Today we pay a visit to Soweto, one of the most famous townships in South Africa 45 minutes drive from Johannesburg to have a taste of true Soweto food. See what Soweto food is like and what is typically eaten for breakfast.
"Welcome to the city of gold! Tony is my apartheid name. My real name is Mokone," says our guide for our visit to Soweto. Johannesburg was given that moniker of the City of Gold when an Australian prospector George Harrison discovered gold while riding a horse in the Witwatersrand on Langlaagte farm in 1886. Following that discovery Johannesburg supplied 40 percent of the world's annual gold production.
Soweto stands for South Western Townships and is located 45 minutes drive away from central Johannesburg. The World Cup stadium is the first sign from a distance that you have reached Soweto. The stadium is shaped like a Calabash clay pot. The idea behind it was that people could share in the "food bowl".
Our bus ambles past Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. At one time this was the largest trauma hospital in the world. It was only recently surpassed by China during COVID so that it is now the world's third biggest hospital. We drive past tent barbers cutting hair on the side of the road and street markets. We pass Soweto's "Twin Towers" or the Orlando Power Station that is a decommissioned coal-fired power station that now offers bungee jumping from the top. This area of Orlando was where the first houses of Soweto were built. This area was named after Edwin Orlando Leake, mayor of Johannesburg from 1925 to 1926. Shops advertise laundry services with images of smiling faces and sunshine while white goats roam the streets. These goats will be collected each night and taken to their respective owners.
We are here to visit two food businesses. The first is called Ghetto Cuisine that is run by 2 young men: Daniel Sigasa and Thabo Nkosi who started it in November 2022. The restaurant is actually a way for them to raise funds for their NPO (non profit organisation) to train Orlando children in debating and playing chess. "This is food for Soweto by Soweto," explains Anna Trapido, South African food anthropologist. As we arrive, I am reluctant to start filming people or taking pictures in case it feels invasive but then I look up and there's a local gentleman filming us but when our eyes meet we smile and see see that we are as interested in each other.
"This is the food of poverty and dispossession and when your land is taken and you have long commutes," explains Anna, "The long commute issue pertains to apartheid geography – black South Africans were forcibly removed from areas in South African cities to areas like Soweto that are far from where people work. This creates a long commute and people who commute long distances tend to cook fast meals hence stock cubes, frying etc replace the traditional long slow stew like meals. Magwinya (donuts) and kotas (filled, portable breads) fall into this category of quick, cheap and filling."
We try several of Ghetto Cuisine's dishes. Inhloko is a stew made of the cow's head but mostly the beef cheek is used. The meat is cooked long and slow with basic seasonings so that the true flavour of the beef comes out.
There's also liver or Isibindi which is so perfectly cooked and moreish. Each bite is succulent and tender with just a bit of liver flavour right at the end. Isibindi is the word for liver and also the word for courage and is traditionally given to young men. Then there's mogodu or tripe that you eat with some pap or maize porridge. We feast with our hands.
To add to this are Amagwinya or Verkoek donuts made by Priscilla Mamonyane who lives and sells these out of the tiny red painted window on the side of her house located right next to Ghetto Cuisine. Priscilla used to work for DHL but during COVID-19 she was retrenched and decided to start a food business. She tried out a few items but it was her Amagwinya donuts that proved popular. She usually sells out by 11am but today she has made a batch for us. These rectangular donuts served with a slice of ham or luncheon meat but you can also eat them with curry mince or jam.
Priscilla's amagwinya or Fat Cakes are made with wheat flour, yeast, water and salt. Her secret is that she lets the dough rise for 2 hours "So that they aren't sour" and then deep fries them. They're light as air and when you pull them apart and fill them, they almost collapse into delicious nothingness. If I were to draw a comparison it would be the soft, collapsing and delicious texture of youtiao or Chinese dough sticks.
Our next stop is on Vilakazi street, one of the main commercial streets in Soweto. Its claim to fame is that it is the only street in the world where two Nobel prize winners lived: Sir Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela lived on this street (although Mandela's actual street address is not on Vilakazi as it sits on a corner block). There are stores and restaurants on this high street including a fine dining restaurant called "1947 on Vilakazi Street".
