South African Curried Lamb Fruit Bobotie. This would be a hot contender for South Africa's national dish! Bobotie is a Cape-Malay creation, and they spice it up even more with cumin, coriander and cloves. A similar dish was known in Europe in the middle ages after the Crusaders had brought turmeric from the East. When our first Dutch settlers arrived, Holland was largely influenced by Italian cooks, and a favorite dish was a hashed meat backed with curried sauce, spiked with red pepper and 'sweetened with blanched almonds.' There are many local variations.

Sauerkraut & Bratwurst Balls – the two best known German foods rolled into bite-sized balls, breaded and fried (or baked). Serve with Bavarian mustard and a lot of beer!

Steckerlfisch is a grilled fish on a stick immensely popular in Bavaria and Austria. It is an iconic beer garden menu food item and many know it as Oktoberfest fish on a stick because it is one of the best loved specialties offered on the Wiesn every year.

You can’t have Oktoberfest without pretzels. Large and soft, they’re the perfect accompaniment to beer and mustard.

These round potato dumplings are like a more rustic gnocchi. They're perfect for serving with the saucy mushroom goulash.

If you’re attending Oktoberfest, you’re eating this pickled cabbage with almost anything. This homemade version mixes cabbage with sweet apples and aromatic caraway.

Würstl refers to a variety of classic Bavarian sausages. sautéed in a skillet with bacon and apple sauerkraut. Serve with plenty of mustard.

During Oktoberfest, chickens are spit-roasted until the skin is golden brown and crispy. I don’t have a rotisserie set up at home, so instead make this classic lemon-thyme roast chicken in the oven.

Schweinshaxen, served with Sauerkraut and dumplings sides, is the kind of hearty fare that pairs well with the amber, malty, more full-bodied Oktoberfest beers.

It is a classic German dessert, known as crème bavaroise in French and Bayerische creme in German. Its origins are French, it was a French high-cuisine chef, Marie Antoine Carême, who first recorded its recipe in the early nineteenth century. It is believed that the dessert had been a favorite at the French royal court for much longer, since the fifteenth century when Isabeau of Bavaria was Queen of France by marriage to Charles VI.