Ok, so you may have noticed that none of my previous South Africa posts (beside short mentions) have featured my culinary vacation. This is because I knew that it would take an entire post. The moment we landed in South Africa, I was in heaven. The fast food restaurants in the mall, I mean airport, are not like ours back home; you don’t feel nasty and greasy afterwards. Whether Anat, the Mediterranean spot that has great lamb schwarma with a topping bar or KFC big boxes that have great chicken (yes, it really is GREAT, much better than in the US, and trust me, coming from a Popeye’s faithful, this means a lot), the fast food was impressive and diverse.
On a more refined note, we ate our way through the top restaurants in Cape Town and the surrounding areas. Each day, we chose one meal to splurge on and enjoy the best of South African cuisine. I enjoyed:
-Lamb breddie (basically a pot roast)
-Pickled fish (that was surprisingly amazing)
-Putu and chakalaka (awesome name, nothing impressive, but is couscous with spicy baked beans)
-Snoek and hake cakes (local fish: snoek is rarely served at restaurants for some reason, but has a wonderful, smoky taste; hake is the typical fish beer-battered and served w/ chips)
-New Zealand mussels (in an amazing garlic cream sauce that went great with garlic toast…no one would come near me due to my pungent but tasty breath)
-Grilled Yellowtail (a little dry but salty, good flavor)
and the grand finale…a South African game kebab featuring Kudu, Springbok, Impala, and Wildebeest (all of which tasted much like a beef filet, but each with a slight variation; as they are game, they were much leaner, but still had great flavor; I think I’d have to say the Kudu was my favorite)
Finally, I must point out that Molly, Fernando, and I are the proud first customers of Roberto’s, a wonderful restaurant on Long Street, whose chef is of Portuguese descent and although it is not strictly Portuguese food, some of the sauces and starters have a cultural twist to them. Not surprisingly, we were totally into being the first customers, and Roberto himself jumped on the bandwagon, taking pictures of our meals, “the first plates ever served.” We even took a picture with Roberto and are supposed to be put on the “wall of fame” and posted on his culinary blog. So, if any of you reading this live in Cape Town or will be visiting in the near (or distant) future, please take a walk up Long Street and visit our good friend Roberto for a wonderful meal (or two or three)…and remember to look for our picture!
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