Food vendors beat the shops to the customer

At lunchtime, the central business districts long queues of ravenous office workers and shoppers waiting for their turn for a bite of food vendors cooking characterises streets in the CBD here.The office workers and shoppers shun chain stores where they say they cannot afford the P20 or more for a bit of rice, phaleche, bogobe, pasta and dumblings.

The food vendors sell a wide variety of Setswana cuisine, including bogobe, phaleche (mealie meal), tshwaio/seswaa (boiled mince meat), bogobe jwa lekatane/lerotse (porridge cooked in watermelon juice), morogo wa dinawa (legume leaves), mokoto (rump steak), koko ya Setswana (free ranging chicken) and pasta for those who prefer to go Italian.