The Boston Globe - 11.09.2019

G4 The Boston Globe WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

By Diane Bair
and Pamela Wright
GLOBE CORRESPONDENTS
CAPE TOWN — We were sit-
ting in an alcove in the bustling
kitchen of the renowned Bel-
mond Mount Nelson Hotel in
Cape Town, South Africa,
watching chef Rudi Liebenberg
and his team perform culinary
alchemy. It was The Chef’s Ta-
ble experience and included our
own multi-course meal begin-
ning with just-baked breads
and fresh-churned butters,
pates with chutneys and fruit.
The first course was a tomato
salad drizzled with tomato
dressing and topped with toma-
to panna cotta. It was beautiful,
uber-fresh; it tasted like sum-
mer. Here’s the kicker: when
dessert came it looked exactly
the same. Huh?
“You end up with the same
dish, only different. Savory and
sweet,” our waiter said. It was a
compote of red berries topped
with a red-tinged fruit panna
cotta. “It’s just chef Rudi show-
ing off,” he giggled.
Liebenberg has been on the
forefront of the red-hot culi-
nary scene in Cape Town, lead-
ing a strong farm-to-table
movement, and highlighting its
multicultural flavors with flour-
ish and flair. An influx of new
chefs has followed, flooding the
city with energy and passion.
“It’s our time,” Liebenberg
says. “Cape Town is on the cusp,
ready to showcase some of the
finest chefs in the world.”
The vibrant, gorgeous city at
the southernmost tip of Africa
is definitely buzzing with food
options. Some are already on
the international foodie’s map,
like The Test Kitchen, named
one of the best restaurants in
the world; Chefs Warehouse &
Canteen, with award-winning
tapas-style dishes; the French-
inspired La Tete, with a strong
nose-to-tail ethos; and the fine
dining at the Lord Nelson Res-
taurant at the Belmond Mount
Nelson Hotel, offering haute
cuisine using the freshest local
ingredients. But we also want-
ed to check out some of the
more casual, everyday options,
so we hopped on the Cape
Town Eats City Walking Tour
offered by Cape Fusion Tours.
“Capetonians love their cof-
fee,” our guide, Ryan Lawrence,
said as we strolled down bus-
tling Bree Street, filled with ca-
fes and coffeehouses. “There
are 62 independent coffee
roasters in Cape Town.” He rec-

ommended a few: Deluxe Cof-

fee Works, Truth Coffee Roast-

ing, and Haas Coffee, and

pointed out other places along

the way, like Elixir, a vegan juice

bar; God’s Army, a bookstore

and diner; and IYO Burgers,

with “the best burgers in town.”

We stopped at Jason Bakery,

with “a crazy tattooed chef who

experiments a lot,” Lawrence

said, and sampled one of his

“kickass pies,” a creamy, Portu-

guese-style pasteis de nata.

The streets were lively, filled

with young professionals and

families, hustling here and

there and milling about. We

scurried around a couple of

Rastafarians selling medicinal

herbs, as we worked our way to

the colorful Bo-Kaap neighbor-

hood. This area dates back to

the 1760s when the houses

were leased to slaves, mainly

brought from Malaysia, Indo-

nesian, and India, and known

as Cape Malays. Lawrence ex-

plained that when the slaves

lived there, the houses had to

be painted white. When the

rule was lifted and the slaves

could buy the houses, they

painted them bright colors as a

sign of their freedom.

We popped into Atlas Trad-

ing Company, a general store

that has been owned by the

same family for more than 70

years, and “where everyone in

the neighborhood gets their

spices and dried fruits to make

curries,” Lawrence said. It had

an amazing array of spices and

other specialty products. We

bought a box of Rooibos tea,

made from a plant that only

grows in South Africa and pur-

ported to have a myriad of

health benefits, along with a

bag of sookh mookh.

And then we moved on to

meet Wardia, a Bo-Kaap street

vendor, well-known for her

fresh-made samosas, milk tarts,

and savory cakes. Wardia gets

up at 2:30 a.m. six days a week

to start cooking; everything is

made from scratch. She’s been

doing it for more than 18 years,

making enough money to put

four kids through college. “I

was in the corporate world and

got cancer, so I started this,” she

said. “I don’t regret it for one

moment.”

We learned why she’s been

so successful: The chicken sa-

mosas were packed with flavor.

“I use 18 spices in the samosas,”

she told us. The potato koeksis-

ter was sweet and also filled

with spices. “I call it a healthy

doughnut,” she said. “I use a lot

of spices, cinnamon, ginger, po-

tato, and a little honey. No sug-

ar.”

At Honest Chocolate, our

next stop, we devoured banana

bread “bunny chows,” filled

with macadamia nut chocolate

and ice cream. We peeked in

the courtyard in the back of the

shop, which used to be a mortu-

ary. “At night the embalming

room turns into a gin bar,” Law-

rence said.

We tried delicious slow-

roasted beef ribs at the funky

House of H, where an old VW

van serves as a tap bar, before

moving on to Heritage Square,

a lovely complex of 200-year-

old brick buildings, surround-

ing an open courtyard, where a

thriving 1771 grape vine, one of

the oldest in the Southern

Hemisphere, provided shade.

We stopped in The Drinkery,

a cozy, intimate place, for a gin

tasting, and when we left, we

were just loosey-goosey enough

to appreciate The House of Ma-

chines a short walk away. This

trendy, boisterous hot spot is a

coffeehouse/cocktail bar/live

music venue/men’s clothing

shop/motorcycle workshop.

Their T-shirts emblazoned with

Don’t Be A Dick were hot sell-

ers, along with their craft cock-

tails and beer.

Our last stop was way off the

tourist radar. We followed Law-

rence to the city’s train station,

climbed the gritty stairs to the

rooftop, and found hundreds of

locals shopping and eating at

vendor stalls housed in ship-

ping containers. Here, we met

Sandile, a self-described Afri-

can chef, who served us pap, a

maize porridge similar to po-

lenta or grits. It’s one of the

most popular dishes in South

Africa, Sandile said, “I run out

of it every day.” The next dish

we tried is also a regular sell-

out: chakalaka, a comforting

casserole of tomatoes, beans,

peppers, onions, and spices. Fi-

nally, Sandile served us samp

and beans, a seasoned maize

and sugar bean dish that he

cooks for four hours until it’s

very soft, nearly creamy.

“It was [former South Afri-

can president] Nelson Mandel-

la’s favorite food,” he told us. We

liked it, too.

Diana Bair and Pamela Wright

can be reached at

[email protected].

PHOTOS BY PAMELA WRIGHT FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

The colorful Bo-Kaap neighborhood dates back to the 1760s and offers traditional Cape Malay specialties. Below (from left): the Honest Chocolate shop;

a plate of fresh-made samosas; chef Sandile serves a plate of pap, chakalaka, and samp and beans. Bottom: the Atlas Trading Company.

A taste of the red-hot food scene in Cape Town

FOOD & TRAVEL

‘It’sourtime.Cape

Townisonthe

cusp,readyto

showcasesomeof

thefinestchefsin

theworld.’

RUDI LIEBENBERG,chef

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