I will be spending a few days in Cape Town at the beginning and end of a botanical and birding trip to the Western/ North Cape area. On my own unless companions emerge and staying in the Pinelands area. Any suggestions for particularly good food for me to explore? Im interested in sampling the Cape Malay cusines (do have some suggestions from online searches.
Looking forward o something new,
Although its some years since we were last in the city, we enjoyed meals at the following which, I believe, are still in business.
Africa Cafe - pan-African food. Touristy but enjoyable. Set menu.
Karibou - lost of local food, especially game
Bo Kaap Kombuis - possibly the best known of the Cape Malay places. We had a nice evening and was pleased we sampled the cuisine but we found it underwhelming in flavour. I think we’d expected more of the perky flavours of South Asian food.
We also did a lovely Cape Malay food tour round the traditional Muslim area, which ended at someone’s house where we made our own lunch dishes. I doubt I’ll ever get the knack of making a good samoosa. Can’t recall the name of the tour operator but, if you can find it, I’d certainly recommend it. Great fun.
Thanks! I am curious how you liked the game you had - my few excursions with game - deer in Scotland and pheasant in NY (both cooked by me), and Ostrich - were not enjoyable since the meat was so very lean. I was particularly disappointed by the pheasant since I had a fond memory of some delicious pheasant brought home by my grandfather and cooked by Grandmother for Sunday dinner! Do you recommend any of the african game meats? Bo Kaap Kombuis was on my list of possiblities and I think the food tour you mentioned - or another very similar - is available, but I dont know if I will have that big a chunk of tme to devote to food stuff. Thanks very much for the recommendations. Hopefully my local guides and guest house will have some recommendations.
From our two trips to the country, I recall I’ve eaten and enjoyed springbok, karibou and kudu. In truth, my recollection is that they all tasted pretty much the same and, in that, very similar to wild deer that we have in the UK. As you note, they are very lean.
I remember liking kudu very much.
I have not been in about eight or so years but will see if I have any particular restaurants to pass along. We never did find anyplace for great CapeMalay food but I’m sure it’s available…
The Woodstock Market (Old Biscuit Mill) was fun on weekends–so many stands with great tidbits to sample…
I thought Africa Cafe was decent enough (loved their chandeliers made from old bottles) but I think if you were intrepid enough to venture out you might find someplace less oriented toward tourists…the food there was okay and maybe it’s a great representation of pan-African fare but I was not wowed by any of their dishes…
Have you considered eating at one of the butcheries in a township? Mozoli’s has closed but maybe there are other places where you’d be welcomed, but I don’t know. I imagine you’d go there with a companion.
Found that cool lighting fixture at Africa Cafe:
The Bo Kaap, street scenes; found a decent spice market there…
Above, take the springbok and the kudu…
We went to an ostrich farm one day which was quite interesting. Not least the money that was made in the late 19th century in selling ostrich feathers . We had lunch at the restaurant there. Yes, it was ostrich.
thanks for the game recommendations. I am definitely planning to stick with eating herbivores!
will have to bone up on some afrikaans food names too!
