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Urban abundance : Alma picking loquarts for the City Bowl salad -
Urban abundance : Muizenberg dune spinach -
Urban abundance : Muizenberg urban foraging -
Urban abundance : Sorrel on a sidewalk in Higgovale -
Urban abundance : Guava ice cream with preserved guava and goats cheese -
Urban abundance : Amuse bouche of port, pepper, pomegrant and rose jelly with sea lettuce -
Urban abundance : City Bowl salad -
Urban abundance : Foraging for sea lettuce -
Urban abundance : Guests at Saboteur's secret home dinner -
Urban abundance : Guinea fowl ravioli with waterblommetjies, dune spinach and bietou berry puree -
Urban abundance : Hot-and-sour sorrel soup chaud froid -
Urban abundance : The table is set for a night of urban food -
Urban abundance : The menu -
Urban abundance : Veldkool, two ways
WORDS: Alma Viviers
During the first-ever Toffie Food Festival held in Cape Town this week, ticket holders got to experience a randomly allocated, secret home dinner. One of my good friends, chef Kobus van der Merwe, and I were selected to host one of the dinners under our collective name “Saboteur”.
Since Kobus is quite well known for using hyper-local ingredients in his kitchen at Oep vi Koep in Paternoster, we decided to see what the city and surrounds had to offer in terms of ingredients.
Although the idea of foraging from an urban environment isn’t something new, it was an eye opener to see how many resources grow right on our doorsteps. Nasturtium, salvia, veldkool, sorrel and dune spinach all grow in abundance on sidewalks, beaches and in gardens.
We also collected mussels and sea lettuce in Granger Bay – with a permit, of course!
But it wasn’t just the environment that was brimming with generosity: Mr Aubrey Jackson of Tamboerskloof allowed us to raid his loquat tree for our salad, and a colleague kindly donated some of her homegrown guavas for dessert.
Our dinner was held in a boardroom space with 270-degree views of the city, where we heightened the urban experience through a soundtrack of city noises interspersed with twittering birds. An ancient overhead projector also cast images of the locations where ingredients were foraged.
On the menu:
Cape Tawny Port, pepper, pomegranate and rose jelly with sea lettuce from Granger Bay
Higgovale hot-and-sour sorrel soup chaud froid
City Bowl salad with loquats from Mr Aubrey Jackson
Lakeside “veldkool” served raw and pickled
Granger Bay mussels with salvia (a wild sage) from the M3
Duck-egg ravioli filled with slow-roasted guinea fowl and served with Vredehoek pine needles
Monte Vista guava ice cream with spicy preserved guava and goats cheese
