AFRICA IN BLACK & WHITE: FEAST AND FAMINE
By Sue Van Der Hout
Now is the time to travel, stay and dine in South Africa. The plunge of the Rand relative to other western currencies has created an incredible opportunity for visitors to enjoy world class lodging and dining at rock bottom prices. There is a caveat – keep your wits about you. Crime is rampant. And you cannot leave with your soul intact without looking at the reality for some South Africans and paying it forward.
Travel to Africa from North America is not easy or cheap. But few who go question the journey or the cost. It is a primeval place of tremendous geographic beauty and of sea going legend where the splendor of nature and of civilization’s advancement lives cheek to jowl with abject poverty. 6% of the South African population has no toilets or use a bucket toilet system. People still live in primitive conditions. Crime is rampant. Many locals blame the recent influx of Zimbabwe refugees.
Yet Cape Town remains one of the most quintessentially beautiful places in the world to live…or visit. Concierge.com, explains it best: «Shameful past, complicated present – and absolutely magnificent» http://www.concierge.com/travelguide/capetown.
And the cost to visitors to eat, drink, travel and play? As the Aussies would say, «Too easy». At Willoughby & Co. we had the best seafood in 30 years of butter sauce. Consider this: Line up at 5:30. Table in 15 minutes. Extravagant dinner for four. Start by bringing your own wine (R30 corkage), appetizers, calamari, crayfish and seafood platter. Halva ice cream. 1150.00R for 4. Now divide by 7. Teach me math that way and watch my fear of fractions evaporate. www.waterfront.co.za/eat/restaurants/guide/Willoughby+%26+Co.
Then there was Ginja. Although locals recommended it, they complained that the staff were difficult. We were cautious, should we ask for tap water? Absolutely. With lemon. They charmed us. All were first rate. From a warm welcome behind a heavy door that suddenly appeared at the end of a long winding hall, to the artistry in food, it was heavenly. 700 R, or $95 for two with 2 bottles of wine. We repeated the experience at a fabulous Indian Restaurant called Bukhara. Bring your own. Order like mad. 684R for 2.
And we hadn’t scratched yet the surface of eating opportunities in South Africa. If you have little time, head straight to the vines and wines. Heaven is to be found in Franschhoek. If you are a foodie and if Parker’s List is your bible, then this is a no brainer. If you desire to sip, swill, taste, and enjoy heaven on earth, then run, not walk to Franschhoek.
Stage 1 is the wine tasting. Visit Joy McNaught at Stony Book Vineyards. This is a venture of the heart and the love shows in the wines. While one could taste 5 wines, she could not resist showing the breadth and depth of their creations. Her husband Nigel had left medicine so that they could focus on their passion. It shows. info@stonybrook.co.za We’d have gladly abandoned our bags for cases of wine to slip onto the plane. Stage 2 is the inn. They are many and beautiful. Find your dream at www.franschhoek.org.za You cannot go wrong. Stage 3 is the meal. Fraschhoek is a gem of a place but the crème de la crème is Le Quartier Francais.
We didn’t get into Le Quartier Francais , ranked in The World’s Top 50 restaurants for the fifth year in a row, because we failed to reserve. Do not make that fatal error. It is the kind of restaurant that even locals speak about sotto voce or in reverent tones. The best news for women about Le Quartier Francais is that you can indulge your feminine. The owner/chef is Margot Janse. Her love is food, her inspiration, women from the village who bring their bounty to her.
A timely reservation can get you all that and more. Next time. Our adventure had arisen unexpectedly. While Africa was on our list of «Things to Do Before You Die», we hadn’t planned a trip. Dear friends suggested we join them for 3 weeks to revisit the home of their birth. By the time we’d planned, the air, the apartment, the safaris, we’d exhausted our time and attention. Do not make this fatal error. Plan for Franschhoek.
If you go to South Africa, plan to attend the «Good Food & Wine» experience in Cape Town in May or catch it in Johannesburg in October and Durban in August. Forty-five thousand people can’t be wrong. www.gourmetsa.co.za
But here is the Caveat: The food is to die for in South Africa; but that luxury might signal its demise. In South Africa, as in many other places, there is a drumbeat you can’t ignore even if you cover your ears and eyes and turn away. It is the shocking sounds and sights of abject poverty that erupts unexpectedly on the drive to town from the airport and settles near national monuments like that of John Rhodes.
Perhaps there is hope for change. Education is improving in Cape Town. In 2001 almost 18% of the population 20+ had no education. By 2007 that had dropped to 10%.
Residents tell us that these are not their people, but those fleeing the despair of Zimbabwe which is experiencing inflation of 165,000% and 80% unemployment (The National Post). People are streaming across borders destabilizing the economies of South Africa and Botswana. The poor of South Africa, feeling the loss of jobs, are fighting them back to Zim. It is creating black on black violence and fueling lawlessness in major cities. In a society struggling to peacefully transition from Apartheid, the peril of Zim’s collapse looms large.
Even without that additional pressure on jobs, shelter and food in South Africa that the Zim catastrophe has wrought, there is no doubt that the gulf between the rich and poor in Capetown is deep and broad.
To truly enjoy the culinary glory of South Africa, one needs a proper digestive. It is not an aperitif but a commitment to the continent: To make a contribution to Africans in desperate circumstances trying to get by. Otherwise feast and famine becomes entirely too literal and too close for comfort.
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