We are here for a Kota sandwich at Streat And Chill. A Kota is based on a "Quarter" of a loaf of bread and that along with Durban's Bunny Chow, Cape Flats' Gatsby or Pretoria's S'phatlo (like a Kota but cut in a different direction) are one of the last vestiges of apartheid. These meals were served in bread as it was more transportable because it was illegal for black people to eat in a restaurant or use cutlery. There is also an annual Soweto Kota Festival in September this year that celebrates this sandwich-and-then-some. Over 40 Kota outlets from all over Gauteng province will be creating their specialty sandwiches.
Within a Kota there are various levels of filling from a basic hot chips, poloney (balcony), achar (relish), Vienna sausage and cheese or you can go for "All that Jazz" filled with chips, polony, achaar, Vienna sausage, cheese, Russian sausage, beef patty, bacon, egg, rib burger and ham. This of course is entirely too large to eat so there is a method to manage it. Anna explains, "You wrap it in newspaper and then you put it in a plastic bag and then polite children just sit on it and wiggle until it’s flat and then you unwrap it and you’ve got a flat sandwich." Another alternative for the braver is to throw the sandwich under a taxi's wheels which will flatten it even further. In Soweto this flattened kota is called a Biff.
We grab a bag and squish the sandwich down but it really doesn't do much because of course the perkiness of the meats are no match for the human hand and body weight. So I do what I can and that is take tiny little bites of every kind of meat in it. This seems to do the trick and this bread, stuffed with almost every processed meat imaginable, is absolutely delicious. My favourite layer is the rib patty taking on McDonalds McRib but without sauce, instead it has a delicious, sweet glaze. I find myself back home weeks later, craving a Kota.
After lunch we head down the street to Mandela house, located at 8115 Orlando West Vilakazi street. It is open to the public and is run as a museum by the Soweto Heritage Trust and guided tours are complimentary and part of the entry fee. Nelson Mandela first moved into this modest red brick cottage in 1946 with his first wife Evelyn Ntoko Mase. The couple suffered a lot of family misfortune with all three of their children passing away. In 1958 he married Winnie (Winifred) Nomzamo Zanyiwe Madikizela and they had two daughter Zenani and Zindziswa.
Each room is marked on the floor before entering. The family stopped sleeping in the front bedrooms because it was unsafe due to the bullets from government drive-bys. There still remains the brick wall they used to shield behind during shootings. Winnie spent a lot of time raising the girls alone as Nelson was sentenced to spent 18 of 27 years at a maximum security prison on Robben Island in 1964. It is in this house that you can see the letters that he wrote during his imprisonment. He was only allowed to write 2 letters a year of 500 words in English only. Once a year he was allowed 1 visitor for a total of 30 minutes.
After becoming the president of South Africa from 1994-1999 he married his third wife Graça Machel Mandela. She is the only woman to have married two presidents: Nelson Mandela and Mozambique's former president Samora Machel.
In December 2013 Nelson Mandela passed away at age 95 due to a respiratory infection is now buried at his ancestral home, Qunu, in the Eastern Cape under a native Australian melaleuca tree where the umbilical cords of his children are buried to connect them to their ancestors. In 2020 his second daughter Zindzi passed away at age 59 from complications due to COVID.
After this we walk down this famous street, past Sir Desmond Tutu's house. There are market sellers selling jewellery to knick kacks and souvenirs. "Browsing is free!" one seller intones.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever visited Soweto?
NQN travelled to South Africa as a guest of South African Tourism but all opinions remain her own.
Ghetto Cuisine
Corner Adam Street And Nkomoyahlaba, Orlando East, Soweto, South Africa
Open 7 days: 10am – 6pm
Tel: +64 073 273 9251 or 0691202788
Streat & Chill Co.
7230 Vilakazi St, Orlando West, Soweto, 1804, South Africa
Open 7 days 10am-10pm
Phone: +27 84 777 4466
If you would like to book transport or a tour (which I recommend), we used Tshuku Tours (mpho@tshuku.co.za). If you want a specific food tour, you can also contact Anna Trapido @trapidoterritory or email her here
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