Summary of Local Eating Habits#

Daily eating in Johannesburg is a mix of quick meals and substantial home cooking, especially dinner.

Breakfast is often fast during the week. Many people grab something quick before heading out – maybe a cup of tea or coffee with a slice of toast, or maybe nothing at all if they’re in a rush. Some might have cereal or pap (maize porridge) left over from the night before, or maybe a simple hot pap with milk and sugar.

Lunch depends a lot on where you are. If you’re working in an office, you might bring leftovers from home, buy something from a canteen, or grab street food. School kids usually get packed lunches or buy food at school. Lunch is often less formal than dinner.

Dinner is usually the main meal of the day. This is when families often eat together, if possible. It’s typically a cooked meal, warm and filling. This is where you’ll find the more traditional or hearty dishes.

Common Home-Cooked Meals vs. Street Food#

At home, meals are usually built around a starch, a protein, and often a vegetable. The most common starch by far is pap, which is a thick porridge made from maize meal. It’s served with almost everything. Other starches include rice, potatoes, or bread.

Protein often means meat – chicken, beef, or lamb are popular. It’s usually cooked in a stew (mogodu - tripe stew, is popular, or beef stew), grilled, or fried. Lentils, beans, or eggs are also common protein sources, especially for lighter meals or when meat is less available.

Vegetables can be cooked greens like spinach (morogo), cabbage, pumpkin, or beans. A simple, hearty meal could be chicken stew with pap and cooked cabbage.

Street food is big in Jozi because it’s fast and relatively cheap for people on the go. You’ll find things like:

• Boerewors rolls: A piece of grilled boerewors (a type of coiled sausage) in a hot dog bun, usually with tomato relish and onions.
• Shisa nyama stands: While often a weekend thing, some places grill meat (steak, chops, chicken) that you can buy by weight and eat right there or take away, often with pap or bread and a simple salad.
• Vetkoek (fat cakes): Fried dough balls, often eaten plain or filled with mince (ground meat) or even jam or cheese.
• Maybe a bunny chow: Though originally from Durban, you can find this hollowed-out bread loaf filled with curry in Jozi.

Local Ingredients or Spices People Use#

Maize is king here, used for pap. Other staple ingredients include various beans and lentils, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and leafy greens like spinach and cabbage. Onions, tomatoes, and peppers are common base ingredients for stews and sauces.

Meat is very important. Beef, chicken, and lamb are widely used. Specific cuts like offal (mogodu - tripe, or livers) are also popular and affordable protein sources.

Spice use varies, reflecting the mix of cultures. You’ll find people using simple salt and pepper, but also curry powders (mild to hot, showing Indian influence), chakalaka spice mixes (spicy vegetable relish), and various stock cubes or powders to add flavour to stews. Herbs like thyme and bay leaves are also used.

Traditional Dishes Eaten During Festivals or Weekends#

Weekends, especially Sundays, are often when families have more time for bigger, shared meals. But the biggest, most iconic weekend and festival food is the braai. This is the South African version of a barbecue, but it’s more of a social event. People gather, light a fire (usually wood or charcoal), and grill large amounts of meat – boerewors, lamb chops, steak, chicken. It’s served with pap and a sauce (like tomato and onion relish), salads (potato salad, beetroot salad), and bread rolls.

Another popular weekend dish is potjiekos. This is a stew cooked slowly over a fire in a traditional, round, cast-iron pot (a potjie). It can be made with meat (beef, lamb, chicken, sometimes game), vegetables (carrots, potatoes, pumpkin, beans), and spices, layered in the pot and left to simmer for hours. It’s a relaxed, social way of cooking.

Traditional beer like umqombothi, made from maize, sorghum, yeast, and water, is also often made and shared during social gatherings and ceremonies.

Popular Snacks or Drinks#

For snacks, biltong and droëwors are hugely popular – these are forms of cured, dried meat. People buy them from butcheries and snack on them anywhere. Amagwinya (fat cakes) are also common as a cheap, filling snack, often sold by street vendors. Fruit is also a popular, healthier snack option.

Drinks include the usual soft drinks you find anywhere, but also local brands. Rooibos tea (a naturally caffeine-free herbal tea) is a staple in many homes, drunk hot or cold. Coffee is also very popular. Local lagers and ciders are the common alcoholic drinks.

Cultural Food Taboos or Unique Rituals#

There aren’t really widespread, strict food taboos across the entire population of Johannesburg due to its diverse nature. However, certain cultural groups within the city might have specific beliefs, for example, about eating certain animal parts or meat during specific times (like mourning).

A more general cultural point is the importance of sharing food, especially in communal settings or when hosting guests. Eating together is a social glue. With traditional meals like pap, it’s common in some settings to eat with your hands (the right hand, specifically), shaping the pap into small balls to scoop up the stew or sauce. Offering food to guests is very important, and it’s considered polite to accept. Often, the host or elders might eat last to ensure everyone else is served.

Understanding these habits gives you a much better picture of daily life and culture in a vibrant city like Johannesburg, home to millions of people with diverse backgrounds but also shared experiences around food.