This dish is eaten like rice or noodles in other cultures.

Afrikaners in the northern parts of South Africa eat it as a breakfast staple, with milk and sugar (slappap), but also serve it (stywepap) with meat and tomato-stew (usually tomato and onion) at other meals. In the Cape Provinces, among the white population, it is almost exclusively seen as a breakfast food.

Since mealiemeal is inexpensive, poor people can afford to combine it with vegetables and be sure of one good meal a day. It can be served hot or, after it has cooled, it can be fried, giving it a different texture. Stywepap or putu is sometimes enjoyed with chakalaka as a side dish with braais.

A similar dish is polenta, from northern Italy. In the USA a very similar dish is known as Grits. The primary difference between the US and the South African dishes is that in the US the maize (or corn) used is a yellow kernel maize, whereas in South Africa maize is especially grown for human consumption with white kernels, allowing the whole kernel to be used for the maize meal.

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