Cooking meat outdoors -- braai -- is one of the few shared experiences across southern Africa, a tradition that crosses the region's racial, class and national divides.
Courtesy Stephen Coetzee
More than just meat —
Braai is Afrikaans for grill, but the word conjures so much more than a style of cooking.
Sachinese, creative commons
That braai feeling —
It's a mindset, a feeling of home and belonging, something so important that it demands a definitive article: The braai.
Louis Hiemstra
Braais can involved the usual barbecue stapes such as chicken and pork, but some areas in South Africa also cook zebra, warthog and ostrich.
Courtesy Louis Hiemstra
Mzoli's —
Mzoli's in Cape Town is a wildly popular braai restaurant.
Courtesy Stephen Coetzee
Everyday life —
Nqobani Mlagisi grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe, where grilling, smoking and curing meats was a part of everyday life. He now works as a braai chef in Johannesburg.
Griffin Shea
Worldwide flavors —
Mlagisi's braai may be inspired by his boyhood on the farm, but the flavors and techniques pull from across the world: finely chopped veggies like a salsa, Chinese bao buns.
Louis Hiemstra
Complex sauces —
At Joburg's Good to Go Eatery, the same cosmopolitan style applies to burgers. Guacamole and more complex sauces go on the meats between the buns.
Good to Go eatery
Soweto Street Food —
"We put more style in it," says Good to Go Eatery owner Sylvester Mthembu. "We call it our Soweto street food. We just upgraded it."
