When considering how best to immerse oneself in the glories of another country there are as many opinions as there are travellers. Some will say that music is the key to a country’s heart and soul; others prefer to focus on art and architecture. Some prefer to bypass culture and spend their time basking on beaches or indulging in adrenalin-pumping extreme sports. But no matter what your view is, there can be little debate that the most satisfying and downright delectable way of discovering another country is through that nation’s food – from fine dining and wining to a quick street snack while on the move, eating your way around a foreign land satisfies mind and body likenothing else.
A Rich Culinary Stew
When it comes to food, South Africa is blessed with immense natural riches. Briny seafood, plentiful game, healthy veg and the best lamb in the world (from the Karoo desert) – you name it and chances are we will have it. But where does one start on your noshing tour of the rainbow nation? To just land at Cape Town International Airport and rush to the first restaurant you see is not going to work.
Rather book a spot on one of the fine food-and-wine based tours available, tours that focus on everything from eating the best food and drinking the best wine to teaching you how to cook local food after shopping for the best raw ingredients.
Unique Food Experiences
Though the number of cooking school holiday tours on offer is small when compared to Europe for example, South Africa boasts some entirely unique trips focusing on food. You will not, for instance, find anything quite like Andulela’s Cape Malay Cooking Safari anywhere else in the world. It’s a day-long walking tour through the vividly colourful Bo-Kaap district in Cape Town, focusing on the extraordinary cuisine of the Cape Malay community. While walking you will shop for ingredients to make a typical Cape Malay dish, before a hands-on demonstration of cooking techniques in a Cape Malay family home. You will mix masala, fold samoosas and learn how to balance the flavours of a Cape Malay curry.
A Township Sampler
Also quite unique to South Africa is another of Andulela’s offerings, the African Cooking Safari. The tour starts with a guided walk through the Kayamandi township outside Stellenbosch, focusing on food traditions as well as general cultural aspects of the community. On the way you buy ingredients from local markets and in the spacious kitchen of the community centre professional cooks demonstrate the art of delicious African cuisine. The afternoon is rounded off by a shared lunch with members of the community.
A Longer Trip
These, however, are short little adventures. If you’re up for it, though, it’s quite possible to base your entire trip around food… or at least a fair amount of the trip. The ultimate in this regard is the South African Food & Wine Tour, a 13-day extravaganza of wining and dining. With the Western Cape, in particular the winelands around the Stellenbosch and Franschhoek area, widely regarded as the culinary capital of the country, it comes as no surprise that the first several days of the tour are spent focusing on this area and it includes private cellar tours and 5-star gourmet dinners hosted by guest winemakers. The last half of the tour is spent swanning your way around 3 of South Africa’s top game lodges where food is taken as seriously as watching the Big Five.
Cooking with the Superstars
But the best of the lot, especially if you happen to love your vino, is a Taste of South Africa 2007 offered by the international tour company A Cook’s Tour. This 12-day extravaganza begins in, you guessed it, the Cape Winelands before moving to game lodges in the interior and includes much wining and dining.
The cherry on the top, however, is the opportunity to attend 5 unique cooking classes with some of South Africa’s most renowned chefs and foodie personalities. These include a morning class with Frank Dangereux of the incomparable La Colombe, flagship restaurant of Cape Town’s Groot Constantia; lunch prepared with the queen of Cape Malay cuisine Cass Abrahams; a private class at The Institute of Culinary Arts in Cape Town; a class with Margot Janse, multi-award-winning executive chef at Le Quartier Francais, recently named amongst the top 50 restaurants in the world; and a special bread-making class at Morenson Wine Estate.
Food Festivals
And if you’re not a particular fan of organised tours, but would still like to get your teeth stuck in to the finest food South Africa has to offer, simply plan your trip around one (or two or three) of the country’s fabulous food festivals.
There’s everything from the famous – like Knysna’s week-long celebration of oysters and the Lambert’s Bay crayfish bash – to the odd and decidedly different, including festivals focusing on prickly pears, cherries and witblits (a potent spirit akin to vodka and schnapps).
Whatever option you choose, you will not leave these shores on an empty or dissatisfied stomach.
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Oyster photo courtesy and copyright of Knysna Tourism