Making fire and burning meat may be what make us human, but South Africans go one better, drying and curing — not burning — raw meat in a slow process loved by all who taste it called biltong.

You can buy biltong made by expats living everywhere including in Australia.

The intention here is not to diminish from South Africans’ national and justifiable obsession for braaivleis, or barbecued meat. It’s just that all cultures have their preserved meats and once you taste biltong, it makes all the others irrelevant.

In a recent Food Network “Food Safari” episode, Maeve O’Meara explored how South African food has been exported to Australia, where South Africans live in large communities.

South Africans cut their teeth on biltong. They send their children to school with biltong in their lunch boxes and watch rugby while eating biltong, according to Graham Shapiro, a South African-born chef who trained all over the world before opening Wild Poppy, a restaurant in Fremantle.

Biltong has such a strong pull on the heartstrings of South Africans that vegetarians have been known to give up the fight over biltong, Shapiro said on FoodNetwork.

Indigenous people of Southern Africa such as the Khoikho preserved meat by slicing it into strips, curing it with salt, and hanging it up to dry, according to William Beinart. After Dutch, German and French settlers arrived in South Africa in the early 17th century, they added to the curing process by using vinegar, saltpeter and spices including pepper, coriander and cloves.

Johann du Plooy is one of five biltong makers serving Perth’s 80,000-strong South African community. He was a university professor in South Africa but with a new country came a new profession and the chance to share some of his family’s cooking techniques and recipes. He owns owns Mufasa Biltong Deli in Perth and was featured on the FoodNetwork.

Every batch of biltong comes out differently, duPlooy said. Temperature, heat, the weather, dryness and salt all affect the final product. He seasons his biltong with rock salt, pepper, coriander, sugar and vinegar, then hangs it up. Six days later, it’s ready to eat.

“When you start eating it, you don’t stop ’til it’s finished,” he said.

The spice trade that was dominated by the Dutch East India Company left a deep impression on South Africans cuisine, especially in the Cape Malay curries, according to O’Meara. The Cape Malay were slaves working for Dutch and British settlers in South Africa.

You can feel this influence strongly in South Africa’s street foods. The best street foods are from Durban, according to Durban expat Dhiren Pillay.

Durban is the city with the largest Indian population outside India. Pillay cooks Durban street food in several Sydney produce markets. Durban Indian food is different from Indian Indian food, he said. In Durban samosas, for example, you won’t find corn, cheese and onion, Pillay told FoodNetwork.

At Cafe Vero in Perth, the Friday special is bunny chow, one of South Africa’s most famous street foods. Bunny chow is spicy curry served in half or quarter of a hollowed-out bread loaf. The origins of bunny chow are unclear. It’s thought when Indians first came to South Africa in 1800s, laborers in the sugar cane fields hollowed out leftover bread to use as plates. Now South Africans living in Perth go and get their bunnies on Fridays.