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Specialized tours that I offer.The Cape Cuisine Tour. A Day with the winemaker tour. GPS guided tours with "wize guide"
These tours are aimed specifically at guests who are passionate about and have a deep interest in Wine, Food and matter culinary. These tours burrow down into the nitty gritty of wine making, food preparation and cuisine culture in South Africa and guests are encouraged to get involved with any of these activities as much as they like. One could well make a claim that today's South Africa boasts the world's most culturally diverse cooking and eating experience. Keep foremost in mind that it's not the most stylized kitchen that feeds the nation, but the greatest heart and the strongest spirits as well as the winning ‘Afro Chic’ ingredients that keep visitors to South Africa coming back for second helpings. As the cradle of humanity, Southern Africa is indeed also the birthplace of cooking. Communities here have been perfecting the fine art of picking fresh indigenous herbs and raising their own cattle and sheep since the first human footprint was embedded on African soil. Today, moving beyond the ‘Braaivleis and Sunny skies’ culture, South Africans proudly celebrate the preparation of a meal with locally sourced ingredients. The melting pot of Eastern, Western, and African cuisine, it's all about paps, putus, vetkoek and the koeksisters. From the renowned Durban curries to their more laid back Cape Town cousins and from Chakalaka and Maroho, to warm home baked steamed bread and konfyt preserves – South African cuisine has it all. You will find in South Africa, that no sooner than communities has rolled out the Welcome mat and gripped your hand in the traditional three-clasp welcome handshake, they scurry off to a boil the kettle. Then roping in everyone's aunty, neighbour, grandmother, sister, cousin and friend (to name a few), whip up a storm of home baked delicacies for you, their esteemed guest. And it's precisely such as "Behind the scenes" cultural exchange that allows you to share that bond common to us all - a family life as lived by locals in their homes, a bridge towards international understanding. I invite you to celebrate a feast of food and culture, a journey of the pallet, served from the heart, South African style. 80 dishes, 6 cultures, 1 amazing experience this is.... The Cape Cuisine tour! We leave the Hotel at approximately 9:00am to embark on a voyage of discovering and experiencing the various cuisines and cultures in Cape Town. The idea of this tour is to sample small tastings of various foods and drinks that are synonymous with various South African cultures. You will be introduced to the following cultures and their cuisines: Afrikaners breakfast Cape Malay Cape Coloured Zulu meat markets Xhosa English
The day starts with a breakfast unlike any that you might have had until now and let me assure you, there will be no bacon and eggs on this breakfast palate. Our Afrikaner farmers will always start the day with an early morning “Moer coffee” (very strong coffee) or “Rooibos Tea” enjoyed with rusks and koeksisters, a traditional Malay, and now also Afrikaner, sweet made from twisted yeast dough, deep fried and dipped in syrup. The word comes from the Dutch koek, meaning "cake" and sissen, meaning "to sizzle". Rusks are hard, very dry biscuits originally prepared in South Africa by the Dutch for traveling long distances in our hot South African climate. Rusks were essentially breads that wouldn't spoil. Today, all over South Africa, rusks are eaten as snacks dipped in coffee, tea, or milk. In the cities, many different varieties of commercially baked rusks are available and these are even now available flavoured with raisins, chocolate chips, almonds, peanuts, and probably soon, oat-bran as well.
A very different breakfast indeed! From the Noon gun we go to the Bo-Kaap on the hill overlooking Cape Town. Here we will visit
with a local lady who lives in an area
previously inhabited by the Your host Latiefa will present the cuisine of the Cape Malay community and a typical selection could include a traditional lamb curry, vegetable curry, Bobotie and Biryani. These will be served with flat bread Roti, pompadoms, tomato and onion chili and fruit chutney. Ending off this tasting banquet you will have traditional milk tart and sticky buns called Koesisters. Accompany this feast will be a range of locally produced soft drinks and teas, which are drunk by the local community and found only in Cape Town. The Cape Malay have perfected the art of cooking with spices like turmeric, aniseed, fenugreek, cumin, cardamom, cassia, and ginger which were all brought to South Africa by early explorers on their way through the Spice Route. In this district, lovingly referred to as the Bo-Kaap, you could taste foods with tongue-twisting names like Sosaties, bobotie, samoosas, beryani, gesmoorde rys and denningvleis - verbal gymnastics yes, but a taste that is essentially Cape Malay.
