Pap

Why it's worth your time

Maize meal arrived with Portuguese traders and became the country's default carbohydrate, eaten from townships to braais to breakfast tables. Stiff 'stywe pap' is the braai version — shaped with the hand, used to scoop gravy and chakalaka. Soft pap is breakfast, with milk and sugar. It's the silent partner of nearly every South African meal, and the dish most visitors underrate until they've mopped a plate of lamb gravy with it at a township shisa nyama.