We recently went on a two-week-long road trip through six of South Africa’s nine provinces. The first thing to remember when planning a road trip is what you eat on your way to your destination. In South Africa, we call this padkos. Directly translated, it would be road food. Padkos is an essential element of a road trip if you are a South African.
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Types of Padkos
So, what does padkos consist of?
We stopped at a picnic table next to the road while driving from Kimberley (South Africa) in the Northern Cape to Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape; here is what we had.
- Muffins: We had two muffins – a sweet chocolate chip muffin and a savoury spinach and cheese muffin.
- Vetkoek: We had mini vetkoek, but typically, vetkoek is bigger. These are fried dough balls with different fillings, including spicy mince. Some people like their vetkoek with cheese and jams, but you can fill it with anything.
- Frikkadels, also known as meatballs, can be chicken meatballs, beef, or pork. We stuck to the traditional beef one.
- Sosaties, also called kebabs (not to be confused with Indian Kebabs, which are meatballs), are Pieces of meat on a stick. For extra flavour, fruits or vegetables, like pineapple or green peppers, may be added between the meat pieces.
- Sausages: cocktail sausages work best, but South Africans love boerewors – a thick, juicy sausage.
- Pancakes: Usually eaten with cinnamon sugar, we had pancakes with a chicken mayonnaise filling.
Some things we did not have on that specific day but nibbled on along the way include:
- Biltong: Dried raw meat. It’s almost like jerky but better!
- Droe wors: Dried raw sausage, a similar concept to jerky. It is delicious.
- Boiled eggs
- Cornbread. My grandmother always made cornbread for our road trips, and I can recall its taste so clearly.
There are no rules about what you can have for padkos, but it must not be soggy or lose its flavour. Every family has its preferences for padkos.