From Mitchell's plain we travel a very short distance to one
of our largest Black townships close to Cape Town called Khayelitsha.
From Mitchell's Plain we drive to
Kayamandi, a so-called “squatter camp” or informal housing settlement. Because of the divided nature of the
history of South Africa, we unfortunately still have areas inhabited by mostly single races and this particular area is one of
those area inhabited mainly
by Xhosa people. Here we will meet with a
Lilly Ngwexana who is carrying forth the cooking secrets, learnt from her grandmother and
mother, into the modern era by preparing traditional dishes and delicacies for
her guests to enjoy. You can taste
dishes like steamed bread, chakalaka,
marogo, Samp and Beans, Spinach and Cabbage and sorghum
beer to name just a few. Once again we will be able to learn how these dishes
fit into the everyday life of the Xhosa people by hearing it first hand from one of the older members of
I guarantee that this particular experience will follow you for the days of your life. Next we drive up into the Simonsberg Mountains above Stellenbosch to visit an exciting South African chef on an English Berry Orchird. Maynard is a highly talented chef with many years of experience in the hotel industry. He is currently concentrating his efforts in combining traditional South African cuisine with the rich bounty of the berry orchards of Hillcrest berries. Maynard’s ‘ingredient palate’ comes from 15 hectares of orchards on the slopes of the Simonsberg Mountain where you will find raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, cape gooseberries and even some redcurrants. Tea and berry tart was very typical of the food enjoyed by the early British when South Africa was still a British colony. The tasting at the orchard will have a strong local berry influence and will thus represent the British culture in South Africa.6 cultures richer and 80 dishes fuller we return back to the city at approximately 17:00. What a wonderful way of experiencing the vast diversity of the South African culture and its even more vast cuisine.
A Day with the winemaker tour.
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You will also be tasting other famous Afrikaans fare like Biltong,
Boerewors, Malva tert, and Melktert at one of the most unique and historic locations in Cape Town, the
'actual' Noonday gun battery atop the 'real' Signal hill. This start to
the morning is very typical of what most wheat farmers will be eating and drinking at
the dawn of the morning. We might also meet Chief Petty officer Dudley Malgas of
the South African Navy who is responsible for the firing of the cannon at
noon every day. The visit will be topped of with a shot of
Witblitz, a potent home-made distilled alcohol, much like the Italian Grappa -
the word Witblitz means "white lightning" in Afrikaans.
17th century slaves from Batavia.
On their arrival at the Cape over 300 years ago, Malay cooks brought with them a
diverse culinary tradition characterized by the art of seasoning. The use of
aromatic spices and herbs even today forms the heart of Cape Malay cooking, and
flavours range from the pungency of hot chillies to the fragrance of nutmeg, cinnamon
and cloves. A knowledge of the different flavours and aromas imparted by these
ingredients as well as their shelf life and method of preparation is important
when preparing Malay food.
Mid Morning, and we drive through to Mitchell’s Plain, a suburb of Cape Town, to visit
Belinda Jackson to sample the Cape Flats and
the Cape Coloured cuisine. The "Cape coloured" is the
South African term for the country's mixed descent inhabitants. They are the
third largest population group in the country and number just over three
million. The Coloureds, as they are commonly called, live primarily in the
Western Cape and Mitchell's plain is one the most densely populated areas.
Belinda will probably present dishes like tomatoe bredie, cabbage food, bobotie,
smoorsnoek and onion salads. Fruit salad, egg custard, brandy tart and trifle
will provide a suitable sweet end to this very unpretentious cuisine. The drive through
Mitchell’s Plain also highlights the apartheid era and the plight of the Cape Coloured people.
This township is home to approximately 1.5 million people and is a fantastic
place to experience the incredible diversity of the South African racial landscape
and it's different cuisines. Here we visit a local meat and vegetable market to
sample some of the local braai beef. Even though the South African braai, or
barbeque as you might know it, is deeply steeped in the Afrikaner tradition, the
this vibrant community.
You will also get a glimpse into the everyday life of an inspirational lady
living in a township.
