South African Dinner Party?

[amew]

My DH and I have to host a "focus group" on South African wines this weekend (it's for a school project he is working on). The focus group will involve 12-16 of our friends sampling various wines and then discussing them. Since we are doing this on a Friday night, we would like to provide everyone with dinner after the official business portion of the evening. In a pinch, we can just make some sort of baked pasta dish, a big salad, and bread, but I was thinking it might be more fun to be somewhat thematic. Does anyone have ideas for recipes that might have a South African feel and/or go well with South African wine? It needs to be something that is either pretty quick or can be partially prepared the night before (I will have about an hour to an hour and a half between work and guests arriving), and something that isn't crazy expensive to do for a semi-large group. I was thinking maybe kabobs and cous-cous, but that is really more Moroccan/North African than it is South African. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

[allison]

Dh and I went to SA last November/December and loved the food and wine!
Most of the food we had was game since we were on safari most of the time. We were served a lot of Shepherd's Pie made with mutton and it was delish! Most of the dishes that weren't game were either lamb, poultry or a small fish dish. I don't know exactly what would be considered SA food, but we were mostly served game dishes.

Our favorite wine came from Engelbrecht~Els winery in Stellenbosch, SA. They only produce about 6,000 bottles a year, but we were able to find some at our local liquor store (we brought back a few bottles, but quickly went through two!). One of our favorites was the Cirrus that was made in conjuction with Silver Oak Winery in CA. Very good!

[amew]

Thanks, allison.

I was thinking that SA food probably includes a lot of game, but I am just not sure how easily that translates into a casual, cheap, last minute dinner party for 16. But we could grill some chicken or lamb easily enough. And I'll be on the lookout for Engelbrecht~Els.