Food

Now that that pesky cycling is (mostly) out of the way, I’m spending a few days in Cape Town checking out some sights and some food!  This morning started with a tour and cooking class in the Bo—Kaap district - home to the predominantly Muslim  Cape Malay culture. While I was waiting for tour guide, a couple of guys tried to hit me up for money. When Zayed showed up he told me to stand off to the side so the guys knew I was part of the tour and would leave me alone as they have an agreement. It worked.

Zayed started off with a neighborhood tour including the Atlas Spice store which supplies many restaurants in town - their spice blends are made on a weekly basis so are guaranteed to be fresh. I grabbed a few local items but am saving some luggage room for Istanbul.

The area is known for its colourful buildings - it is mandated that you cannot paint your house the same colour as your neighbour. 

While the neighborhood is predominantly Muslim there is also a strong Jewish component. Needless to say antisemitism reared its ugly head on October 2023. There is a strong group of Jews for a Free Palestine though and Zayed told us they commissioned artists to paint pro Palestine murals on some Jewish properties and synagogues to show their solidarity.

Zayed’s family has lived in Bo Kaap since its founding in the 1700’s. His mother, Zannie, is a well known chef and restauranteur and was judge on, and consults to, South Africa Top Chef. She’s retired now and has passed the torch on to daughter Menowara who led today’s class in the family living room. Locals Nikky and Velda also attended the class along with Zayed’s young daughter.

On the menu were chili bites - very light and fluffy

Chicken curry - almost burning the onion is the big secret

Roti - dough is layered with butter

Samosas - I can now roll a perfect equilateral triangle!

When all was prepared, we enjoyed eating in the oasis of a back yard shared by 11 families. So jealous of the bananas, papaya, lemon, passion fruit, olive trees - and fresh curry leaf! 

Since the classes are typical 6-8 folks and we were 3, there were a lot of leftovers. These are distributed around the neighbourhood to those in need.

While I Uber’ed there on my guide’s advice, I felt fine walking back. I’ve seen more dodgy-looking street people in Toronto. The cross walk lights were out at a 10 lane intersection and a street seller helped me across. He was trying unsuccessfully to sell me something so I gave him my spare change for the assistance and he went about his business. The 2 ladies in my class said that around 5-6p the “syndicate” workers come out looking for easy tourist marks in the area between Bree Street, which is full of authentic restaurants and clubs, and the touristy V&A area. the 2 areas are divided by a raised expressway similar to Toronto’s waterfront. They made it sound like it was more scamy than hold-uppy - I didn’t linger to find out which.

I moved my gear over to my trendy (and free!) hotel beside the Silo Gallery where I got 

rested up for my evening food adventure.

My “mountain view” room also looked out onto a dry dock where workers were cannibalizing old ships  for scrap metal - not at the scale of the Bangladesh’s Chittagong ship breaking yards but still very cool.

I came across tonight’s venue, The Reverie Social Table, by googling “cool things to do in Cape Town for solo travellers.” Food, wine and people were amazing - it was kind of fun to have the novelty of saying “Oh I’ve just cycled here from Victoria Falls” to a bunch of strangers. I think 10/16 guests were local, there were 2 cellists, a harpist, a pianist and a composer. I sat next to Sara and then her husband who were both British DIs (coppers.) Sara was also a big fan of British crime drama but hubby Gary found it too much like work. A young Brit couple were remote working out of C.T. - she was in gaming, specifically Candy Crush finances. The lady who was in the wine business knew was friends with the Cederberg winery people.

The food was amazing and they weren’t stingy with the wine. I had to say “no more for me” a few times. They insist that everyone Uber home for obvious reasons. 

Food courses were:

Fish - radishes, greens, one oyster,  salmon ceviche with a light broth poured over 

Veggies - four dishes: roasted carrots with black eyed peas, courgettes + marrow in a creamy sauce, green salad, samosa wrap crisps

Meat - lamb 2 ways with some green mushy delish side + amazing marinated cherries

Cheese - mild cheese with rind, mushroom sliced + pate, savoury shortbread (chef came over to reassure me that no oyster mushrooms were used)

Desert - custard, oat cake, peach + gelato + crisp 

All in all, Babette’s feast!