Cape Town, South Africa

Next stop on our South Africa adventure - Cape Town also known as the Mother City.  We arrived at our hotel, Cape Grace at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in the late afternoon.  Strange as it may seem we both enjoyed unpacking our suitcases completely since some things had been in there for almost 2 weeks!  After unpacking we asked the front desk for recommendations for a simple lunch nearby and headed on our way.  The V and A Waterfront is a big area so big there is a mall in part of it and lots of freestanding restaurants.  You cross a couple of pedestrian bridges over a marina (with lots of nice boats including sailboats) to get to the main area.  The front desk had mentioned the Time Out Market as a place to pick up something on our way back - I thought it was like a farmer's market.  No, it was a food hall and we decided to eat there.  We both chose food from Mlilo (yes, I spelled it correctly).  It was led by a beloved local chef known for a pop-up restaurant of African street food.  I basically had a pork kebob and Jeff had a lamb stew and pap which we could not decide what it was made of rice? no corn?  We would learn the next day on our food tour that it was made from maize.  After that we wandered around the area some before returning to the hotel and catching up with our friends Kathy and Scott Silverwood.

Time Out Market

The next afternoon the four of us headed off to the Bo Kapp neighborhood for a 4-hour food tour.  Bo Kapp is a popular neighborhood with the Instagram crowd because it is so colorful.  Each house is brightly decorated and thus great in pictures.  Our guide said there are many stories as to how the houses came to be so brightly painted and no one seems to know the truth even though it has not been that long that the colors appeared.  

Bottom Left Mosque
Right picture in the far back is a green dome added to a mosque after the British took over

The original inhabitants were skilled laborers referred to as Malay, Muslim slaves from Malaysia and Indonesia.  Today over 50% of residents identify as Muslim.  They hid their religion until the English took over the colony and freed the slaves.  Today, symbols of Islam have been added and these 19th century mosques can be seen today.  (Despite the British decree, many dutch moved north taking their slaves with them.)

We started at a deli where we had local roobois tea and boek sisters.  The tea is quite nice; unlike black teas it did not need sweetener or cream in it.  The Boek sisters are little doughnut balls.  They are quite popular with the local population of that neighborhood.  To say they are doughnut balls is to undercut them some.  Yes, they are little round balls of dough, but they are full of a variety of seasonings such as cinnamon, nutmeg and orange rind so they are much more flavorful than a Krispy Kreme.

Our next stop was a spice market which smelled wonderful.  Our guide pointed out a couple of interesting spice mixes they had and also that all of it was imported.  None of it is from South Africa.  Spices are important to the people and their food here partially because Cape Town has always been intertwined with spices.  Seems the Dutch started the town as a stopover spot for their ships on the long spice route.  On our way to the spice shop, we stopped in a great small local art shop whose art is entirely made from reclaimed items such as cans or even coffee pods.

After the spice market it was off to more eating. Our next stop had a little bit of a New Orleans vibe in that we ate in an interior courtyard with metal railings.  The key item (other than food) in the courtyard was a 250 year old grapevine that is growing there and over parts of the courtyard.  Googling old grape vine in Cape Town and you will find stories and even its Facebook page.  We started the meal with some bubbly - they make a champagne like wine in SA that is often called a Cape Classique.  It was quite nice and then we moved onto a traditional South African meal.  We had a "casserole" called Bobotie, some yellow rice, mango chutney and Sanbals (a tomato and onion relish type mixture.). The Bobotie is made from ground beef cooked with a variety of seasonings and then topped with an egg custard.  As a non beef eater, I was hoping for mostly filler and very little meat - nope there was lots of ground beef needless to say I wasted most of that dish.  I did enjoy mixing the rice with the chutney and sauces.  The chef gave us a package of seasonings and recipe to make at home.  We will be making the Lamb version.  

