, many businesses close between 12:30 and 2:00 on Fridays for prayer. As for the food, well, KFC might be better. In case you're wondering, the biggest American food franchises in South Africa are KFC, Subway, and McDonalds. I didn't try any.

Picture 15: The Meeting Place Simons town: Large chocolate cake, strawberry soda [R38] -- the portion size was larger than I really wanted for this middling cake. The soda had a nice flavor, for some redemption.

Pictures 16 through 19: Ginga: beef appetizer, breads with spinach butter, oxtail soup with 2 potato and foie gras beignet, rabbit over chickpeas with potato cakes [R255] -- very good overall, but not as good as Five Flies. Ginja could best be described as a fusion place. Compared to Five Flies, another upscale restaurant, presentation is better and portion sizes smaller. These dishes are more delicate than hearty, but I'm a hearty eater. Also, the building is much plainer, which is a consideration at this price point.

Inverdoorn Game Reserve

Pictures 20 through 22: Beef soup with butter, Chicken with chips, beef stew with green beans, salad, and two pastries -- the standard lunch buffet is fairly filling, and pretty good. Butter in the soup is a negative, though; liquid butter makes me queasy. For the chicken, potatoes were fried, then baked; this makes them still sort of mushy, which is not great. The beef stew spices were much better. The pastries were solid. All in all, this was a pretty good buffet meal, and I doubt people are dissatisfied, but it's not first rate.

Pictures 23 through 28: Dinner over seven courses -- What a feast just for me! I was the only overnight guest, being midwinter in South Africa. I got seven courses of French food with South African flair. Some were great, like the appetizer of fish rolls and fries, and the spring rolls. Some were OK. Only the avocado soup - again with the butter! - was below average. One suggestion would be to only serve half the main course, one pork chop piece instead of two; there's a lot of food here. Overall, this is a meal I would easily recommend. There's a warning about size, but it's very fine.

Pictures 29 and 30: Full breakfast -- Again, I ate alone. There's a lot of food there. Unfortunately, I missed picturing the croissants, which were excellent. The rest of the food, including the peanut butter biscuit and camomile tea, was good. Yes, I drink camomile tea. It doesn't make me weak.

Cape Town to Durban

Pictures 31 and 32: Balducci's V&A Waterfront: beef stew, linguine bolognaese [R152] -- The Waterfront is an upscale mall, completely at home in the upper middle class part of any American city, just with more security. There are a lot of moderately upscale places along the edges. Balducci's is Italian style. The food was pretty good, but not memorable. It was noisy, too. Why do places feel the need to pump music into an environment full of people talking, anyway?

Pictures 33 and 34: Simba chips, spicy tomato and onion [R3] -- South Africans love potato chips and fries. They are on a lot of menus, even upscale ones like Inverdoorn and Balducci's; other potatoes are much less common. Street vendors carry about a dozen different flavors, from Lays and the local Simba. I include a picture of a vending machine to show options. I went with this kind, which seemed like one of the less scary ones. No Caribbean onion and cheese, or Mexican chili, or grilled steak, anything like that. As for the taste, yes there were spices, but I prefer salt and pepper myself.

Picture 35: Pick and Pay: danishes [R16] -- At the waterfront, I went to the supermarket to get the correct electric adapter, because the guest house might not have one. There's not much difference between South African supermarkets and American ones. The brand mix includes American ones, British, and a few native to South Africa. They have a coffee shop, meat counter, salad bar, and bakery. The bakery, well, was OK - not the best supermarket goods, but not the worst either.

Picture 36: South African Airways Flight 612 from Cape Town to Durban: Vegetarian pasta, roll, and butter -- everything Delta food was not, fresh not hard and relatively tasty. Even though the flight was in the air less than 90 minutes, the attendants managed to serve a beverage and hot lunch to a fairly full flight. American airlines don't really try.

Durban

Picture 37: Sica's Guest House: opening reception -- Overall, Sica's food was quite good; compared to American conference food, well above average. Like most of South Africa, there were a lot of meat items, beef and chicken. The breakfasts were full breakfasts, the lunches had two or three options and a vegetarian one. There were also two tea breaks each day. It was very hard to go hungry.

Pictures 38 through 40: Moyo Durban: samosas, lamb and chicken with rice, brownie and cake -- The conference Gala dinner was disappointing. Moyo, the venue, subscribed to the idea that low light helps dinner. My table wound up using candlelight and even a small flashlight to look at the small printed menu. This just should not happen. Furthermore, the food was not any better than at Sica's, let alone Inverdoorn or Five Flies. While the dancers were nice, I wouldn't recommend this place.

