I have heard everything from lion to giraffe, but South Africans don't eat either. Our cuisine is in fact of blend of many cultures -- both native and non -- that have melted together around the tip of Africa. Now remember, South Africa's first tourists were attracted to our shores because it was a convenient place to trade spices. Needless to say, those spices have not disappeared and have been integrated into our modern "eating culture."

In South Africa, you can find everything from traditional restaurants to Chinese, Indian, Moroccan, Congolese, West African, and just about any other cuisine type you can think all wrestling for space within our big city borders.

In fact, our cuisine is so varied it is often referred to as "rainbow cuisine," and is influenced by a number of ethnic groups including the indigenous Sotho- and Nguni-speakers, the Portuguese, Dutch and English colonists, Indian and Asian immigrants and slaves.

The pre-colonial diet consisted primarily of cooked grains like sorghum and maize, grilled meat, and fermented milk. Many descendants of these indigenous populations still eat many of these same foods. A typical meal of a Bantu-speaking household will often consist of a maize porridge called "pap" (similar to grits) with a stewed gravy over it. Pumpkin, beans and rice are also a big part of the traditional diet.

But South Africa gets its kudos from our love of Braai. "Braai," the Afrikaans term for barbecue, actually has its roots in Khoisan culture. The indigenous Khoikhoi people ate roasted meat and it was a big part of their diet and cuisine. Now, families enjoy a nice Braai consisting of pap and vleis, which is maize and grilled meat, on weekends.

The urbanization from the 19th century onward forced many Black South Africans to rely on industrially-processed footstuffs like white rice, mealie-meal, sugar, and wheat flour. There was a drastic decrease in cooking styles as foodstuffs changed, as well as an expansion in tastes as new foods like tomato were introduced. Popular foods in South Africa today include tomatoes, onions, garlic, chicken, limes and many other spices.

Tourists can enjoy traditional foods from any of our countries finest hotels and restaurants. Even many holiday homes have private chefs that will come in and fix any number of traditional dishes for you.

So just what can you expect when you get here? Here is a least of some of our most popular foods:

• Amasi- sour milk
• Biltong- a salty dried meat similar to jerky, often from different types of Antelope or other venison.
• Bobotie- a dish of Malay descent, similar to meatloaf with raisins and baked egg on top. This is often served with yellow rice, coconut, chutney, banana, and sambals.
• Boerewors- braaied sausage.
• Bunny Chow or Kota- a hollowed-out bread loaf stuffed with curry.
• Chakalaka- spicy vegetable relish.
• Blatjang/Chutney- sweet sauce made from fruit.
• Frikkadelle- meatballs.
• Gatsby- Capetonian fare which comes in form of long roll with fillings of anything ranging from polony to chicken or steak, along with hot chips.
• Gesmoorde vis- salted cod with potatoes and tomatoes.
• Hoenderpastei- Afrikaans chicken pie
• Isidudu- a pumpkin pap
• Koeksisters- a sweet comes in two forms Afrikaans which are twisted pastries, sweetened and deep-fried. Cape Flats Koeksisters are deep-fried as well, but sweet and spicy and shaped like eggs.
• Mageu- drink from fermented mealie pap.
• Mala Mogodu- similar to tripe.
• Malva Pudding- Dutch spongy, apricot pudding.
• Mashonzha- composed of mopane worm.
• Melktert and Melkkos- milked based desserts.
• Mealie-bread- sweet bread baked with sweet corn.
• Mielie-meal- staple used mostly in cooking of pap.
• Ostrich- either stewed or grilled.
• Pampoenkoekies- pumpkin fritters.
• Potbrood- or potbread baked over coals in cast-iron pot.
• Rusks- hard, dry biscuit eaten with coffee or tea.
• Samosa- stuffed, fried Indian pastry.
• Smagwinya, fat cakes
• Smoked/Braai'd Snoek- regional fish.
• Sosatie-kebab, grilled meat on skewer
• Umphokogo- African salad made of maize meal.
• Umqombothi- beer made from fermented maize and sorghum.
• Umvubo- Xhosa food, sour milk mixed with pap.
• Vetkoek/Fat Cake/Magwenya- fried dough balls stuffed with meat.
• Walkie Talkies- fried or grilled chicken heads and feet, popular in townships and sold by street vendors.
• Waterblommetjie bredie- meat stewed with flower from the Cape Pondweed.