Beef Stew

The food from South Africa is as diverse as the people that live there,   influenced by many countries and cultures over the centuries.  They have been able to combine all the great ingredients introduced to the country and making it their one, UNIQUE.  Nothing tastes as great as South African food!  Maybe I am just bias, but why not try it and judge for yourself.      
One big influence on the choice of food must be the two bordering oceans, the Atlantic and Indian.  Seafood plays a very important role in any diet and can be enjoyed in a great variety of ways.  Shell fish, rock lobster, crayfish, salt cod, kingklip and snoek (a pickled fish) are only a few of the great dishes enjoyed very often.  They can be served with onions, lemon butter, chilli peppers or a great curry.  The crayfish are best served braised with onions and chillies and snoek must be barbecued.
If you are looking for variety, you won't be disappointed!  South African cuisine caters for all and no matter what you prefer, you will find something on the menu to suit your taste.  The food is both elegant and glows with simplicity.  If you are looking for a main course and you are not a seafood lover, don't worry.  Look at the following choices and see what you like the look of.  
On the top of the menu is the great Afrikaner "hoenderpastei", or chicken pie, inspired by the British pastries, but totally different and unique.  This is a pastry pot, filled with chicken, sauce, bacon, green pepper and other "secret" ingredients with a pastry top, baked until light brown and crispy in a medium hot oven.  
If you are looking for lamb or beef, try the great bobotie from the Boere.  This is a great dish, inspired by spices from the Malay slaves with onions, raisons and topped with a custard, comprising of egg and milk.  This is usually served with yellow rice, banana, blatjang and coconut.  Make sure to include a great vegetable side dish.  
Maybe the warm sunshine is too inviting and you are looking to spend your days outside.  If you are, you should try a potjiekos, also a Boer dish.  Throwing all the ingredients in a cast iron pot, letting the vegetables cook in the meat's sauces for many, many hours.  You can bake a "potbrood" at the same time, by placing the dough in another cast iron pot over the coals.  
If the potjiekos isn't for you, why not try a braai (barbecue).  Put some "boerewors" (a great seasoned sausage made from beef), steak, sosaties (marinated meat on skewers) and braaidroodjies (toasted sandwiches) on the fire outside in your backyard.  This is the way to live!  Serve with potato salad and away you go.
Frikkadelle, basically small beef patties, are greatly seasoned and taste magnificent, being served with salads and vegetables.  If you are looking for very warm and comfort food, try a bredie.  The most popular is a tomato or water lily bredie or stew.  This is an all in one stew comprising of vegetables and mutton, with the juices from both, flavouring each other.  
Bunny chow (curry stuffed in a hollow out loaf of bread) and curries have become very popular because of the Indian influence and you can buy sweet, mild or hot curries, mostly serve with atjar (pickles) and blatjang.  Blatjang is chutney, and served with EVERYTHING.  All you have to do is cook local fruits with garlic, chilly peppers and onions to mention just a few ingredients.
Local vegetables and fruit play a very important role in the daily diet.  Tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, mealies, green beans, sweet potatoes, spinach and pumpkin are the most loved by everyone.  Sweet potato and pampoenkoekies (little pumpkin cookies, or fritters) are greatly loved dishes, served with cinnamon sugar or a sweet syrup.  After your great main course, you have to enjoy desserts, snacks and drinks, but that will be discussed in the next article.   
To be a guest in a South African home is a great experience.  They pride themselves on hospitality, making sure you are well fed, making you feel at home at all times and creating an everlasting experience you will never, ever forget.

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Hunan cuisine shares many commonalities with its close, more well-known cousin, Szechwan cooking, Both cuisines originate in the Western region of China. The climate there is sub-tropical - humid and warm enough to encourage the use of fiery spices to help cool the body, and to require high spicing of food as a preservative. With similar climate, the two regions also share many ingredients - rice is a major staple in both diets, and chili peppers are an important part of most dishes. The two styles of regional cuisine are similar enough that many restaurants and cookbooks lump them together under 'Western Chinese cooking' or simple refer to both as Szechwan cuisine.
There are some important differences, though. Hunan cooking is, for one thing, even more fiery than most Szechwan dishes. Szechwan dishes often include chili paste for rubbing into meats, or including in sauce. Hunan chefs include the entire dried chili pepper, with its intensely spicy seeds and rind.
The differences in the actual land of the two regions also has an effect on the differences in their cuisine. The Szechwan region is mountainous jungle, with little arable land for farming. The Hunan region, by contrast, is a land of soft rolling hills and slow rivers. Because of its fertile hillocks and valleys, the Hunan region has access to an amazing variety of ingredients that aren't available to Szechwan chefs. Seafood and beef are both far more common in Hunan cooking, as are many vegetables.
The land, and the hardships associated with it, also give the Hunan more time to concentrate on food. Hunan cooking features complex and time-consuming preparation time. Many dishes begin their preparation the day before they are to be served, and may be marinated, then steamed or smoked, and finally deep-fried or stewed before they reach the table. The same attention is paid to the preparation of ingredients, and it is said that Hunan cuisine is the most pleasing to the eye of all Chinese cuisines. The shape of a food in a particular recipe is nearly as important as its presence in the final dish. Hunan chefs are specialists with the knife - carving fanciful shapes of vegetables and fruits that will be used in preparing meals, or to present them.
Hunan cuisine is noted for its use of chili peppers, garlic and shallots, and for the use of sauces to accent the flavors in the ingredients of a dish. It is not uncommon for a Hunan dish to play on the contrasts of flavors - hot and sour, sweet and sour, sweet and hot - pungent, spicy and deliciously sweet all at once. Hunan chefs are noted for their ability to create a symphony of taste with their ingredients. A classic example is Hunan spicy beef with vegetables, where the beef is first marinated overnight in a citrus and ginger mixture, then washed and rubbed with chili paste before being simmered in a pungent brown sauce. The end result is a meat that is meltingly tender on the tongue and changes flavor even as you enjoy it.
More and more, restaurants are beginning to sort out the two cuisines, and Hunan cuisine is coming into its own. Crispy duck and Garlic-Fried String Beans are taking their place alongside Kung Pao Chicken and Double Cooked Spicy Pork. But there is no battle between the two for a place of honor among Chinese Regional cuisines - rather, there are only winners - the diners who have the pleasure of sampling both.

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