This is post 61 of 81 in the series “2023 World Cruise”

We visit a Cape Town home and learn to cook some local dishes

Itinerary, Menus, When & Where and Entertainers

Cooking classes are one of our first choices for an excursion when we visit a port.

We learned about the website “Traveling Spoon” which is home to a worldwide network of hosts that offer a chance to experience local food and cooking.

Susan arranged for a visit to Richard and Gillian in their home located in the Wynberg area of Cape Town for the five of us from Table 89. HERE is a link to their Traveling Spoon website.

Once again, we used Citi Shuttles for our Cape Town ground transportation.

Our Citi Shuttle Driver, David, and Susan

Our cooking class started at 11 am, and our driver met us at the ship at 10:30 am. We arrived at Richard and Gillian’s house twenty minutes later. We met their friendly dachshund, Lola, and gathered in their kitchen to learn what to expect over the next few hours.

Lola

Here are the main dishes we would help prepare:

Pickled Fish
Mielie Muffins
Malay Prawn Curry
Yellow Rice with Dried Fruit
Malva Tart

We enjoyed some wine while Gillian and Richard prepared the fresh ingredients. We helped with the cutting and mixing as we worked our way through the preparation of each course.

Gillian explains the first recipe

Susan fills the muffin pan with the batter for the Mielie Muffins

Richard working with the sauté pan

Pete fills the baking ceramic with the Malva Tart batter

As the food was getting close to being finished, Gillian set the table outside in their backyard.

Soon enough, everything was done, and we took a seat to enjoy a wonderful meal.

Pickled Fish

Mielie Muffins

Malay Prawn Curry

Malva Tart

Everything was delicious, and we enjoyed the food as our conversation continued discussing life in South Africa and all the challenges and opportunities ahead.

After we finished the fabulous Malva Tart, we said our goodbyes to our wonderful hosts and headed outside to meet our driver for our return trip.

COWGIRLBLUES

Judy and I decided to get dropped off at the yarn shop, Cowgirlblues, which was on the way back to the ship. See the map, HERE, for the location.

Cowgirlblues has a small retail space inside their larger dying and manufacturing facility and is not focused on walk-in retail trade. Most of their business involves serving their extensive network of local yarn shops. After we browsed their stock for a few minutes, we enjoyed a tour of their operation.

Cowgirlblues showroom

Judy Outside Cowgirlblues

After we finished, we called an Uber for a short ride back to the ship.

DEPARTING SOUTH AFRICA

Before leaving South Africa, everyone had to return to the passenger terminal for a face-to-face departure check between 4 pm and 8:30 pm. Initially, there was only one gangway in place, which contributed to long lines since the people leaving and returning had to wait since a single gangway could only support one-way traffic. After about one hour, another gangway was opened which allowed two-way traffic and eliminated the lines.