How to pronounce Umqombothi

In the International Phonetic Alphabet it is /um̩k͡ǃomboːtʰi/. In plain English letters that is oom-KOM-boh-tee (with a click on the q), with the stress on the syllable in capitals. There is no recording by a native speaker yet, so use the spelling and the IPA.

What is Umqombothi?

Umqombothi is a drink of South Africa. Where it comes from: Eastern Cape (Xhosa). People usually eat it on festive days. Its main ingredients are corn. It tastes sour.

Where Umqombothi comes from

Umqombothi is one of 25 signature dishes of South Africa on this map.

• Umngqusho · Main dish · Eastern Cape (Xhosa)

  Umngqusho is a Xhosa dish of samp, stamped dried maize, cooked with sugar beans and usually served with a free-range 'hard body' chicken, called umleqwa in isiXhosa.

• Bobotie · Main dish · Cape Town

  Bobotie is spiced minced meat baked under a layer of egg and milk, sweet and savoury at once, often with raisins or chutney, and served with yellow rice.

• Bunny chow · Street food · Durban

  A bunny chow is a hollowed-out quarter, half or whole loaf of white bread filled with curry, often mutton, chicken or beans, with the scooped-out bread on top to mop up the sauce.

• Biltong · Snack · Southern Africa

  Biltong is strips of meat, usually beef but also game such as kudu or ostrich, soaked briefly in vinegar, rubbed with salt, coriander seed and pepper, and hung to dry in the air.

• Koe'sister koesister · Dessert · Western Cape (Cape Malay)

  The koe'sister, or koesister, is a traditional Cape Malay pastry of Cape Town, often described as a spicy dumpling with a cake-like texture.

• Gatsby · Street food · Western Cape

  The Gatsby is a long sandwich from Cape Town: a bread roll split lengthwise and filled with hot slap chips, soft fried potato chips, plus a filling of the buyer's choice.

Food of South Africa

Dishes like Umqombothi in other countries

Same type of dish and similar main ingredients as Umqombothi:

• Obushera · Drink · Western Uganda, Uganda

  Obushera is the collective name for four traditional fermented cereal drinks from western Uganda: obutoko, enturire, ekitiribita and obuteire.

• Fura da nono · Drink · North (Hausa-Fulani), Nigeria

  Fura is a millet dough ball from the Sahel, eaten by the Zarma-Songhai, Fulani and Hausa peoples, and "fura" means millet ball.

• Pito · Drink · Northern Ghana, Ghana

  Pito is a beer made from fermented millet or sorghum in northern Ghana, and also in parts of Nigeria and elsewhere in West Africa.

• Chang'aa · Drink · All Kenya, Kenya

  Chang'aa is a traditional home-brewed spirit, popular in Kenya and very potent.