Exotic cultures, exotic cuisines

One of the best things about being here with CCS is conversation with the volunteers. We currently have 16 volunteers living in my homebase (though 5 will leave this weekend), ranging in age from 16 to 59. All have compelling life stories, and all have interesting perspectives. A discussion this afternoon with Kara (an attorney from Portland, Oregon, and Jean, a legislative aid in DC), for example, concerned the belief among Americans that the US is truly multi-cultural, but the realization that multiculturalism in America is minor compared to South Africa. Nowhere is this more evident than in language--SA has eleven official languages, and many more unofficial ones. Nearly everyone we meet is multilingual, usually speaking three or more fluently, and every time we are out we hear at least that many spoken around us within a few minutes' time.



A second way that these (to us) exotic cultures are evident is the food. The variety here is extensive, and I truly believe that if I lived here for decades, I would still have frequent opportunities to try something entirely new and outside my previous food experience. So here I will write about some of the foods I have tried lately.



Last week our placement director Tahira introduced us to Cape Malay culture and cuisine. Let me digress for a brief explanation of Cape Malay history and culture. Shortly after the Dutch East India Company set up a colony at the Cape of Good Hope in the 1650s as a provisioning station for ships sailing between the Netherlands and the East Indies, the governor decided there was a need for slaves to help work the land. Unable to subdue the indigenous Khoi-San (also known by the derogatory names Hottentots and Bushmen) population and deeming a good trade relationship necessary, Governor Riebeeck asked for slaves to be sent here. Some were brought in from other parts of Africa, principally Madagascar and East Africa, but most eventually came from what is now Indonesia. Malay was the lingua franca of trade in southeast Asia and was the predominant language of the slaves. Over time many of these slaves mixed with the local Khoi-San population, who were a "brown," rather than "black" population, and with both the white population and the black population, creating a mixed race known as "coloured." After the English came to the Cape of Good Hope and challenged the Dutch-descended settlers, many Dutch and some coloured moved inland in a migration known as the Great Trek to settle away from the English. Those coloured who remained became known as the Cape coloured. A large segment of the Cape coloured are Muslim, and these are known as the Cape Malay. The so-called coloured population speaks Afrikaans, as distinct language based on 17th century Dutch mixed with elements of African languages, as well as Indian languages and English.

So, last week Tahira spoke to those at our homebase about her culture--the Cape Malay culture, as we were served a lunch of traditional Cape Malay food. Then, on Monday night of this week, six people from our homebase had an oppotunity to eat dinner in a Cape Malay home, in Bo-Kaap, the area of Cape Town that was given to the former slaves when the British governor of the Cape Colony freed the slaves in the 1830s. This opportunity came about because one of our drivers who takes us to placement and on excursions has a sister-in-law who, for a small fee, invites tourist occasionally into her home to learn about Cape Malay cooking and eat a traditional Cape Malay meal. We arrived in time to help make the samoosas and the roti and to learn how she prepared the rest of the meal. We left the table during dinner once during call to prayer and went out into the courtyard behind the house. The house sits among five mosques--the largest concentration of mosques in South Africa--and we could hear the call to prayer coming from all of them. It was beautiful, haunting, and moving, all the more so for me because I had spent all afternoon with two other volunteers at the South African Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center. A multicultural day indeed.

So Cape Malay cuisine is a unique blend of Malay, Indian, and Dutch cuisines. Here are the fabulous Cape Malay foods that I have eaten: samoosas, filled with either a savoury minced beef or a spicy cheese and corn mixture; small meat pies; chevra and slangethies, which I can best describe as a Malay version of party mix; dhaltjies, also called chilli bites, spicy deep-fried puffs of bread; incredible chicken curry; breyani, a kind of curried layered stew; biscuits or cookies, similar to shortbread but spiced with anise or nutmeg; and koeksisters, doughnuts without the holes with cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, dipped in a sticky coating and coconut. It is all fabulous.

I've had two more major eating experiences in the past week. Nineteen of us went to a restaurant called the Africa Cafe, which serves foods from the length of Africa in a family-style setting. Wait staff explained everything we were served, including soup, appetizers, main dishes, starches and vegetables, and dessert. We were seved over 30 different foods and could ask for seconds on anything we wanted. The restaurant is huge (we ate in the Morocco room), and the presentation is perfect. Dinner lasted for nearly 3 hours. In addition to all the food, I had rooisbos tea, a glass of wine, and sparkling water, and my bill incudling tip was about $30. Google the Africa Cafe in Cape Town to see the incredible menu. Second, today the entire group of CCS volunteers went to a shebeen, a traditional restaurant in the township of Guguleto. We ate grilled meats, mealy pap (sort of like grits, but smoother and not gritty) with tomato gravy, African pot bread, and a mess of greens that would not seem unfamiliar to anyone from the South of the US. We ate outside under an awning, with an African band playing, and although all we had to do was look around to know we were right in the township, I never felt uncomfortable. I did notice that we had large male drivers and other CCS staff who seemed to stay on the outskirts of our group.

Just a note: we are having some problems with the internet connection in our homebase and that, along with being busy, has kept me from posting as often as I would like. I'll try to do better in future. Also, there are major email problems, and only last night a bunch of us realized that emails we had sent back home never got through. Some of you may think I haven't been keeping in touch, but I'm trying and it isn't always working. Be patient with me. It will get done, African time. Also, to everyone in CMS, I can't even access CMS email at all, so if you have emailed my CMS address, I won't see it until I am home.

Finally, I've bought the Cape Malay cookbook that was recommended to me, as well as the Africa Cafe cookbook. I hope to cook an African feast when I get home. Y'all come!