Day 32 – Cooking and Cheetahs

Sept 29th

Bo-Kaap District
In the morning, I teamed up with Ryan, Danny and Shamus for traditional Cape Malay cooking class in the Bo-Kaap district. This is the lively and vibrant Muslim community in Cape Town that sprung up due to apartheid segregation laws. What used to be a poor area of the working class, Bo-Kaap has become a hot spot for the wealthy since it so conveniently located near the center of town. This has pushed out a lot of the original tenants, making the district an amalgamation of various cultures. There is even an infamous dividing fence that clearly separates the “suburbs” from “the city.” Most of the area is made up of rows of brightly colored and interconnected houses that create a close-knit community block. Nuzzian, our guide and a local from the area, was lively and excited about teaching us “curry in a hurry” and about Islam traditions and culture. In the colonial past, black slaves were encouraged to convert to Islam because Christians were not allowed to be bought or sold. They also could not drink, so they made excellent security guards for vineyards. He showed us the oldest mosque in South Africa and took us to the local supermarket to collect ingredients.

Cape Malay Cooking
At the supermarket, Nuzzian made us experience the original form of curry leaf and various curry spices that made many of us sneeze all over the place. We discussed traditional cooking techniques, like boiling rice with cinnamon sticks to make it sweet and putting henna in curry as a ‘secret’ ingredient. The supermarket was filled with basmati rice, turmeric, henna, incense and other assorted goods. During our tour, we heard the noon gun that is shot every day at exactly 12 o’clock from the Castle of Good Hope. (Many in Cape Town set their watch to it.) After we each got some dried mango as snacks for the road, we headed to our cooking instructor Damidah’s house. Once we arrived and introduced ourselves, we rolled up our sleeves, washed our hands and toasted with a traditional welcome drink. The drink tasted like strawberry milk, but was really a combination of warm milk, rose syrup and fennel seeds. The seeds softened from the heat of the milk and were easy to sip down as well. Then we moved onto purr, which is flour and water kneaded and rolled out into almost transparent dough lines. Dmaidah showed us how to fold the purr into a triangle pocket and fill it with a chicken curry filling to eventually wrap into a tight samoosas. The samoosa triangular package is then fry in a pan and ready to eat. We moved on to kneading and forming roti, which is a pancake-like bread. After rolling it out, we spread butter over the top and then folded it a few more times to mix the butter in, so that it would fluff the bread up when fried. Finally after all the hard work, we were able to sit and enjoy a full meal. We had roti, which is torn and used to pick up food, with chicken curry and ‘tomato and onion sambal’ sauce on the side. The sauce was the best part of the meal. (Family, get ready for a delicious Cape Mayal meal when I get back! I have all the recipes!) For desert, Dmaidah made us sticky doughnuts with coconut shavings and roobios tea. It was wonderful chatting with her and her impressive 3 year-old that already plays strategic war games online. So, if you are wondering who just kicked our ass at Halo online, it was a 3 year-old wearing a Barbie t-shirt from Bo-Kaap.

Afternoon at Spier
Ryan, Danny and I gathered a few other students to venture out to Spier, a vineyard compound near Stellenbosch. After playing “moles or freckles?” for 40 mins on the car ride out, we finally arrived at Spier to find a portion of the vineyard was a cheetah reserve. After wondering if it was a good idea to wine taste before petting cheetahs, we headed to the cheetah reserve first. There we met Kuai, a six year-old cheetah, and talk to the rangers about the animals. The coolest part was touching their shoulders, which are not connected to the backbone, but are set in muscle and thus float around in the socket. Having our fill of cheetah love, we made our way to the main house for wine tasting. After discovering the difference between Chardonney and Cabnernet Sauvignon, we wandered around the area to admire the landscape before relaxing at the bar before dinner. Moya, the restaurant on the compound, provides over 70 traditional African dishes buffet style. Upon walking into the large, colorful tent, women paint your faces with white-dot African designs. Singers and dancers performed on stage, while we made multiple trips to the buffet line. We filled up on antelope, springbock, chicken, beef, vegetables and starches complimented with various sauces and spices. Desert was apple pie, cheesecake, chocolate cake and a sticky donut all covered in oozy custard sauce. Then headed back to the waterfront via our mini bus to recover from our stomach aches for the rest of the night.

Highs and Lows
My “high” was snuggle with a giant cheetah. My “low” it being Ramadan and not being able to share the delicious home cooked meal with Damidah and her daughter.