April 3, 2025
Today we took a cooking class in the Bo-Kaap neighborhood which was was less than 10 minutes from our AirBnB. We learned that the area is known for its Islamic Cape Malay cultural history and is the oldest surviving residential neighborhood in Cape Town.
The class was at Faeeza’s kitchen. My parents saw her on one of their favorite shows, ‘Somebody Feed Phil’, and recommended we watch the Cape Town episode she appeared on. After what felt like 10 straight days of pizza in Cape Town, I wanted to make sure we experienced some local food, so I booked this cooking class and hoped the boys would survive/ enjoy it.
There were 13 in our class including us; a Canadian couple, a British couple and 5 American digital nomads in their 20s/30s. The class was part demonstration and part hands-on. Ollie felt cheated by all of the demo-ing at first and Len also had a hard time sitting still early on. Their enthusiasm waned but as soon as we got to the roti portion, they were locked in.
We made Cape Malay staples like samoosa, roti, chicken curry, dhaltjies (spice bites) and coconut koeksisters. Faeeza let Lenny participate, but kept giving him mini portions compared to the adults’ portions and this did not sit well with him. We didn’t end up eating until 1:30pm which was way late in the day to feed the boys and they were fading hard by the end of the class.
While eating the meal, Ollie enjoyed telling our lunchmates about our trip and the stops along the way. He has well over the first third properly memorized at this point. Len played it shy but would sneak in a random comment here and there including, “My mom is from Canada!” , “Spain!”, “I’m eating all the roti!” I ended up taking Len’s mini roti so he could enjoy a full size. And then a second. Ollie also devoured the roti and both were fans of the spice bites. Ollie enjoyed the samoosas and the coconut koeksister for dessert but these didn’t interest Len. Neither boy felt ready to try the curry, but Kyle and I enjoyed all of the food.
We were grateful to get a bag of samoosas for the road.
Kyle dropped Ollie and I off at home so he and Len could go off on a birthday preparation mission. It was hot today (in the 80s) so Ollie and I swam in the pool and played horse by throwing his foam sandals at the pool filter. We played soccer for a while in the evening with Ollie playing goalie most of the night. Lenny kept making comments like, “Ollie you need gloves to be a better goalie!” knowing that he had just scooped goalie gloves as a gift to give him tomorrow for his birthday.
