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From Bobotie to Biryani
Some two centuries after the first Malay slaves
landed in the Cape, a boatload of indentured labourers arrived in Durban to
work in the sugar cane fields. Others followed - both Hindu and Muslim, from all over India - and when their ten-year contracts were over, they stayed.
Clearly there was a market here; merchants arrived from Gujerat and the
north to service it and, like the labourers, they stayed.
Indian cookery grew so popular over the decades that followed that Zulus in
Natal adopted curries as their own, although they left out the ginger. The
classic Indian Delights cookery book, first published by the Women's
Cultural Group in 1961 and since reprinted many times, claims curry and
rice is a national dish, and few would disagree. The variety of curries,
atjars, samoosas, biryanis are a delight to the South African palate, and
the popularity of tandoori restaurants in the last 20 years has enhanced a
popular cuisine.
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