As much as we learned at UCT, climbed mountains, and explored Cape Town, we needed energy to keep us going. That energy came through trying a whole bunch of new food! Eating in a country 8,000 miles away from home may be a bit scary because the food is different than what you're used to, but it's worth taking a risk. A country's food is just as important to its culture as its history or languages. My first experience trying Ethiopian food was at Addis in Cape. The food wasn't too different so much as the way we ate it. When we walked into the restaurant, we were engulfed in the smell of incense. Even though I was pretty sick, I could still smell the incense through my stuffy nose. We were seated in a circle surrounding small communal round tables. We weren't seated on the floor, but the chairs were small and pretty close to the ground so it almost felt like we were. When the food was finally ready, it was delivered to us on a platter covered up. At the big reveal, the waiter lifted up the cover and dumped bowls of each of our food on top of this spongy rice bread. It was communal dining, so the food soaked into the spongy rice bread and you were supposed to use it to pick up your food and share with everyone else. Despite not being able to taste well, the food was still delicious. I had Gomen- spinach sauteed with onions, garlic, herbs, and spices that gave it its Ethiopian flavor. Sizwe offered me some of his chicken, which I gladly tried. The coolest part about being at the Ethiopian restaurant was something our waiter did at the very beginning and continued to enforce throughout the meal: we were a very large group, but we came to Addis in separate, smaller groups at various times. The way we arrived, we were split up on opposite sides of the room by race (completely coincidentally, but blatantly obvious to our waiter). I got the sense that he assumed we had split ourselves like that out of comfort, so he took it upon himself to shake things up. He announced that we had to move around and sit next to someone we didn't know- essentially integrating ourselves. It was a microcosm of what South Africa has been trying to do these past two decades. For us, it worked: we each had in depth and at times personal conversations with our new neighbors. I would say integration is a work-in-progress for South Africa, especially at Stellenbosch University and in different neighborhoods, but I'd like think that this night we showed it was possible. We loved eating at the University of Cape Town because it was pretty cheap but it was also really good. I had a few buffalo chicken wraps, chicken and mozzarella melted on focaccia, and feta wraps. Nothing too different from home, but tasty and full of protein nonetheless. For breakfast almost every day, and as safety food sometimes in the afternoon or evening, I survived on apples and peanut butter. Normally, I can't eat peanut butter off a spoon because it's so thick, but there was something about the peanut butter from India that made it delicious and much easier to work with. I found myself eating peanut butter right out of the jar! Apples and peanut butter isn't a combination I would normally have in the United States, but I've brought it back home with me and now I eat an apple a day and have a jar of peanut butter on hand at all times.
One night, we went over to Waseem's house and he made us falafels! I had never really had falafels before (maybe once or twice that I barely remember), but Waseem's falafels were the bomb. He put a whole bunch of hummus on them, and if you know anything about me I have 5 food groups: cheese, granola bars, fruit, chicken, and hummus. If it has hummus on it or in it, it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll love it. At the Waterfront, I tried Hungarian pizza. It had avocados, chicken, tomatoes, feta, and arugula on it with a special sauce. It tasted pretty good, but my stomach wasn't a big fan of the spices. Speaking of spices, something that isn't a very big thing in the United States but I've seen in a few European countries and South Africa is peri peri sauce. I had a peri peri chicken sandwich with chips at Quay Four at the Waterfront. 10/10 would recommend- the United States needs to step up its game. Sometimes in the mornings we would go to a coffee shop, and since I don't drink coffee, I usually got a croissant or "chocolate croissant". In France we call them "pain au chocolat" (literally chocolate bread), so I had a hard time calling them chocolate croissants- but that didn't mean they were any less delicious. One morning at Truth Coffee I got one that was so warm the bread flaked off and the chocolate melted in my mouth- I just had to have another. A different coffee shop took a normal croissant, filled it with chocolate (which was a surprise to me when I broke it open), sprinkled chocolate on top, and added in some edible flowers. It was a chocolate overload! We also found two places right by Scalabrini that we all enjoyed: City Bowl had healthy and delicious food that you'd mix together and have either as a wrap or a salad. I put things on a wrap I never would've imaged, and I regret nothing. It was my own tasty concoction. The other place was The Cousins, an Italian restaurant about a block away. I got spinach gnocchi covered in a red sauce. Both were things I've never had before, but I would gladly have again. On Nazeer's Vegkop Farm, we were fed some of the best vegetables I've ever had. Vegetable soup, vegetable rice, vegetables covered in other vegetables, (I'm beginning to sound like Bubba from Forrest Gump). I even tried guavas and guava juice for the first time. I embarrassingly had to ask if guava juice comes from a guava fruit because I'd never seen one before and I'm pretty sure we don't sell them in grocery stores in the United States. I was a big fan of the guava juice, but all the sugar put me to sleep. By far the best meal I had in South Africa, and arguably in my whole life (don't tell my mom), was Mama's cooking at Mzansi Restaurant. The chicken, beef, potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, salad, and malva pudding all had my taste buds rejoicing. I'd swim across the Atlantic Ocean right now if I knew a plate of Mama's food was waiting for me on the other side. Ain't no ocean wide enough to keep me from getting to Mama's cooking. I was the most adventurous with food was at Marco's African Place. As an appetizer I got fried goat cheese balls which I think are my favorite snack in the whole wide world. Don't knock it til you try it! It sounds funky, but I promise you that you will not be disappointed. The warm cheese melts on your tongue as you bite into it and you can almost feel your taste buds do a little happy dance. For my main course I decided to get a taste of Cape Town: Kudu, Ostrich, and Springbok with rice. It's not hard to try new types of meat when it's already cooked for you because it looks exactly like steak or any other red meat you'd have, it just tastes slightly different. Out of the three, Kudu was my favorite. Since Lucky was running late, Nick ordered him the "Smiley" for dinner. I wondered what exactly a smiley entailed, but I would soon find out. The waiter dropped off his meal and I did a double-take. Anjalee laughed from across the table at the shocked and surprised (and slightly disgusted) face I made. The smiley was a cooked goat's head in a bowl. He asked me if I wanted to try some, and I was feeling adventurous so I said sure. Little did I know, he pulls out the goat's tongue, chops off a piece, and hands it to me to eat. I did try a piece, but it took a lot of courage and self-motivation. It was chewier than I expected. For dessert I had this delicious strawberry gelato that was perfectly cold and hit the spot.
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