Western Cape Food & Traditional Cuisine

Cape cooking is a genuine fusion, and an old one — the result of Dutch and French settlers, enslaved cooks from the Indonesian archipelago and South Asia, and indigenous ingredients, combining over three centuries.

Cape Malay food is the most distinctive strand: mildly spiced, often sweet-sour, using cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, dried fruit and tamarind in ways that are recognisably Southeast Asian but not quite anything found there now.

The braai is the national institution — wood-fired grilling, taken seriously, and a social occasion rather than a cooking method.

Seafood is excellent: snoek, yellowtail, kingklip, West Coast mussels and rock lobster.

And Cape Town has a restaurant scene that competes internationally while charging a fraction of European prices, alongside a strong farm-to-table and wine-estate dining culture.

Bobotie is the Cape classic: spiced minced meat with dried fruit under a baked savoury custard, served with yellow rice and chutney. Mild, sweet and unlike anything else, and the clearest single expression of Cape Malay cooking.

Braaivleis — boerewors coiled on the grill, lamb chops and sosaties, the last a skewer marinated in curry and apricot.

Bunny chow and gatsby, the latter a Cape Town invention: a long roll stuffed with chips, sauce and a filling, shared between several people.

Snoek, a bony oily fish grilled with apricot jam over coals, or smoked, and a West Coast staple.

Biltong and droewors, air-dried spiced meat, which is not jerky and locals will explain why.

Also: potjiekos, a slow stew in a three-legged pot; koeksisters, syrup-soaked plaits in two quite different Afrikaner and Cape Malay versions; melktert; and malva pudding with hot custard.

Weekend markets are a Cape Town institution — the Neighbourgoods Market in Woodstock, Oranjezicht City Farm on the waterfront, and the Root 44 and Stellenbosch Slow markets in the winelands — combining producers, street food and a great deal of standing about with a glass.

The braai has its rules: the fire is wood, not charcoal or gas; one person tends it; guests bring their own meat in some circles; and Heritage Day on 24 September is widely observed as National Braai Day.

Farm stalls along the country roads sell preserves, dried fruit, bread and pies, and are worth stopping at.

Wine-estate restaurants are among the best eating in the province and usually need booking.

Tipping at around 10 to 15 per cent is expected, and car guards in parking areas are tipped a few rand.

The Western Cape is the oldest wine region in the New World and among the most beautiful anywhere.

The first Cape wine was pressed in 1659, seven years after the Dutch arrived, and Constantia’s sweet wine became one of the most celebrated in Europe by the eighteenth century — ordered by Napoleon on Saint Helena and mentioned by Austen and Dickens. Phylloxera and a century of co-operative overproduction flattened quality, and the industry only re-emerged internationally after 1994.

Stellenbosch is the heart, with granite and sandstone soils and a reputation for Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux blends. Franschhoek, settled by Huguenots, does Semillon and sparkling wine made by the traditional method, sold locally as Cap Classique. Hemel-en-Aarde near Hermanus makes serious cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Swartland is the region that changed the country’s reputation — old bush vines, Rhone varieties and low-intervention winemaking.

Chenin Blanc is the signature: South Africa has more of it than France, much from old vines, and it ranges from everyday to remarkable. Pinotage, a Cape crossing of Pinot Noir and Cinsault created in 1925, is divisive and much improved.

Tastings are inexpensive, estates are open without appointment, and drink-driving limits are low — use a driver or the Franschhoek wine tram.