Grape vine is all from that 1 ancient plant

I should add that we are on a historically significant street, Bree Street which was the widest street in town because it was where the fruit laden wagons from Franschhoek would come to drop off their harvest and it needed to be wide enough for them to turn their wagons around.  Time to move on to the next stop

 Along the way we got some guidance on crossing the streets like how their walk signs only show green for a very short time and then the red flashes.  Also along the way we passed a very nice doggie daycare.  There were lots of dog houses in a park and then next door was a building that looked like a nice refurbished old fire station that we could see dogs inside there looking down upon us too.  Our next stop was an authentic African restaurant called Marco that is quite popular with locals and some international figures too.  

Watching for Mom & Dad to come

At the African restaurant we had a plate with several traditional dishes.  In the middle of the plate was a small ostrich steak which was wonderful.  It was flavorful and very moist.  It was surounded by a couple of stews and some more papp.   One was spinhoespringbok which was the meat of a springbok ( distant sheep relative) and beans in a tomato base.  The other was chakalaka.  We also tasted what the people in the bush would make for beer.  Kind of a cross between a yogurt drink and beer - not to my tastes.

Our final stop was the Fireman's Pub for some more food - the traditional worker's lunch and a traditional dessert.  the traditional worker's lunch was Bunny Chow.  No it does not look like a bunny rather it was an anglized version of the words Banias Casate.  It is a hollowed-out piece of bread filled with a stew and then the cap is placed back on.  With the stew inside the heavy bread, it is transportable.  It was pretty good.  The last bit of food for the day was a piece of Malva Pudding.  Now realize this is an English name so to us Americans it is a nice moist cake with a sauce.  If you have ever had sticky toffee pudding this is a similar dish and again quite good (hey it's dessert, it much be good!)  Since we were at a pub, we had to have a little alcohol: we had a choice between a local beer (Castle) or some gin.  We all chose the gin which came with a little rosemary and a slice of a grapefruit in it.  We all enjoyed it although we did all add tonic water too.  Our tour was done for the day and we were all quite full so back to the hotel we went.

The next day we decided to visit the Two Oceans Aquarium which was close to our hotel.  I had heard good things about it which were correct.  As some of you may have noticed, Jeff and I tend to spend 2 hours max in a museum or place like that before we have had enough.  We spent over 3 hours at the aquarium.  While there were lots and lots of small tanks with just one type of fish some of the really mesmerizing tanks were 2 stories tall with one having a tunnel we walked through.  These tanks are so big you can apply to scuba dive in them and in fact while we were there they had 3 people inside of one of the tanks cleaning the inside of the glass!  The first large tank we saw that ncluded the tunnel had a variety of salt water fish in it including a huge leopard ray in it.  I think we spent a half hour just staring at that tank.  The other large tank was for their shark exhibit.  There were 3 shaggy teeth shark in it with one guy being quite big!  Another memorable exhibit was on the South African penguin.  While we were there the penguins were molting so it was interesting to see what they looked like in that state.  We also knew that we would be heading to Simons Town to see them in their natural habitat in a couple of days.

Top right tank has a hollowed area in the middle for kids to be in the middle of the clown fish

That evening we had a nice meal at the hotel's restaurant as the beginning of our tour with Tauck.  After dinner we all headed off to bed because we would have to get up and get moving every morning starting the next day!  

Our first full day with Tauck started with a presentation by a gentleman who had been one of Nelson Mandela's guards when he was imprisoned in the nearby Robben Island prison.  The man was James Gregory and contrary to what that introduction sounds like he became a lifelong friend of Nelson Mandela's.  He had stories about the cruelties of the prison and of how after the end of apartheid he and Nelson stayed close.  His book is Goodbye Bafana which I hope to read in the near future.  After his speech we were off to the bus to start exploring Cape Town.

