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Eating and drinking
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Cape Town has fabulous food. There are a large number of relaxed and convivial restaurants, which generally serve imaginative and healthy food of a high standard. The range of styles is broad, with international cuisine readily available. The devalued South African rand means that many foreign visitors can eat in upmarket restaurants with outstanding chefs creating innovative food for the kind of money they'd spend on a pizza back home. This is the city to splash out on whatever takes your fancy, and you'll find the quality of meat and fish very high, with many vegetarian options.
While there is a local Cape cuisine, it's not the thing to concentrate on when you're choosing somewhere to eat. Some elements of Cape and African cuisine find their way onto fusion style menus at upmarket restaurants. If you are curious, there are a couple of restaurants dedicated to Cape cuisine, which is a spicy hybrid of the cooking styles brought to South Africa and adapted by slaves, principally from Asia and Madagascar. Mild and semi-sweet curries with a strong Indonesian influence predominate, and include: bredie (stew), of which waterblommetjiebredie , made using water hyacinths, is a speciality; bobotie , a spicy minced dish served under a savoury custard; and sosaties , a local version of kebab using mincemeat. For dessert, dates stuffed with almonds make a light and delicious end to a meal, while malva pudding is a rich combination of milk, sugar, cream and apricot jam. As far as seafood goes, you can expect fresh fish at every good restaurant. Cape Town itself offers cold-water fish such as kingklip, hake and snoek. The cold waters up the West Coast yield quantities of crayfish and mussels, while fresh fish, oysters and prawns are flown in from warmer waters, including Mozambique. Cape wines are the obvious accompaniment to your meals, particularly when sampled under the gaze of Table Mountain.
As far as
prices
go, expect to pay under R40 for a main course at an inexpensive restaurant, up to R60 at a moderately priced one, and more than this at an expensive place. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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South Africa,
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