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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Worm, crocodile, tripe and Nelson Mandela's favourite beef and bean stew.

Johannesburg restaurant Gramadoelas gives diners the chance to see how South African food reflects the diversity of its people.

More than 30 years ago, Gramadoelas defied stringent apartheid-era laws to allow blacks and whites to eat together and now, more than a decade after white rule collapsed, this restaurant in the heart of South Africa's economic capital remains one of the only eateries that serves worms.


Mopane worms, a favourite among the Venda ethnic group clustered mostly in northern South Africa, is the raciest option on the menu.

Thicker and hairier than most worms, the Mopane worm is actually a caterpillar named after the tree it eats.

It's an acquired taste and resembles cardboard. After its innards are squeezed out, the worms are boiled and sun-dried.

At Gramadoelas they come drenched in spicy peri-peri sauce -- presumably to mask the flavour.

"If you close your eyes they're not so bad," mused one diner, a visitor from the United States, as she screwed up her nose.

Deep-fried crocodile is easier to stomach.

"It's like a cross between battered cod and KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)," the same diner quipped.

For the main course, opt for unbleached tripe or fillet of ostrich or kudu - an antelope found in southern Africa.

For the less adventurous, Gramadoelas offers a range of Cape Malay classics - a cuisine born of slaves from Indonesia and Malaysia who were brought to South Africa's Cape by Dutch settlers to serve as household chefs.


They infused hearty but tasteless Dutch meals with Eastern spices, spawning dishes like bobotie -- spiced minced lamb topped with a savoury egg custard.

Eduan Naude opened Gramadoelas in 1967 and it became one of the few restaurants in Johannesburg to welcome both blacks and whites.

After democracy dawned in South Africa in 1994, Naude and his partner Brian Shalkoff refused to join the white businesses that fled the city centre for fear of crime in favour of gentrified northern suburbs.

"For a while we got really despondent, the city centre was dead and we would go for days without customers but we were just too lazy to move," Shalkoff told Reuters in the main dining room, which is cluttered with trinkets and paintings that tell the story of South Africa's turbulent history.

Newtown is now the epicentre of a push to revamp the city centre and lure back businesses, property developers and late-night revellers.

As one of the city's only traditional African restaurants, the guest book includes names like Mandela, the Queen, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and Hollywood actor Denzel Washington.

Name: Gramadoelas Restaurant

Location: The Market Theatre, Bree Street, Newtown, Johannesburg

Cost: main courses start at 49.95 rand $7.10

now I have been to South Africa and eaten most of these barring the worms, Kudu is stunning, oterich is beautiful but crocodile is just simply amazing!
Give it a whirl you never know you might be amazed!!