I'm Amara — I'll Cook Cape Malay Food With You in the Bo-Kaap and Tell You Its History

My name is Amara and I grew up in the Bo-Kaap. Cape Malay food is the food of my community — a 350-year-old cuisine that blends the cooking of enslaved people brought from Indonesia, Malaysia, and India with Dutch and South African ingredients, creating something completely unique. Bobotie (spiced minced meat baked with egg custard), bredie (slow-cooked lamb with tomato or waterblommetjie flowers), sosaties (marinated lamb skewers) and koesisters (twisted spiced doughnuts dipped in syrup) are the dishes that define this cuisine and almost no visitor to Cape Town has eaten a proper version. I invite small groups into a cooking session in the Bo-Kaap: we make bobotie and koesisters together in a traditional home kitchen, I explain the history of the Cape Malay community, and we eat together at the table with a view of Table Mountain.