Food and travel go together like bacon and eggs. No trip or journey is complete without food because why leave your house if you’re not going to eat?
With South Africa’s diverse ethnicities and heritage, there are plenty of unique and daring foodie experiences to try out. From fresh strawberries in George, enjoying meal in the bush, conquering your fears and dinning in the sky to eating in a confined space with crocodiles, it’s a foodie adventure waiting to be explored.
With the new season finally upon us, its time to get out there and travel and what better excuse do you have than to try out a unique culinary experience.
Bush braai
Imagine enjoying a local favourite, braaied meat, in the heart of the African bush? When on a safari holiday, some tour operators and lodges offer an experience of enjoying a braai, sometimes with game meats like kudu and nyala.
This is a once in a lifetime and exhilarating experience. La Kruger Lifestyle Lodge is one of many lodges that offers this experience in the Kruger National Park. Upon entering the park, guests are taken to the bush braai site where guests will enjoy a welcome drink around the fire.
The bush dinner is served from 6.30pm and runs until 8.30pm. Guests will then depart with the highly qualified guides on a short night drive while being educated and given insights on a variety of topics while searching for the famous Big 5 before exiting at the Crocodile Bridge Gate.
The menu includes threats meats, a variety of bread rolls, pap and sishebo, salads, and a dessert. The experience starts from R2 800 a person.
Dinner in the sky
If you’re afraid of heights and looking to conquer your fears then this experience is for you. Sky Events in Johannesburg offers the ultimate dining adventure where guests enjoy views of Johannesburg elevated and suspended in the air at 50 metres high.
On this experience, you can also enjoy views of the surrounding areas. Twenty-two guests are suspended at a height of 50 metres and can enjoy a range of meals including champagne breakfast in the sky, lunch and dinner in the sky.
The dinner menu is a three-course set menu including capers drizzled with a dill crème fraîche, smoked salmon, tomato, avocado, pepper-crusted fillet and a frozen cheesecake.
The dinner experience starts from R995 a person for 90 minutes.
Seafood buffet
Seafood lovers are in for a treat with the fresh selection of seafood available on South Africa’s West Coast in Yzerfontein.
Strandkombuis is on the famous 16 Mile Beach, and its seafood buffet restaurant offers the most freshly prepared selection of locally sourced seafood, with the sound of waves breaking behind you and the Bedouin covered deck overlooking the salt pans.
The buffet takes place every Sunday at lunchtime and has attracted plenty of foodies and pescatarians looking to enjoy a good meal with views.
The menu includes freshly baked white & brown bread, hake and yellowtail soup, freshly prepared snoek paté with homemade jams, West Coast mussels, yellowtail fillets with fresh ginger sauce, braaied prawns with garlic butter sauce, warm smoked snoek and tender fried calamari steak strips just to name a few.
The buffet costs R365 for adults and R190 for children.
Lunch in a crocodile enclosure
A “Fear Factor” experience, consider enjoying what could be your last meal in a crocodile enclosure with crocodiles salivating over your limbs.
PheZulu Reptile Park at Botha’s Hill in KwaZulu-Natal boasts crocodile enclosures where you can enjoy lunch. However, there guards on standby just in case one of the reptiles takes a fancy to you.
The experience is booked in advance and you order your meal off the park restaurant’s menu and then it is served in the enclosure. Strictly no alcohol is permitted during this experience and there are limited numbers per sitting.
The meal, which is not allowed whilst the crocodiles are feeding, also includes being taken on an hourly tour by one of the park’s knowledgeable guides.
This experience costs R170 a person.
A sweet experience
After this experience, you will never look at strawberries the same way again. Redberry Farm lies at the foot of the Outeniqua mountains just outside of George in the Western Cape.
It is an ideal destination for berry lovers, fun-seeking families and outdoor enthusiasts. This idyllic farmstead is a commercial strawberry grower and popular family entertainment venue that appeals to visitors of all ages.
Experiences on offer include picking your own strawberries, the giant strawberry and exploring the largest permanent hedge maze in the Southern Hemisphere, a tea garden and farm stall, the Red Shed Coffee & Berry Bar, a miniature train ride on the Redberry Express, a large outdoor playground, pedal go-carts and pony rides.
The fun part about eating at Redberry Farm, is its wide variety of berry-inspired meals and cocktails, from strawberry daiquiris and waffles with strawberries to pizza and ice cream with berries.
Texan style barbecue
From Texas to the shores of South Africa, Mzansi foodies can now experience meat Texan style.
Texas style barbecue is known for its smoky, savoury flavour and is made using a slow-cooking using mesquite wood to smoke the meat in a pit.
Texas barbecue is unique in that it typically uses beef brisket as the main protein rather than pork and this style of cooking has made its way into Mzansi.
If you want a taste of Texan-style barbecue, The Salt Slab BBQ at Curry’s Post in the KZN Midlands and Something Smoked Roadhouse BBQ in Soweto are the ideal places to explore as a meat lover.
The Salt Slab BBQ is open on weekends from 11.30am making it the ideal day trip for those in and around KZN.
Something Smoked Roadhouse BBQ smokes varieties of meat low and slow with flavoured wood and is open from Friday to Sunday every week.
Prices vary at both establishments.