RSA - Part IV

 

Our fourth day in Cape Town was mainly taken up by a "local food tour" (on foot) We met our guide at a coffee shop around 9am in the City Centre and the deal was that he would lead us around eight venues where we would sample a different local food (and/or drink) at each. We also did a little sight seeing along the way, one of the first 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 it was formally known as the "Malay Quarter" and is still home to many Muslim residents (there are a couple of old Mosques there too), it's said that 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. During the Apartheid years this areas was zoned under racial laws meaning that only "Malay" people could live here, other districts in Cape Town (i.e. District 6) were bulldozed and re-developed as "white only" areas, luckily the race-zoning rules probably saved Bo-Kaap from being leveled.

The area is changing now though, being close to the city centre (i.e. within the "city bowl", as it's known) it's gradually being bought up by wealthier Africans, "gentrified" as it's commonly known here, it's a shame because the character of the place will almost certainly change or even 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 originally had to change because the Dutch overlords 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 (an Indian flat bread), despite the Dutch influence in reducing heat in this style of food, some of these snacks were still pretty (spicy) hot!

Next up we tried some local chocolate, interesting made with coconut milk, it was good and very low in calories (unusually for chocolate!) The bars had been spiced up a bit with local African herbs like "Fynbos" and "Rooibos", not your usual Cadburys fruit and nut! (see below)

 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 (back at the Jamaican themed bar!) and a reasonably early night as we had a very early start the next day, more on that in part V..