My time in the bush came to an end but the adventure continued. We flew Federal Air back to Johannesburg and connect to the most beautiful city I’ve visited, Cape Town. The bush was a great experience but I was excited to finally make it to the mother city. I’m a Pisces and I carry a natural affinity to cities that touch a body of water.
We left Kruger Park later then expected and arrived to Cape Town in the evening. I was tired and ready to go to the hotel but we had a change of plans and headed directly to Signal Hill aka Bo-Kaap courtesy of Escape to the Cape. Bo-Kaap sits on a hill and gave way to stunning nighttime view of Cape Town and Table Mountain as the backdrop.
Shaheed the owner of the Escape to the Cape would provide transportation to all of our destinations during our stay. He would eventually bring us to the home of Mrs. Latiefa Larney. Mrs. Larney townhome style house gave a warm welcome and it was a nice change up from the fancy restaurants we previously dinned in to eating a home cooked meal. Mrs. Larney had her tablecloth set with matching tableware
If you have the opportunity to enjoy dinner with native residents I encourage you to dine with them and take in their culture. Mrs. Larney prepared a traditional delicious Malay dinner. While she served the meal she gave us history about Bo-Kaap including how her parents migrated to South Africa and settled in Bo-Kaap during Apartheid.
Here are all the dishes we ate:
Vegetable Soup
Samoosa(s) (pronounced sa-moor-sa): fried triangular pastry with savory filling
Vegetable Dhaltjie(s) (pronounced dull-chi): fritters, often with chilli and spinach
Minced meat or vegetable pies
Naan bread, flat bread, tomato and herb
Penang Curry (pronounced pi-nung): fish (usually snoek, a barracuda-like local staple) in a spicy coconut cream sauce, with Roti Chapati (pronounced roo-ti), a traditional flatbread
Tomato Frikkadel (pronounced frir-kir-dell): meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce, with fluffy basmati rice
Koeksister(s) (pronounced koo-see-stir by our people, and cook-sister by white Afrikaans people): a donut-like savory snack covered with caramelized sugar water and coconut flakes
Mrs. Laney was a great cook and delightful host paving the way for a great time in Cape Town!