In our Okavango Delta Restaurant Guide below we have suggested a variety of Okavango Delta restaurants and markets to try during your holiday in this beautiful region. Many restaurants in Okavango Delta are located within the local markets and shops of Okavango Delta, allowing you can take in some great shopping opportunities whilst sampling the local cuisine. Take a look at our Botswana Restaurant Guide for food and cuisine information across the country.

Food & Cuisine in Okavango Delta

The tourist resorts of Botswana do not restrict themselves to traditional cuisine; they offer an ample range of options like Asian, Middle Eastern, Indian, and other cuisines from all over the world. Fast food chains have become popular in recent times thanks to their convenience factor and family-friendly ambience.

Popular Dishes

The traditional food of Botswana is extremely popular throughout Southern Africa. It is served along with various Continental dishes in Okavango Delta restaurants and hotels. After trying out the local food, visitors invariably develop a liking for it, and often prefer it to the more familiar Continental cuisine. Millet and sorghum porridge forms the staple diet of the local citizens. Non-vegetarian food is the preferred choice in Botswana; beef and mutton are the most widely consumed meats, with lamb and chicken coming a close second in popularity. The locally available fresh river fish is also a great favourite.

Local Food

The traditional meat dish, Seswaa or Chotlho, is an extremely popular preparation made on important occasions. A three-legged iron pot is used for cooking Seswaa and it is traditionally prepared by men. Serobe, another popular dish made with the intestines and other organs of goat, sheep or cow, is cooked till it is soft. Goat or sheep trotters are also added to Serobe.

Traditionally grown, free range chicken is considered tastier than commercially reared chicken. If you are served free range chicken, consider it as hospitality at its best. Cooking the chicken on an open fire in a three-legged iron pot enhances its flavours. Oxtail is another meat dish which is also a hot favourite with the locals.

Sorghum, millet flour or maize is stirred into boiling water and mixed to form a soft paste; this is then cooked slowly to make porridge. A dish called ting is made by adding milk and sugar to the fermented maize or sorghum. Ting is also eaten at lunch or dinner with vegetables or meat, minus the sugar and milk. Kisra, an omelette-like pancake is a must-have dish at any feast in Botswana. Bamia-bamia is stew made with an unusual combination of ingredients - lamb and okra. The seasonal nature of vegetables in this region has prompted the locals to develop methods of preserving them for later use. Salting and drying are the two most commonly used methods.

Although not part of the native diet, bread flour, which has been imported over several years in the recent past, has made various bread-based recipes an intrinsic part of the local cuisine of Okavango Delta. Common among these are flat cakes (diphaphatha), dumplings and fat cakes (magwinya). To make these, the flour is kneaded into dough and cooked in diverse ways like frying in hot oil, boiled with meat or roasted over hot coals.

Morama, a huge underground tuber and an edible fungus are widely consumed in remote areas of the country. Groundnuts, peanuts and dried bean leaves are also eaten in large quantities in Botswana. Usually, a wide variety of vegetables and South African as well as English desserts are included in the meals.

Local Drinks

Khadi is a drink brewed from wild grewi berries that tastes like apple cider. However, local people are in the habit of altering its taste by adding gunpowder, tobacco, Brasso, wood alcohol and other unwholesome substances to it. Bottled beer is a safer option. Muchema, a locally brewed palm wine is available in the Okavango and Makgadikgadi areas.