Leila gets all sorts of earthy down in that CT city

By Leila Saffarian, food editor

So F&HE popped me onto a plane and decided to let me loose in the Mother of all Cities. Goodness… They are brave aren’t they? We could just smell a host of foodie delights happening down there and wanted in on some of the action – face-to-face. I assured all that I would be well behaved and need they really worry? CT is my hometown hood, my playground, my wild child town after all…

I’ll cut straight to the chase. Jozi Town is gaining the most wonderful market culture (and man do we love it *keep it up* F&HE salutes all you yummy traders) but Cape Town is undoubtedly the undisputed princess of quick street market set-ups. Naturally a simple street market would be buzzing by the time I set foot in one of my favourite CT places – St George’s Mall – just off the hyped Green Market Square, before one hits the beautiful and historic Company Gardens *if however you are afraid of squirrels – best not to visit the gardens alone is all we say*.

Bunting strewn from pole to pole, smoke in the air, daytime workers milling about, hipsters for miles – but all just casual like, this is CT after all. Hello @earthfairmarket – the spot where hungry town-based Capetonians come to chow. I heard sizzling and I was drawn to that sound – I do love a good sizzle and was so happy I found it. Right there, in the flesh, hipsters making paella! One of them even happened to be a ginger… It’s no secret I might have a slight ginger hipster foodie obsession – only slightly. I had to pull myself away from this foodie nirvana immediately!

To calm down from all that ginger paella boy excitement all I had to do was turn around and stare straight at the @thecreamerysa – yup, even on the chilliest days Capetonians still want their ice cream, yes they do. Not in the mood for ice cream? Well, turn to the left and Cypriot delights will have you nibbling. How lovely. It reminded me of my ’08 Cyprus adventures and the amount of dolmades I ate… Cheese, cupcakes (of course), a bit of Indian – all around, all available, all down at the market, all waiting to be sampled.

All in all CT I say thank you for reminding me just how mad you and your food characters are. I do miss you but you have given me lots to report back on at F&HE HQ. Thank you for allowing me to (mis)behave in your lovely streets yet again.

*Leila has both a fear and dislike of city pigeons, which she set aside for the greater good of this blog post – she’s willing like that*