South Africa: Cape Town and Cape Malay Food

Hello Foodies!

I have always said that all cuisines are fusion cuisines. Even the most classical of cooking can have its roots traced to the influences from other groups: French and Chinese techniques and spice in Vietnamese cuisine, or North African accents in the food of Southern Italy. In France alone you see the Germans in Alsace and the Italians in Provence. Much like language, food is a living, breathing and ever-evolving being that picks up the accents of the people doing both the cooking and the eating.

So when we went to South Africa this spring, I was curious to see what kinds of food and influences were cooking there, which, like the United States, is home to many cultures. The trip was a five-day whirlwind - a reconnaissance overview for Lisa, Melissa, and I to develop a Tour de Forks trip that I will be leading there in the Fall of 2010. Our time was spent in Cape Town and touring the adjacent wine country where we found many fine dining meals of world cuisine using local South African ingredients. But Cape Malay cuisine was new to me, and it provided some of the most exciting and tastiest food of the entire trip.

The Cape Malay community is an ethnic group of descendants from Indonesian and Malaysian slaves who were brought over by the Dutch East India Company to work the restocking station on the spice route between Europe and Asia. In Cape Town there is a hillside community called Bo Kaap where many Cape Malays live. The neighborhood is full of brightly colored buildings on cobblestone streets, fortunately left intact throughout the Apartheid's Group Areas Act, as it was already a segregated area where whites did not live. It was in Bo Kaap, we experienced our first taste of Cape Malay cuisine at Noon Gun Cape Malay Restaurant, a family owned restaurant with a stunning view of the Cape Town Harbour. Here we were treated to fiery little fritters, "chili bites", made with chickpeas, chilis and spinach; a traditional wedding dish made with lamb and tamarind; and finally "koeksisters", quenelle shaped donuts fragrant with cardamom, made tender by sugar syrup and topped with coconut, a common dessert for South Africans. And this was just a taste - our amuse bouches before another full lunch at a fancier spot. But even after the delicious second lunch with fantastic South African wines, I was left wanting more of that full-flavored, spicy cuisine.

Our second encounter with Cape Malay cuisine came from Cass Abrahams, dubbed "the mother of Cape Malay cuisine." Cass, like Julia Child with French cuisine, has been the first to write down and record the recipes, and has through her restaurant and various media appearances popularized the cuisine, bringing it into the mainstream of South African culture.

We were treated to a personal cooking demonstration where she prepared a chicken curry, and rack of lamb with "denningvleis" sauce, the lamb with tamarind, but here it was more nuanced and elegant in preparation than the lamb in Bo Kaap, equally but differently delicious. Again, we were only meant to sample her cooking as we had reservations at another restaurant afterwards.

By the 4th day, there was still one traditional Cape Malay dish that had eluded us, bobotie. A casserole of ground lamb and spices with a custard on top that many refer to as the national dish of South Africa. I was beginning to worry that we wouldn't have time to find a full meal of Cape Malay cuisine involving bobotie and we would leave dreaming of the few small tastes we had had, still desiring more. We had eaten so many amazing meals with incredible wine and South Africa's most famous chefs but they didn't serve bobotie in these fine dining establishments. I had high hopes for the last reservation of the trip as it supposedly showcased South African cuisine, perhaps there I would get the elusive dish.

But after a call to the restaurant, we discovered there was no bobotie to be had on the menu, and I thought I would have to wait till 2010 to return and find the bobotie. But by a bizarre turn of events, there was a mix-up with our reservation and the chef who was supposed to meet us wasn't going to be there, so we wound up next door at a tiny little restaurant serving home cooking. Finally! Bobotie! And it did not disappoint, the casserole came to the table, browned and bubbling in spots like a moussaka. Then, the first bite: rich and creamy from the top, redolent of spices in the Malaysian food I grew up with, yet not as spicy (the heat tamed by years of Dutch rule?), and the richness was offset by the sweetness of an occasional raisin in the dish. As I ate I thought, here it is, a fusion cuisine, like much of my own cooking - western and Asian at the same time. Years of history and many people were in that dish, it tasted just like the history of South Africa.

Cheers!

Anita Lo