These 10 things you want to take home from South Africa

Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: these 10 things you want to take home from South Africa.

If you love good food and great wine, South Africa is definitely on your vacation wish list, or you've been there once. If you're in the rainbow nation, you'll discover that besides that star-worthy food in the restaurants, there is so much more to enjoy. You enjoy all that natural beauty just a bit more with something delicious to eat within reach, right?

Simba chips with chutney flavor
At number 1. In South Africa, that chutney from Mrs. Balls is legendary, and luckily the clever minds at Simba chips thought they could make chips with it too. Spicy, a bit sweet, a bit sour, a bit salty, and with a towering munch factor: the green bags are empty in no time. Really, this is the tastiest chips in the world.

Chakalaka spices
A mysterious spice mix mainly consisting of chili, paprika, and onion powder. It is used in stews, but actually in just about every savory dish. Deliciously spicy and sharp. Thank goodness, chakalaka spice mixes can still be found in the Netherlands at delicatessen shops. The tastiest memory: soft young goat cheeses, rolled in chakalaka spices, with a cold beer in the garden of the brewery in Nieu Bethesda. Eleven hours of flying, ten hours of driving, but then you have something.

Biltong
It looks like leather slippers at the end of a hiking holiday, but it tastes... oh, divine. Biltong is meat, for example beef, but it can also be springbok or elk, that has been marinated in spices and soy sauce and then dried. It is sliced into thin strips in a kind of bean slicer and then you get a bag of shavings. Open that in the car right away and start snacking, because biltong is truly delicious. It goes well with (again) a cold beer and a sports game, but it's also nice to nibble on during long car rides.

Fruit rolls
A puree of dried fruit, such as apricot, mango, or guava. That puree is dried and rolled out, and I don't know what kind of magic is done with it, but the result is as chewy as licorice. You buy it as a kind of roll in the supermarket or at a roadside stall. Tear off a piece, put it in your mouth, and chew away.

Appletizer
That's sweet sparkling apple juice and it's almost everywhere on the menu. It's amazing that this is not yet available in the Netherlands: sparkling apple juice. Of course, you can mix your apple juice with sparkling water and drink that, but yes, it's not the same. There is also grapetizer: sparkling grape juice.

Bunny chow
Just because of the name, you want to eat this: bunny chow. What do you expect: rabbit food? Wrong. It's a hard hollowed-out bread filled with a deliciously spicy curry. The sauce seeps nicely into that bread, making it a bit soggy and delicious.

Boerewors
You can buy fresh sausage in almost every country, but the African boerewors is a different story. These are sausages that can be a meter long and are rolled up with a few skewers. Of course, you place them on the braai to get a nice crispy brown crust. Sorry, call us culture barbarians, but fresh sausage from the grill, nice and fatty and salty: delicious.

Braaibroodjies
So brilliant that you wonder why you never thought of it yourself: braaibroodjies are a kind of toasties, but made on the barbecue. Of course, you eat them at a braai, but you can also shamelessly eat them for lunch. The white bread is thicker than our bread is sliced, and then you fill them with cheese, tomato, and onion. Tip from Flip: a bit of mayo and chutney on your bread instead of butter.

Koeksisters
Fried cookies that are then dipped in syrup: these koeksisters are only suitable for people with a good tolerance for sweetness. You eat one or two koeksisters, then you get very hyper and then very sleepy. And then you can try another koeksister.

Melktert
This is the original version of cheesecake, but much less heavy and sweet. In a sweet pie crust, a mixture of egg, milk, flour, and sugar is poured in. Bake it in the oven until the filling is set and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.