Meika's CPT food adventures

The food I have eaten in Cape Town has been an experience in its own right, and as I cannot think of anything else to write about, this blog entry will be dedicated to food.  But the more I think about it, eating is an intrinsic part of my daily life here and the whole experience in South Africa.

This is the first time I have been cooking and grocery shopping entirely on my own.  I love cooking, so it has been a real treat to have a kitchen and make my meals every day.  One of the best parts of this has been forming a special cooking bond with my fellow Veggies of the house!  We often share our recipes and cook meals together.

I’ve learned about the markets here and how to navigate them.  For example, I’ve become aware of the varying price of mangos depending on where I shop (Checkers usually has mangos for R4.99, Woolworth’s for R7.99 and The Food Lover’s Market for a shocking R9.99).  I have also discovered new and delicious foods that I never knew about in America, such as Digestive cookies!  I’ve learned that food, especially produce, spoils more quickly, and I have adjusted my eating habits accordingly.  This is probably due to a combination of fewer preservatives in the food and our tepid fridge.

Then there is the experience of eating out.  It has been so much fun to discover delicious and interesting places to eat around Cape Town.  My favorites thus far have probably been the Eastern Food Bazaar, Addis in Cape Town, and the Neighbourgoods Market.  The Eastern Food Bazaar is an eatery downtown that is situated in a wide alley.  There are various counters that serve a variety of Asian foods, such as Chinese, Indian, and Turkish.    The prices are seriously cheap and the portions are huge.  It is almost always busy, and one of my favorite places to eat for lunch.  I think the falafel is my current favorite.

Addis in Cape in an Ethiopian restaurant on Long Street, and we visited there in the first week or two of our arrival.  I had never eaten Ethiopian food before and I was so impressed by how flavorful it was while also being entirely vegan and gluten-free.  We were served a platter with a variety of dishes that we scooped up with injera, an Ethiopian flatbread.  My favorite was probably misir wot, which was a spicy red lentil dish.


                 

The Neighbourgoods Market is a food market at a place called the Old Biscuit Mill.  It is only open on Saturday mornings.  It is a huge tent filled with stands featuring all kinds of food.  There is frozen yogurt, paella, freshly baked breads, omelets, pastries, cheeses, fresh produce, dumplings, pizzas, and on and on.  It’s jam-packed and people eat at communal tables and on benches and awkward bales of hay.  My friends and I went this weekend and I got a Belgium waffle with powdered sugar, dark chocolate drizzle, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  It was GREAT.

​So, that is a snippet of my food adventures in Cape Town.  Maybe I will stick to writing my blog entries about food because the words flowed quite naturally.  Bye for now!