Pap and Chakalaka

Pap is white maize meal cooked with water and salt, and the consistency defines what it is called: slap pap is loose and eaten for breakfast, stywe pap is stiff enough to cut, and phutu is crumbled dry. Stiff pap is what comes with grilled meat, broken off and used to pick food up. Chakalaka is the relish beside it - onion, green pepper, carrot, tomato, chilli and curry powder cooked down, usually with baked beans stirred in, served warm or cold and made to be sharp against the blandness of the maize. The two together are the standard plate at a shisa nyama, the township grill where you buy raw meat at the counter, hand it over to be cooked over coals, and eat it at a table outside with pap, chakalaka and a bottle of something cold. It is a social form as much as a meal.

What you actually see

• Three consistencies - slap, stywe and phutu, from loose to crumbled.
• The relish - onion, pepper, carrot, tomato and curry powder, usually with beans.
• Eaten by hand - stiff pap broken off and used to pick up meat and relish.
• Shisa nyama - buy the meat raw, hand it to the grill, eat at a table outside.

When to go

All year; weekends at a shisa nyama. An hour or an afternoon.

Honest expectations

Pap is deliberately bland and people expecting flavour from it are missing the point. Chakalaka heat varies from mild to fierce. The best shisa nyama are in townships and go better with a local guide or friend. Portions are very large.

Nearby

Shisa nyama grills across every township and township-adjacent suburb.