Don’t touch us on our biltong! Why the confusion over Mzansi’s most loved snack?

When you are travelling outside your home country, you are bound to be exposed to different kinds of cuisines and you are going to learn about them.

Some foods are more confusing than others around the world.

A recent research by financial services provider Remitly, revealed which cuisines are the most confusing for travellers.

These dishes were combined with search terms like ‘what is’ and ‘how to pronounce’ and then analysed to see which dishes were searched for most regularly over the previous year. — and therefore deemed the most confusing.

“We know that sampling a country’s most popular and traditional dishes can be one of the best parts about visiting or moving to a new country, and a great way to immerse yourself in the culture of a new place,” commented Jago McKenzie, Business Management Director at Remitly.

However, these specialties – although much loved amongst locals – can sometimes be hard to pronounce or made of ingredients you are not familiar with.

Analysing 2,700 dishes from over 165 countries around the world, the research found that when it comes to Africa's most confusing cuisines, falafel, couscous and biltong all ranked in the top ten.

Biltong is a South African classic - a form of dried, cured meat loved by many across the nation. You can enjoy it plain or spiced, it’s the perfect snack, over a rugby game, roadtrip any time, really.

Kimchi tops the list of most confusing cuisines, with almost one million (946,090) annual searches for the traditional Korean banchan (side dish), which is made up of salted and fermented vegetables — commonly Korean radish or cabbage.

The tangy cuisine can be used to elevate everything from salads and meat dishes to soups and stews – and while kimchi originated in Korea, it can now be found in supermarkets all over the world.

Falafel and gyros follow behind as the most confusing cuisines, with Scotland's national dish haggis ranking in 13th place worldwide.