“They came with the recipes so it’s from a combination of their recipes and their spices that the Cape Malay cuisine was created. “The Cape Malay cuisine originally came from our ancestors who came from all these different places – Indonesia, India, from the Middle East.” “The Cape Malay cuisine is something different and something unique,” Faldela explains. Since then it has fused with South African styles and been adapted for the local ingredients. Hundreds of years ago, the slaves brought their food with them. The Cape Malay food is an interesting blend of cuisines and it’s something that Faldela has been making her whole life. You know – and sometimes we just sit down and have a chat and at the end of the day, in many cases, friendships develop.” “And you learn about the culture, the religion, the political differences. It may be for whatever reason – it may just be for the cooking. “My personal opinion is that when someone comes into your house, you get the opportunity to get to know that person and that person gets to know you. “Lots of tourists come and walk up and down the houses and want to see what’s in them,” Faldela tells me. She runs a cooking class here, teaching people all about the famous Cape Malay cuisine.īut, as I discover, it’s more than that. In one of the houses, I meet Faldela Tolker.įor more than ten years, Faldela has been inviting tourists into her home. The real vibrancy, the real colour, the real boldness these days is through the doors. It’s the homeowners who decide to do this and they choose their own colour and paint it themselves.īut the rainbow streets are just the facade. There is no masterplan behind this, no strategy of pattern. But on first impressions, it’s the colourful houses that capture your attention.Įach one is a different hue, vibrant and bold. The history is deep and the cultures within it rich. The Bo-Kaap community in Cape Town is home to many descendants of slaves who were brought to South Africa from Asia and the Middle East in the 16th and 17th centuries. In a country that has so often been described in terms of black and white, it’s nice to see a splash of colour. Cape Malay cooking class, Cape Town, South Africa

Cape malay cuisine