On our way to our first stop of Table Mountain, our Cape Town guide, Ron, pointed out some sites in the city.  We got to the mountain and he warned us it was going to be very windy and hopefully we would be able to go up.  Well we did get up and it was very windy and quite moist.  Much of the time you could not see the view, but ever so often the clouds parted for a moment and you could see the city and the ocean beyound.  Since we were all freezing from the strong wind and the moisture, we did not stay up there very long.  But hey I was on top of Table Mountain!

Cable car to the top - inside of car rotates so all have a view 

yes that is Cape Town suburb in the fog

Later in the day, we would add onto the tour and stop at Signal Hill another one of the main mountains surrounding Cape Town so we could get some clear pictures of the city below.  Purely by chance we also got pictures of a very pretty rainbow.

Stadium built when they hosted World Cup

After our quick, cold visit to Table Mountain, we were on our way to Kirstenbosch Gardens which is a large well known botanical garden in the city.  It was still a very windy day so you may notice I have my hood up a lot in the picture - I was trying to keep my hair out of my face rather than rain on my head although it did drizzle on us at the end of the walk!  I got to see fynbos which is a very common type of plant here we also say several proteas which is the national flower of South Africa.  Ron also discussed how many of the plants have adapted to the very dry climate in South Africa by doing things like thin almost needlelike leaves or even leaves inside of a tube.  Along the way we saw some birds too so an added bonus.  Then it was time for lunch at the garden's restaurant.  Oh my was there a lot of food.  It was all served family style.  Started with a salad and bread and both Jeff and I thought that was our lunch.  Silly us.  Oh no there was much more food to come!  Three types of curry - beef, chicken and fish.  Some dishes with veggies and 2 mashed dishes - butternut and cauliflower then came a dessert plate.  Oh my, It was all served family style so we really didn't realize what all we were getting until it just kept coming.  After all that food we did Signal Hill and then 5 of us went to a modern art museum by the hotel.

Kirstenbosch Gardens

Top is indigenous Bird of Paradise 
Bottom is the common variety we see

big picture is a protea

The Zeitz Museum was the modern art museum and I confess my desire to go there was based on the building rather than the art inside of it.  Our food guide had told us that the museum was originally a grain silo and they had cut out portions of it to make it a museum - intriguing.  When you walked into the museum is when you really got the full effect of the transformation, and it was impressive.  The photo below is a vertical panorama that Jeff took of it.  The art was not to my liking although I was surprised to learn about all the international organizations supporting artists in the poorer parts of the world.  The art tended to be very politcally based.  We were wandering around the museum with another lady from our tour group who said she wanted to see the seals in the marina, so we took the long way back to our hotel and did get to see some seals up close.  Jeff also got to check out an interesting red building we had seen across the marina which turned out to be a clock tower.  We got back to the hotel with plenty of time to clean up and change for our wine tasting dinner that night.

Inside Zeitz Museum

Clock Tower at V and A Waterfront

Seals and V and A Waterfront

Busses took us to The Conservatory at Cellars Hohenort which is a very nice hotel in the suburb of Constantia.  Constantia was the original wine region for Cape Town.  Dinner was another big meal and included a couple of different wines including some local bubbly to start.  A couple of us are still talking about the first course which was a cheese souffle.  For the main course you had a choice of a Springbok steak or Bobotte made from lamb.  Most of our group chose the springbok steak while I chose the bobottie since I had not appreciated it the other day with hamburger in it.  While I enjoyed mine, it was served in a small cast iron pot and never really cooled down making less enjoyable.  After the main course it was time for the dessert courses.  While the menu only mentioned a creme brulee they also served the Koeksisters and milk tartlets.  The koeksisters are related to the boek sisters we had on the food tour, but they are braided and have different seasonings in them.  I was looking forward to the milk tartlet because Scott had been asking everyone where he could get some since he knew it was a traditional dish in South Africa.  Our version came as small tarts with a milky custard inside a heavy level of cinnamon on top.  The dessert course was served with a sweet wine that made me think of ice wine.  Then time to get back on the bus and get back to the hotel so we could all go to sleep and start up early the next day!