Cooking The Southern African

An award-winning barbecue cook boldly asserts that southern barbecuing is a unique American tradition that was not imported.

Among the staple foods most welcomed on southern tables—and on tables around the world—rice is without question the most versatile. As Michael Twitty observes, depending on regional tastes, rice may be enjoyed at breakfast, lunch, and dinner; as main dish, side dish, and snack; in dishes savory and sweet. Filling and delicious, rice comes in numerous botanical varieties and offers a vast range of scents, tastes, and textures depending on how it is cooked. In some dishes, it is crunchingly crispy; in others, soothingly smooth; in still others, somewhere right in between. Commingled or paired with other foods, rice is indispensable to the foodways of the South.

After highly successful outings with her first two books, Sharon Lurie, aka the Kosher Butcher's Wife, decided that it was time to make it official and combine the influences of her culinary heritage as both a kosher cook and a proud South African. As she says, South African cuisine is as deliciously diverse as its inhabitants, from the many indigenous peoples to the waves of immigrants and settlers who have made the southern part of Africa their home.