KwaZulu-Natal covers a lot of ground for a province — escarpment, midlands, subtropical coast — and its cooking changes with the altitude.
Up in the Drakensberg
Cold-weather food. Maize in its heavier forms, slow-cooked meat, dishes built to be eaten after physical work. The techniques are the oldest in the province and the least altered.
Through the midlands
Dairy country, and increasingly a producer belt — cheese, preserves, small-batch everything. This is where the province's restaurant scene has been quietly expanding, following the growers.
Down at the coast
Everything changes. Warm water, a port city, and the spice traditions described elsewhere in this journal. The coastal strip is where KwaZulu-Natal's food is most distinct from the rest of the country.
Three hours of driving takes you through three food cultures that have been borrowing from each other for a hundred years.
The argument that made it
Zulu cooking, Indian cooking and the colonial-era kitchen did not merge. They stayed distinct and kept trading techniques across the boundary — which is why you can still identify the origin of an individual dish while recognising the influence of the others in it.
Eating your way through it
The province rewards a route rather than a destination. Coast for the spice traditions, midlands for producers, escarpment for the oldest cooking. Taste South Afrika's proposed inaugural edition is built around exactly that idea.