Pictures 41 and 42: Sibaya Casino buffet: casino buffet [R130] -- After the conference, I tagged along with the group that traveled to a local casino. Compared to Las Vegas, the gaming was disappointing. It's basically slots, roulette, and blackjack; no craps, baccarat, pie gow, or poker. On Saturday night, it was full, so at least they don't have patron problems. They do have a very nice buffet. Because Durban has a large Asian population, the buffet included about eight curries and six Asian noodle options. The lamb curry was very well done, tasty but not overly hot. Though the desserts were mediocre, sheer quality variety makes this a very reasonable choice. Judging from the line, even as we left at 9:30, others agree.

Pictures 43 and 44: Durban Convention Centre food: various buffets -- I am amazed by the chefs here. At most meals, there were two or three meats, a vegetarian option, and a halal buffet, plus two desserts. I didn't really have a bad meal out of six. The service, well, was extremely disjointed (as described in the main report). That's another story. I took pictures from Monday, where I had veggie pasta and rice, and from Friday's spectacular chicken with mushrooms and leek sauce. It wasn't just me that commented on overall quality.

Picture 45: Albany hotel: breakfasts -- the buffet has a lot of meat and is more like a brunch than the typical American one. Another person staying there agreed that it was a little weird. One had to ask for eggs, but the trays included tomatoes, potatoes (tater tots one day), sausages, baked beans, and even hot dogs. The food was OK, though I prefer toast and muffins before 10 AM.

Picture 46: Jewel of India: samoosa, Indian lamb bhuni, rice, tandoori rotin [R130] -- During apartheid, certain communities were restricted to certain cities. Durban was designated for people from India. This led to a large population and several eateries. This place, inside the Southern Sun Elangani, was recommended as a downtown Indian joint. Mediocre places use spiciness to cover for poor food, but not here. The samoosa and lamb were tasty, but not overwhelmingly hot. Judging from the fact that locals, including Indians, were in the place as well, others agree with my assessment.

Picture 47: King Pie: steak and pepper pie, fries, Strawberry fanta [R28] -- a fast food place near the ICC, where I had lunch on the one day we didn't get convention food. Though I wanted to try fast food, I missed the convention. As things go, this was a very nice Hot Pocket. Unlike the microwave, the pastry can actually get texture through normal cooking. Still, it's basically a hot pocket.

Picture 48: Royal Hotel: chicken wrap, salad, chips [R50] -- I walked over to the only other option besides the Albany, to try something different, and was pleasantly surprised. The wrap was a little heavy, but the chicken and lettuce inside had real flavor. The small salad side was an unexpected bonus; as usual, fresh ingredients lead to good food.

Pictures 49 and 50: Butcher Boys: appetizers, filet with calamari, ice cream [R220] -- my friend and dinner partner said it best, so I'll paraphrase. At the absolute best steakhouses, the servers tend to be 60 year old men. Just below that, the servers tend to be attractive young females. To tell you about Butcher Boys, Ill say that the waitress had a cute butt. That's the type of place here, a very good steakhouse. The steak was slightly overseared, preventing the place from hitting the uppermost tier. I'm not dissatisfied, as the food was tasty, but experience does matter.

South African Airways Flight 570 from Durban to Johannesburg: turkey sandwich and biscotti (not pictured) -- It's a shame that I didn't take out my camera for this sandwich. The two flight attendants managed to deliver tasty sandwiches and drink service to a full flight in 45 minutes. By now, though, I was no longer surprised. It's not impossible to make tasty airline food; why do American caterers not know this?

Picture 51: Fournos Bakery Johannesburg Airport: cinnamon roll and cookie [R15] -- the store had a huge display of donuts, cookies, crossants, and the like, so I decided to try two during my layover. I was disappointed. I know South Africans tend to prefer crunchier biscuits than Americans, but these weren't crunchy. These were a little stale around 7 PM. As nice as the display was, putting them inside cases would help with freshness.

Pictures 52 and 53: Delta Flight 201 from Johannesburg to Atlanta: chicken and rice dinner, then French toast breakfast -- Returning to America, and remembering how bad the food was on the way down, I was not looking forward, gastronomically. Only when the attendants came around did I remember one key fact. This food was made in South Africa! My neighbor and I both commented on the joy of taste. Again, it's not that either meal differed in content, as you can see. We even got the small water container. It's not a small operation either; lots of airlines fly out of Joburg. Quality just differs. It's a good reminder that while America may be rich, there are still things to learn.

Picture 54: KFC Louisville airport: potato wedges [$2] -- I made it back to Louisville, but my bag did not. After filing a lost bag report, I decided to just take the $1.50 bus home instead of a $20 cab. With time before the bus, I decided to have food from my home. As I reside 5K from corporate headquarters, I had found that the easiest way to describe where I live is "the home of KFC". Everybody worldwide knows KFC. As for the food, well, I miss South Africa already.