A Proper South African Braai

Warning: If many pictures of giant piles of meat will bother you, it is probably best not to read on! The are lots of them.

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South Africa is serious about meat. I've never seen so many different animal species available for consumption before, and often all at the same table.

The pinnacle of this, in my opinion, is the South African "braai," which is the Afrikaans word for grill. It is similar to a barbecue, the go-to social gathering across the country, and has a whole series of foods and customs based around it.

In Port Elizabeth, our host Antionette Muller and her very welcoming family treated us to the full experience.

You can have a braai any day, but I learned from Uncle that they are often on Fridays and Saturdays, and also Wednesdays which are referred to as "little Saturdays."  I was advised that on Fridays you might have chicken, and then meat on Saturdays. Note that chicken is not included in the meat section.

The braai starts with wood. This is important--charcoal is frowned upon, and you will be judged for using it. South Africa is making good use of / revenge on their invasive tree species populations by cutting them down and using them for braai wood. Sadly, I forget which braai wood Uncle said he liked to use best.

Burn, baby, burn!

The group we were with agreed that any day was good for a braai, but that it was most fun in winter when it got dark early and you could see the flames against the sky.

Braai-ing is a big social event, and we all sat around the fire. It had to be pulled near the garage at one point because it was raining, but that didn't stop the festivities. 

After some time of enjoying beer and wine around the fire, the coals were ready to be used to Cook a Pile of Meat. In this case there was a grate lowered down over top, but there is also a hand held method that is Iike a big flat metal grate sandwich that can close meat between it and go over the fire.

So much delicious food was put on the fire! Steak, lamb, bacon, sosatie (skewers of lamb), kebabs, bratwurst, sausages, and chicken all at once. The very long coiled sausage is called boerewors, which literally translates to "farmer sausage."

Finally, the bread! The dough was hand made by friend Max Benson, and then grilled as well. It's called roosterkroek, which means "grilled cake." 

Beautiful!

Once everything was grilled, it was put into some kind of covered metal pot that could be kept warm in the oven.

Oh yes, we also had potatoes with feta cheese. Nom nom. 

The food was delicious, and we had such a fun time with Antionette and her family. 

We had another braai at her house in Cape Town for New Years. Apparently braai-ing at new years is a South African tradition. At her house she had a "brick braai," which looked like a combination between a brick oven and a chimney. Once again wood was lovingly stacked, burned, and then covered with meat.

In additon to the other meats there was also sausage wrapped in bacon, and the very best steak I have ever eaten in my entire life.

While braaing, our friend mentioned not being able to hold a flashlight well while also cooking, and I remembered the head lamp I've been carrying around for six long months on this trip without ever using. My dad had given it along with other flashlights and a bunch of batteries for the previous Christmas, and I had brought it on our trip imagining various scenarios where I would use it. Of course, a New Year's braai in South Africa wasn't one of them! I was able to dig it out of our bags and it was put to good use cooking our delicious food.

I think I ate more meat during our 3 weeks in South Africa than the entire previous time on our trip. I ate pigs, cows, ox, chickens, sheep, goats, ostrich, and kudu, as well as whatever was in that biltong (basically beef jerky, but better). 

When I was looking up the name for boerewor online to write this, I came across a braai recipe for beef in biltong sauce. That is literally a meat covered in sauce made from another meat. It is insane.

But part of me thinks it might be kind of good.

I blame you, South African braai!