To celebrate Heritage Day this month, I thought I’d do something a little different and take a fresh look at the city of my birth, the Mother City. South Africa and Cape Town in particular are such melting pots of culture and heritage that there’s not really any single defining culture.
In fact, there’s so much to choose from across Cape Town that I had to skip some further away places and decided to take a meander from the East side to the West side of Cape Town’s City Bowl to try out some places and dishes that were entirely new to me.
Chantal’s “Wild Gatsby hunt”
First on my list was to try out a classic Gatsby, the famous sandwich that originated on the Cape Flats in the 1970s around the same time that the first Great Gatsby movie came out. In case you don’t already know what a Gatsby is, it’s a local sub sandwich usually stuffed full of chips and vienna sausage, although there are plenty of other varieties that you can try, such as seafood, mutton or chicken.
I had it on good authority that the best Gatsbies are to be found in Gatesville and the best salomies are found in Belgravia, so I decided to settle for the best Gatsby ‘this side of the M3 highway”. Going on some insider local info from friendly checkout staff in Woodstock, my brother and I set off to “the yellow building opposite the Mowbray town hall”. After a slight detour via a takeaway with a sideline in pawning gold teeth, I saw there was a brighter yellow building a little further down the road. And so dawned the Sunrise Chip n Ranch!
Although the place was fairly quiet on a Monday morning, the huge kitchens in the background gave the feeling that this is a place that has served countless thousands of hungry commuters for many a year. After a short wait and watching some weird and wonderful characters wander by, I gleefully took my two massive food bundles across to a bench on the town hall lawns to give it a taste.
Feeling like a kid on Christmas, we carefully unwrapped our bundles only to discover they got our order wrong! Instead, we’d ended up with what we think were two giant rotis. I’ll be honest we’re not entirely sure but I ate it nonetheless.
While it was substantial it was not the healthiest. Sometimes when you get a steak pie, it is just a sliver of meat, but these had really big chunks of mutton in them.
With a tight schedule and slightly disappointed by our failed Gatsby hunt, we moved over from the slopes of Devil’s Peak to get a taste of the Bo Kaap on the slopes of Signal Hill on the other side of the city.
The Bo Kaap, formerly known as the Malay Quarter, is famous for its brightly coloured houses and traditional Cape Malay food. I’d heard a rumour of the best koe’sister in the Cape at a local cafe so I went to check it out. A Cape Malay koe’sister is a fried ball of dough that’s rolled in desiccated coconut, not to be confused with a koeksister, which is a traditional Afrikaans confectionery made of fried dough infused in syrup or honey.
Winding our way along quaint cobblestone roads, we found Rose Corner Cafe on a lively street corner and it turned out that the rumours were definitely true! These coconut donuts were simply delicious and I munched on them as I strolled around taking in the colourful local scenery.
While in the Bo Kaap I decided to try out another popular Cape Malay spot – Biesmiellah restaurant. Parking higher up on the slopes of Signal Hill and admiring the views of the city below, we got a massive fright when the very nearby Noon Day gun boomed to let us know that it was time for their kitchen to open.
This family-run restaurant has been in business for the last 46 years and has a well-earned reputation for the best butter chicken, among other delights. Chatting to Momeema, it turned out both MasterChef and Top Billing had beaten me to it. No worries though, I was lucky enough to be there during the lockdown and we had the place largely to ourselves and could chatter away with Momeema, who’s mother had started the restaurant and was known to those in the neighbourhood as “Mrs Biesmallah”
Skipping the menu I asked for her two best recommendations and she suggested the denningvleis and the chicken curry dish, as well as a locally produced rooibos ice tea. She was keen to show how the Malay and the Indian cooking styles differed, with the Indian dish having much more spice to it, while the Malay dish was far sweeter.
The denningvleis consists of lamb loin chops in a sweet and sour sauce with brown onions, served with rice. I was surprised how dark it was, and A**** explained that it was from the tamarind. Being a big fan of lamb chops, I thoroughly enjoyed this typical Cape Malay dish.
Walking the walk in Long Street
Next stop I decided to be brave and try out the infamous “walkies talkies”. Wondering what a “walkie talkie” is? Well, it’s popular street food here in SA made entirely from chicken feet and beaks. The beaks and feet are either boiled and then served with a tasty sauce or thrown on the braai and grilled over open flames, creating a crunchy pre-meal treat.
With a cocktail in hand I bravely decided to try them out and Mojito’s in Long Street.
I must admit I wasn’t too disappointed to hear that they only had chicken feet and not the beaks, so it was going to be all walkie and no talkie for me. Quite suspiciously, my brother complained his stomach wasn’t feeling great and he happily bowed out.
I’d always expected them to be very crunchy, but they were surprisingly soft, meaty, and somewhat fatty. The rolls were an added benefit soaking up the sauce.
Despite being full I was determined to try my Gatsby, so for the last stop on my whirlwind food tour, I found a little cafe that was serving them and finally got my Gatsby!
The serving was very substantial and they certainly didn’t skimp on the fillings. Unlike a hotdog with one sausage, there were heaps of sausage halves as well as rather tasty slap chips.
They definitely could feed a family of four, since I only ordered a half Gatsby and it was huge!! I’ll spare you what my brother said about the little curled bits of sausages!
At the end of the day, I was full and happy. I really enjoyed being a tourist in my own city for a day and trying out all the local flavours. This is truly the kind of experience that makes me proud of my SA heritage and I hope all South Africans take some time to celebrate their own interesting and unique culture in 2020.
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