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New ZealandFlavors · Cape Town
A long roll filled with fries, meat, fish, or chicken, salad and sauce, cut into pieces for sharing. It originated in a fried-fish shop in Athlone, in the Cape Flats, and is Cape Town’s sandwich.
Traditional dish from Cape Town, Cabo Ocidental
Also known as: gatsby sandwich
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Gatsby — Cape Town, South Africa
The gatsby is a huge sandwich: a long roll, split lengthwise and filled with slap chips — the thick, soft fries seasoned with vinegar — a meat or fish, salad and sauce. The most popular fillings are masala-seasoned steak, chicken, sausage, mortadella, fried calamari and fish; the sauce is typically achar, the spicy Indian-origin pickle, or piri‑piri. Topped with a fried egg and cheese, it becomes a complete gatsby.
The most commonly told origin story is about the owner of a fried-fish shop in Athlone, a neighborhood in the Cape Flats, the plain southeast of central Cape Town. According to the vendor himself, one night in the 1970s, with no fish to serve to workers he had hired, he filled a round roll with fries, mortadella and achar. One of the men allegedly called the sandwich a "Gatsby smash," referring to the film The Great Gatsby playing at a neighborhood cinema. The city’s official tourism body gives the year 1974; news reports with the vendor mention 1976. Another version says Cape Flats residents were already stuffing long rolls with leftovers to feed many people.
Over time the round roll was replaced by the long one, easier to divide. The gatsby spread to the city’s snack bars from the late 1980s and became part of life in the Cape Flats and the city center.
The custom is to buy a whole gatsby for a group. The seller asks how many pieces to cut it into, and each person takes theirs. The middle piece, with the most filling, is the most sought after.
Cape Town , Cabo Ocidental
It originated in a fried-fish shop in Athlone, in the Cape Flats of Cape Town, in the 1970s.
Long roll like a baguette, slap chips (thick fries with vinegar), a protein (masala steak, chicken, sausage, mortadella, calamari or fish), lettuce, tomato and sauce, usually achar or piri‑piri; optional fried egg and cheese.
Eaten with the hands, cut into pieces and shared among several people. It’s snack-bar food, meant to take away or eat on the street.
Year‑round, at lunch, dinner and late at night.
Your questions
A large sandwich made in a long roll, with fries, a meat or fish, salad and sauce, cut into pieces for sharing. It is Cape Town’s typical sandwich.
According to the story told in Athlone, one of the first people to try it called it a "Gatsby smash," referencing the film The Great Gatsby that was showing at a neighborhood cinema in the 1970s.
A whole gatsby usually serves two to four people. The seller asks how many pieces to cut it into.
Always fries and sauce; the protein varies: masala steak, chicken, sausage, mortadella, calamari or fish. With egg and cheese, it’s the complete gatsby.
Flavors of South Africa
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Cracked white maize (samp) slow-cooked with beans until creamy, seasoned with onion and butter or fat. It is the everyday dish of the Xhosa of the Eastern Cape and was Nelson Mandela's favorite.
Minced meat seasoned with curry and spices, mixed with bread soaked in milk and dried fruit and baked under a milk-and-egg topping. It is a well-known dish of Cape Malay cuisine from Cape Town, served with yellow rice and chutney.
Fried dumpling with a soft dough, seasoned with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, fennel and tangerine peel, dipped in hot syrup and coated in coconut. It is the Sunday breakfast of Cape Malay families in Cape Town.
A hot amber-colored beverage made from the oxidized leaves of a shrub that only grows in the Cederberg mountains and surrounding areas. Clanwilliam, at the foot of the range, is the center of cultivation and processing, and the name rooibos has a protected geographical indication.
Curry served inside a sliced loaf of white bread cut into a quarter or half and hollowed out, with the removed crumb placed on top. Created by Durban’s community of Indian origin, it’s the dish the city uses to introduce itself.
A quarter loaf of sliced white bread hollowed out and layered with fillings: fries, sausages, mortadella, a burger, cheese, achar and sauces. It’s the street food of Johannesburg’s townships, like Soweto, and of the whole Gauteng province.
Homemade fermented drink made from the juice of marula fruits, from January to March. In Limpopo, the season opens with the festival of the first fruits, and Phalaborwa hosts the annual marula festival where the drink made by local cooperatives is served.
Pinotage red wine, a grape variety created in Stellenbosch, South Africa, from crossing Pinot Noir with Cinsaut (which in the Cape was called Hermitage). It has a dark color, aromas of red and dark fruits, and soft tannins.
