Food: is there any other reason to travel?

My first question about South Africa was: "I won't have to eat meat, will I?"

Being a vegetarian and loving most animals (especially goats), I was concerned. I bought energy bars. Many, many energy bars. I considered carrying single servings of soy milk and carrying a duffle or backpack just for food. I bought more bars.

Our initial trip included Madagascar, the country west of South Africa that is home to lemurs, vanilla, ariary (money), Malagasy (people), the biggest and oldest baobab tree, and many, many other items of interest. Unfortunately, a civil war broke out shortly before our departure, and the Peace Corps would not allow my daughter to go, which meant we couldn't go. Really big bummer! Oh, yes; the reason I brought up Madagascar -- it's hard to find good vegetarian meals consistently in Madagascar. It's much easier in South Africa.

Eating in South Africa was downright fun, and they had loads of vegetarian food. We all ate my bars and the dark chocolate we took to Ronda, but if there was a mall, there was a restaurant that served something wonderful for me. South African people are big on chicken -- really, really big. If there is a town, there is a KFC. They don't seem to know what those letters stand for, but that's not as important as the items on the menu -- chicken, chips (see entry on language), cold drinks (their term for pop), chicken, and chicken. One person asked my daughter if the United States has KFC. Ronda told that person that the "K" stands for Kentucky where she was born! But the important thing to South African people is that the "C" stands for chicken, which they think is the most wonderful food on earth (well, maybe maize comes in first). KFC has one fun little menu item that I liked very much. It is "veggie cheesy bites." These are deep-fried "bites" of cheese, peas, and corn. They are really, really good -- they can't possibly be healthy (the salt and deep frying were my first clues), but what the heck. At one KFC I had a second order; my husband deigned to help me eat them.

Ronda had discovered "Milo," a Nestle's chocolate/malt drink, high in vitamins and minerals. I found it accidentally here and bought a can. Marmite is an interesting product in South Africa. It is a "yeast extract," a dark brown, salty spread. Nutritional yeast is a very healthy food for vegetarians, as it's high in the B vitamins. I didn't really like the Marmite on my morning toast, though, being accustomed to butter and orange marmalade. When the hostess at one B&B offered Marmite, I agreed because I heard "marmalade." You can imagine my surprise.

We spent one night (our last one) in the Drakensberg Mountains, about five hours south of Jo-burg. The Amphitheatre Backpackers (hostel) had rock climbing tours, restaurant, hot tub, and bar -- pretty cool. They had an excellent vegetarian entree offered at each meal, plus several vegetarian side dishes.

So, sticking to my diet was pretty easy. Of course, Ronda had been there for a year and a half and was an excellent restaurant guide. She took us to Nando's and Wimpy's and Spur (all named for Native American tribes) and knew who served good ice cream. When all else failed, there was always KFC. And bars.