TUESDAY 14th MAY 2024

After seeing two of the seven wonders of nature across three days (Victoria Falls and Table Mountain), it was time to settle down to some serious foodie travel activities.

You may have read in my blog last week, that when we were in Mauritius 10 days ago, I was feeling unwell, but still managed a great food tour of the capital, Port Louis.

It’s something I try to do in any city I haven’t been to before, especially where that place has a reputation for food. Cape Town definitely has a fabulous reputation for its food!

So, number two food tour of the trip it is!

Cape Town has an interesting history which has seriously influenced its food culture. It is a melting pot of cultures and flavours, resulting in a diverse and exciting food scene. From the fresh seafood caught daily off the coast to the vibrant street food scene, Cape Town is the perfect destination, for a foodie like me.

A couple of months ago I spent some time researching the food tour options of Cape Town and decided on ‘Eat like a local’ which is a small company owned by Rupesh, who also leads most of the tours, as he did on ours. Will, Emma and I met up with him in a coffee shop not far from our accommodation, where he introduced himself and let us know a bit about how the five-hour, seven stop tour would run. We were the only three for today – so had his undivided attention. After introductions Rupesh got us each a coffee (again a great one – yet to have a bad coffee in Africa) plus a little glass jar called Isidudu, containing a soft, warm white maize meal porridge topped with candied walnuts and honey syrup, which he referred to as a ‘private school version’ of a dish traditionally eaten at breakfast across southern Africa. It was warm, sweet, but not too sweet, and not too filling, which was lucky because there were six more food stops to go!

Bo-Kaap was our next stop, one of Cape Town’s most distinct neighbourhoods, known for its vibrant, predominantly Muslim, Cape Malay community and its equally bold flat-roofed colourful houses and cobbled stone roads, all with the backdrop of Table Mountain.

Situated at the foot of Signal Hill, on the fringe of the city centre, and formerly known as the Malay Quarter, the Bo-Kaap’s origins date back to the 1760s when numerous “huurhuisjes” (rental houses) were built and leased to slaves brought here from other Dutch colonies in the east. Most of these groups spoke some Malay, hence this new community becoming known as the Cape Malays. Now the area is highly gentrified but does still reflect its origins and when we stopped at a spice market, we immediately enjoyed all the fabulous aromas and colours from the huge selection of spices, herbs, nuts and snacks. Rupesh bought a few snacks for us to try as we walked to our next stop at a little family-run restaurant, also known for its Cape Malay-style food. I particularly liked the thin pastry, on the crispy and spicy chicken samosas and the fritter (similar to an onion Bahji) was also great. The sweet and sticky koeksisters, rolled in coconut wasn’t so much to my tastes… way too sweet!

I won’t go into all the details but our walk over the next few hours included a visit to the oldest garden in Cape Town where we loved our Rooibos Fynbos tea tasting and lesson (and more food, including biltong and rusks); a chicken curry roti wrap at the inner city take-away, which was probably all of our favourite dish of the day; and the wine tasting at a roof-top bar, where the chef came and explained the wines and told us all about his upmarket VUE restaurant, was so fantastic. (I do love to chat to a chef!). We finished the tour with a delicious version of Chakalaka, a traditional South African vegetable relish, heady with spice, and served with various condiments including bread and yoghurt, all washed down with a ginger beer.

Dave kept himself busy during the morning, including second-hand book shopping and a visit to a shooting range. Sadly, he also visited a Burger King for lunch 😉

You would think we wouldn’t have been able to eat for the rest of the day, but amazingly we backed up for dinner, meeting up with the lovely Ray and Jacqui Cameron at a restaurant in the Waterfront area. The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront is a large, popular precinct housing lots of upmarket shops, plenty of restaurants and open-air entertainment spaces. A little like Darling Harbour (but better!). Ray’s parents were good friends of ours in Wagga, so it was lovely to catch up with them and learn a bit about their lives here in CT.

They gave us good advice and encouragement about our plans for the next day… going out to the nearby wine region around Stellenbosch and joining the ‘wine tram tour’. Cant wait!

PS1 = The view from our apartment, (including our bed) is amazing… but even the view from the shower is incredible. No wonder it takes me so long to get ready each day 😉

PS2 = Emma and I also snuck in a pedi-for-two during the afternoon 🙂