Bobotie, from the Cape recipe: There are as many variations for bobotie as there are cooks. The only secret is to find you own favourite amount and mix of spices! Other than widely believed, bobotie did not come with the slaves from Indonesia, but was actually brought from Holland by founding father Jan van Riebeeck in 1652. Why then the spices, so typical of Indonesian and Sri Lankan cooking? Because through the Dutch East In.