Search
Brazil
Argentina
Bolivia
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Guyana
French Guiana
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
Germany
Austria
Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
Spain
Finland
France
Greece
the Netherlands
Hungary
Ireland
Iceland
Italy
Luxembourg
Norway
Poland
Portugal
the United Kingdom
the Czech Republic
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
the United States
Mexico
the Dominican RepublicTurkeySouth Africa
Australia
Fiji
New ZealandFlavors · Cabo Oriental
Cracked white maize (samp) slow-cooked with beans until creamy, seasoned with onion and butter or fat. It is the everyday dish of the Xhosa of the Eastern Cape and was Nelson Mandela's favorite.
Traditional dish from Cabo Oriental
Also known as: samp and beans, mngqusho, isitambu
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Click a photo to enlarge it.
Umngqusho — Cabo Oriental, South Africa
Umngqusho is made with samp, peeled and cracked white maize kernels, and beans, usually sugar beans. The two cook together over low heat for hours, with water added gradually, until the kernels are soft and the broth is absorbed. At the end, butter or fat, salt and, in many homes, sautéed onion are added, and the mixture is lightly mashed. The result is a thick, creamy dish with a mild flavor.
It is a Xhosa dish from the Eastern Cape, the province where Nelson Mandela was born and raised. In the past, maize was pounded by hand in a mortar and winnowed to remove the husk; today samp is sold already processed. Records in the Dictionary of South African English show umngqusho in the Eastern Cape as everyday and celebratory country food, cooked in large iron pots over the fire for community gatherings.
After leaving prison in 1990, Mandela said umngqusho was his favorite food. The cook who worked for him for about 20 years, Xoliswa Ndoyiya, included the recipe in the book she wrote about the household cooking.
The same dish exists in other parts of the country under other names, such as isitambu among the Zulu of KwaZulu-Natal. Cook and writer Dorah Sitole called the Xhosa the guardians of umngqusho.
Samp (peeled and cracked white maize), beans (usually sugar beans), water, salt, butter or fat and, in many recipes, onion; some households cook it with a bone or meat broth.
Hot, as a main dish or as a side for stewed meats, chicken and sautéed greens. It is also eaten with amasi, the fermented milk.
Year-round, for everyday meals and at family and community gatherings.
Your questions
A dish of samp, cracked white maize, slow-cooked with beans until creamy, with butter and onion. It is everyday food of the Xhosa of the Eastern Cape.
Yes. Shortly after leaving prison in 1990, Mandela said it was his favorite food, and the recipe appears in the book by the cook who worked for him.
Several hours over low heat. Many recipes soak the samp and beans overnight to shorten the cooking time.
Flavors of South Africa
Stew of mutton or lamb with waterblommetjie flowers, an aquatic plant native to the Western Cape, onion, potato and sorrel. It is a winter dish, made in the short season when the flowers are harvested from the province's lakes and marshes.
Minced meat seasoned with curry and spices, mixed with bread soaked in milk and dried fruit and baked under a milk-and-egg topping. It is a well-known dish of Cape Malay cuisine from Cape Town, served with yellow rice and chutney.
A long roll filled with fries, meat, fish, or chicken, salad and sauce, cut into pieces for sharing. It originated in a fried-fish shop in Athlone, in the Cape Flats, and is Cape Town’s sandwich.
Fried dumpling with a soft dough, seasoned with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, fennel and tangerine peel, dipped in hot syrup and coated in coconut. It is the Sunday breakfast of Cape Malay families in Cape Town.
A hot amber-colored beverage made from the oxidized leaves of a shrub that only grows in the Cederberg mountains and surrounding areas. Clanwilliam, at the foot of the range, is the center of cultivation and processing, and the name rooibos has a protected geographical indication.
Curry served inside a sliced loaf of white bread cut into a quarter or half and hollowed out, with the removed crumb placed on top. Created by Durban’s community of Indian origin, it’s the dish the city uses to introduce itself.
A quarter loaf of sliced white bread hollowed out and layered with fillings: fries, sausages, mortadella, a burger, cheese, achar and sauces. It’s the street food of Johannesburg’s townships, like Soweto, and of the whole Gauteng province.
Homemade fermented drink made from the juice of marula fruits, from January to March. In Limpopo, the season opens with the festival of the first fruits, and Phalaborwa hosts the annual marula festival where the drink made by local cooperatives is served.
Pinotage red wine, a grape variety created in Stellenbosch, South Africa, from crossing Pinot Noir with Cinsaut (which in the Cape was called Hermitage). It has a dark color, aromas of red and dark fruits, and soft tannins.
