For those wishing to stay in Cape Town for several months, it’s better you are well informed of the food which is typical in this city. This isn’t a description of gastronomic specialities but a simple guide about the common and daily meals which the South Africans enjoy. This is particular interest for those planning homestays.
To start off a day is a standard soluble coffee with 3 or 4 spoons of sugar per cup with the breakfast. Everything under is very suspect for the locals. An alternative is tea. Cereals with milk are always an option and are commonly offered by almost all families. For those who don’t like cereals, Goldentoast toast is a good substitute. Baps and brown bread are not often found in South African households. A recommendation are the Portuguese baps, they’re at least crunchy. You will find them in almost all supermarkets, but you have to pay it from your own budget. For the spread lovers you have margarine and two kinds of jam in most households. Some families offer cold meat and there you can even choose between two kinds of cold meat. Generally the quality of the cold meat is not the best because most locals don’t like to eat cold meat regularly.
Lunch is not regularly offered but most families. In most cases guests make their own lunch arrangements themselves. There are a lot of standard fast food chains which are within the vicinity of Sea Point. Alternatives are always the delicious fruit salads or baguettes of the supermarkets.
Dinner is always warm. It’s no culture of eating bread with cold meat. Chicken is the most important meat: it’s prepared in many different ways and served with a variety of sides depending on the host family. Though potatoes may be served as a side, they are mostly served as vegetables. Spaghetti Bolognese is also a common meal that you can look forward to. Other delicious meals are baked spaghettis with different fillers like broccoli or a bit of meat. Pizza will be also prepared or it will be ordered on discount-days. Usually on Friday the even guests are treated with barbeque which the local popularly call a braai. The types of meat which are grilled on this open fire are sausage(beef, pork or lamb), chicken or lamb. Over the weekends they prepare mostly simple things because that’s when they relax.
The times of eating are different depending on the households, but when it comes to lodges with half-board on meals, there are fixed times to eat, which are comparatively early. In some cases arrangements can be made and you can have you meal at a later time.
On a comparison basis we have observed that half-board is the cheapest alternative. If you buy food yourself it will be more expensive. However, the budget of the hosts is very low (around 3 € for breakfast and dinner). With this rather small amount of money for food they are only preparing simple meals. Experience has taught us that staying several weeks in the same household, the guests will start to miss the dinner for eating outside. In private households it’s usually not allowed to cook for yourself. At times other guests who don’t like the food prepared either in Lodges or by their host families, you can get fast food or eat out which can rather be eventually expensive.
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