Our fourth day in Cape Town was mainly taken up by a walking "local food tour", we met our guide at 9am in the City Centre and he lead us around eight different venues where we sampled a different local foods. We also did a little sight seeing along the way as well, one of the stops was in the historic Bo-Kaap district where most of the buildings are painted in bright colours (see above)
This district is one of the oldest in the city and was established in 1760 and was formally known as the "Malay Quarter", it's still home to many Muslim people, some are even ancestors of the Malaysian and Indonesian workers bought here by the Dutch, initially as slaves, but later in different waves of immigration. The area is changing now though, being close to the city centre it's being bought up by wealthier Africans, "gentrified" as it's known, it's a shame because the character of the place will almost certainly disappear. Understandably, Bo-Kaap is the centre of "Cape Malay" cuisine and the food here has spicy far eastern origins although it's morphed somewhat over the centuries from what you usually get in Malaysia and India, our guide told us that it changed because the Dutch settlers didn't take to the ample spice in the food, back in the day meat and two veg was more their thing.
In the picture above you can see some of the dishes on offer from a local cafe, curries of course but also more Indian style bites like Samosas (Samoosas), Pakoras (Daljies) and Rotis, despite the Dutch influence in reducing heat in this style of food, some of these snacks were still quite (spicy) hot!
In another spot we had a BBQ selection or traditional South African "Braai" this was a popular option with our tour group, ribs, sausages and chops, very nice (see below)
After our tour we headed back to our hotel and freshened up then headed out for a bite to eat and a reasonably early night as we had a very early start the next day, more on that in part V..
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