Turns out I had been reading the list for the V&A Waterfront. It's been done up recently, and it caters to tourists. We had a couple of meals here. One was at a bistro that I can remember the name of. The other place was some seafood joint named Ocean Basket, which was pretty much South Africa's version of Red Lobster. Or Long John Silver. Or someplace in between.
While reading the list of restaurants under the Bo-Kaap section, the cuisine started to get unfamiliar. Cape Malay? What the heck is that? The short of it is that it refers to an ethnic community in the Western Cape. Prisoners and slaves from Malaysia and its nearest lands (think Java) were brought over, some by the Dutch East Indian Trading Company, and settled down in what later was called Cape Town.
Cape Malay cuisine is a fusion of the Malay and Dutch influence. Our concierge pointed us to Noon Gun Restaurant, atop Signal Hill in Bo-Kaap. The name refers to the Noon Gun that fires at 12pm every day. K and I never heard the gun go off. I was sad about that.
Noon Gun has a charm about it as soon as you step inside. It looks like you just showed up at someone's house for dinner. In a way, you have. Our waitress told us that the owner bought this house years ago, converted the terrace into a restaurant, and Noon Gun was born.
In researching Cape Malay cuisine, I was directed to two dishes: Denningvleis and Bobotie. Denningvleis is a cubed lamb, stewed in a tamarind sauce. But they were out of that, so I went with Bobotie instead.
Bobotie is oven-baked curried beef with a rice and sauce. My first instinct was to equate Cape Malay food to Indian food, because of the abundance of curries on the menu. It took me a while to figure out that Indian dishes don't have beef in them. So they're not the same. Anyway, the Bobotie was fantastic.
This is K's Masala Fish. She liked it as well, although she found the portions rather big. I dunno. I guess I was hungry that night.
After our meal, we chatted more with our waitress, who told us about the history of Noon Gun Restaurant, which was pretty much a history of her family. We never got her name, though. It's a small regret.
I have NO regrets about trying Cape Malay food. Can I get some of that stuff in LA? I can only hope.
