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Technically a mielie is an ear of corn and braai is a verb referring to the process of barbecuing (usually meat), so a braai mielie is simply a piece of corn prepared over an open fire. But sometimes direct translation fails, and this is one of those times.

The braai mielie is a South African phenomenon that laughs in the face of academic analysis and stubbornly refuses to make sense. In some urban areas, like Johannesburg, they are an infallible seasonal feature. Whenever mielies become available it’s like God’s own multifunction printer kicks into action to run off an infinite number of exact replicas of the braai-mielie lady: always black, always female, always friendly, always on duty no matter what the weather, always tending a fire fuelled primarily by a mixture of anthracite and soft, smoky coal, which is always contained in a modified big metal drum, and always stationed by the side of the road, anywhere the road shoulder allows a truck to pull over.

Mainstream retail has attempted to co-opt the braai mielie that seems so popular (given the high number of roadside sellers) but attempts have invariably failed. Nobody wants to buy a mielie over the counter after it has been carefully prepared on an industrial-grade gas-fired stove by a trained food technician in an environment certified to be hygienic. We want to pull off the road and buy a mielie which is carcinogenic and probably slightly radioactive from all the coal dust spread over it, and then eat it without so much as a pad of butter for accompaniment.

If you are not familiar with corn on the cob, it isn’t exactly easy to eat with one hand (or at all), so why it should be popular among drivers is yet another mystery. And the fierce competition among the sellers, sometimes located just across the road from one another Starbucks-style, mean that prices are rock-bottom low, so why they bother to do it is also not clear. Yet rain or shine you can find a mielie lady ready to serve.

We wouldn’t normally recommend them on a culinary basis, but if you are the kind of tourist who has a township tour on your itinerary, then don’t go home until you can claim to have eaten one.