Bo-Kaap

 Believe it or not, there is Groupon South Africa!  When I saw a coupon for a cooking tour on there, I knew it was meant to be.  Who doesn't want to learn how to make Cape Malay Curry, Chili Bites, Samosas, and Roti?  So on Saturday I headed to Bo-Kaap, a 15 min walk from my house. The neighborhood is full of colorful houses and home to much of the Cape Malay population in Cape Town.  The Cape Malay community are descendants of slaves brought over from Indonesia, Malaysia, other parts of Asia, and the Middle East by the Dutch East India Company in the 16th and 17th centuries. Cape Malay is actually not a correct term as many are not from Malaysia, but they were all clumped together by the Dutch.  Many practice Islam and the Bo-Kaap area has many mosques today (though they were originally not allowed to practice their own religion, they were able to maintain it). 

We (a group of 16 South Africans and me) were met by Zainie at the Bo-Kaap museum (which has a small exhibit on the history of the area).  She gave us a brief orientation to the area and some of the history and then took us to the famous Atlas spice shop which has supplied the community with the essential spices for years.  She pointed out some the essentials and then we walked to her house a few blocks away.  Walking down the street we were greeted by the aroma of delicious smelling curry and knew we were headed in the right direction (she had already spent the morning preparing chicken curry since the group was so big).

We started by making Rotis.  Basically flour, water and oil but then after they have "risen" a bit you roll them out in a special way, spread butter on them, roll them back up, freeze them so the butter sets, roll them out again and then fry them!  Quite a process, but it results in buttery goodness.  While the rotis were rising we start on the chicken curry, but she instructed me, and the other vegetarian, on how to make a butternut squash, carrot, lentil curry that was delicous!  Then we made our own samosas, quite fun to fold.  And chili bites as appetizers.  After 2.5 hours of cooking we sat down to a spectacular meal.  At the end we each got a recipie book and a starter package of spices to go home and try for ourselves!  Looking forward to attempting it one day soon ;)

Here is a slideshow of photos (have to go to the actual blog for the slideshow as always ;)
The first few pictures are of a movie set next to my house.  No photos were allowed when they were actually shooting, but they stopped filming on Friday. On Saturday morning as I made way to Bo-Kaap, I noticed that the set was still there.  So if you every see The Great Britian Story you might recognize something from these photos and will know that it was filmed next door to my apartment complex ;)