Cape Malay Cooking Lessons

Having been to a number of Cape Malay restaurants (and being a fan of Zorina's chicken rooti in particular), I have tried my hand at cooking Cape Malay meals at home. My kerries and slaais and even a once-off bredie had gotten respectable, but they still weren't...right. Too much chili in the curry here, not subtle enough balance there, not sweet enough, and so on (in spite of rootis bought fresh from Biesmiellah). The cookbooks and quality local ingredients were a good start, but I soon got to the point where I realized I wasn't going to get any better unless I got some expert advice on the unwritten arcana of the culinary dark arts. I needed lessons.

Many months later I also needed a clever idea for a Christmas gift for my in-laws. Seeing the opportunity for a fun experience that we'd all enjoy (and finding satisfaction in giving a gift of Islamic culture to honour a Christian holiday), I booked the four of us for a half-day session with Zainunissa "Zainie" Misbach.

Zainie is the undisputed Cape Malay cooking diva in Bo Kaap, although most people come to know her indirectly through the meals she produces in restaurants, for tour groups, and at catered affairs. But those in the know, know Zainie. Andulela works with Zainie for their tours, and the Slow Food movement's Cape Town aficionados also flock to Zainie for her culinary productions.

Zainie has been cooking in and running Cape Malay restaurants in Bo Kaap for 27 years now, including Biesmiellah and her Bo Kaap Bazaar cafe, but for the past 14 she has been making culinary magic at the Noon Gun Tea Room and Restaurant at the top of Longmarket Street high above Bo Kaap, where the family has lived for 3 generations now, and where she and her mother Mariam keep the kitchen in authentically family style and true to its origins.

For R300 per person (4 people minimum) Zainie spends 3 hours with you, introducing the spices - with 2 or 3 names for each - and their various combinations, and giving a personal, historical, cultural, religious and culinary narrative that is worth it for its own sake. That she's also cooking for you is almost too good to be true. For us, she prepared chilli-bites, or dhaltjies as they're more properly known - little savoury spiced fried dough balls with a cake-like texture stiffened with chickpea flour and a bit of onion and spinach. As we snacked on those (dipped in dhania sauce from the local butcher shop), it was on to a staple of Cape Malay cooking, a chicken curry.

Our lessons were not very hands-on at all, but that turned out to be OK. We were alone with her in her own kitchen (bigger groups go to the restaurant kitchen), and the discussion ranged far and wide, including variations on the theme of chicken curry: what the difference is when preparing fish, crayfish, mutton and other meat curries. Grandchildren tottered through now and again, and it was like being part of the family for a few hours - in a good way!

She also revealed her secret combination of spices for her personal masala, and pointed us to the secret sources of ingredients...for spices it's Fargo on Lower Main between Observatory and Salt River (although she also uses Atlas Trading in Bo Kaap)...for rootis and samoosas when you don't have time to make the dough/pastry from scratch the source is Zubie's Foods, not far from Fargo...and her preferred butcher is the one on Pope Street in Salt River (although she also supports both of her local Bo Kaap butchers).

So now I'm testing my new skills and insights, and the improvement is noticeable (as well as a few attempts that have gone awry)...but I confirmed with Zainie that she will teach advanced lessons on request.

Bottom line: Although not as hands on as some may like, you'll enjoy great food, great conversation, a lovely venue, and you learn something to boot - about under-recognized food, culture and history.

For further consideration: Zainie's sister, Shereen Misbach-Habib, runs Tana Baru Tours. Zainie caters lunches at Shereen's house (with help from a collection of Misbach family kids, grandkids, and assorted friends, boyfriends, girlfriends and so on). Shereen is a former ANC Counsellor for Bo Kaap and another powerfully compelling personality!


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Cookbook recommendations:

• I use this one most often (SA via Kalahari.net)
  


• (SA via Kalahari.net)
  


• (US via Amazon.com) 


• (UK via Amazon.co.uk)  

Cape Malay Cooking Lessons

Lwandle Magic: Township Soccer and Tourism

[Updated 4 April 2008: SABC TV coverage of the event described below has been posted to YouTube. Link to new posting here.]

With the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup on its way to South Africa, interest in soccer tourism has grown. And it's no surprise that this has collided head-on with the huge demand for responsible travel, community tourism and cultural experiences. Well, I've just been part of one responsible soccer community cultural experience (RSCCE?) that blew my mind -- and changed the lives of dozens of participants.

It was the TK Lions (Lwandle, Cape Town, S Africa) versus Killester United (Dublin, Ireland). An international friendly of note played on 5 February, with the visitors coming out on top 2 to 1. The result easily could have gone either way, with the Irishmen flagging in the heat and the younger lions hammering away at goal in the final minutes, unlucky not to come away with an equalizer and then some.

The soccer, however, was the least of it. Here was an Irish amateur soccer team who won their 2007 city league in Dublin and with it a free trip overseas. They chose South Africa to enjoy their reward and were keen to bring their boots to mix it up with the locals. But not just any locals. They wanted to play a side that was an authentic neighbourhood team, real local lads, working class just like they were. You see, Killester United come from one of the poorest areas of Dublin. If you saw the film The Commitments, you'll remember the line

"The Irish are the blacks of Europe. Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. North Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin."

Killester is where it all happened. An unconventional but real affinity with Africa has deep roots in North Dublin.

The soccer action in South Africa wasn't on a lush pitch in Durbanville or in swank Camps Bay beneath the palm trees. No, the TK (Transkei) Lions hail from the community of Lwandle, a township originally founded to house the migrant labourers brought in from the Eastern Cape to pick fruit on farms and wine estates (like nearby Vergelegen). The community grew over time to its current 50,000 and residents became more permanently settled, and now it is a vibrant but poor neighbourhood nestled between Somerset West and Gordon's Bay at the far side of False Bay from the city of Cape Town (Lwandle means "the sea" in isiXhosa).

The history of Lwandle is curated and kept alive by the only functioning museum in a township in South Africa, the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum (LMLM), and the LMLM was the institution that made the soccer match possible. Although the interest in playing came from Killester United to the tour operator, Springbok Atlas, it was only because an institution like LMLM existed that an international friendly of this sort could be included in an international touring itinerary. The catalysts and the ones doing the hard work were Frank and Lunga - the former an advocate and practitioner of "transformative tourism" and the latter a curator at LMLM and community activist in Lwandle.

Almari at Springbok Atlas made the effort to find a truly authentic experience for her Irish clients, and found Frank (the only contribution made by yours truly) -- and the rest was good chemistry, mutual trust, and hard work. The results were magical.

25 working class Irish blokes seeing reflections of themselves in the faces and places of an African township half a world away. An entire community seeing the power of their culture and history reflected in the interest -- and, yes, the money -- coming from foreign whities who paid to come play a game with their local boys on their home pitch. Connections were made. Friendships kindled. Shirts exchanged. Pap, wors and Castle Lager compared to braai culture Killester style. There's already talk of a return leg for the Irish to raise sponsorship to host the Lions in Dublin.

This is the promise of authentic travel, the possibility to go elsewhere and come back different -- kinder, humbler, more connected, more grounded in your own identity because of what you've shared with others. Inspiring to witness!


Post script: There are some tour operators offering packaged day and half-day soccer experiences in townships if you aren't in a group keen to lace up the boots and take on the TK Lions yourself. Andulela is one I can recommend.

Lwandle Magic: Township Soccer and Tourism