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New ZealandFlavors · Cape Town
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.
Traditional sweet from Cape Town, Cabo Ocidental
Also known as: koesister, Cape Malay koeksister
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Koe'sister — Cape Town, South Africa
Koe'sister is an oval wheat-flour dumpling, fried, with a soft and slightly elastic texture similar to cake. The dough includes spices: cinnamon, cardamom, dried ginger, fennel and, in family recipes, dried ground tangerine peel. After frying, the dumpling is dipped in hot sugar syrup and rolled in grated coconut.
It is a sweet from the Cape Malay, or Cape Muslim, cuisine, created in Cape Town by descendants of people enslaved and brought from Asia and Africa by the Dutch East India Company. It should not be confused with the koeksister of Afrikaner tradition, a braided crisp pastry soaked in cold syrup and very sweet.
Koe'sister is the Sunday breakfast. In many families, women prepare the dough on Saturday, fry early on Sunday, and children deliver orders to neighbors so the household can eat the dumplings with tea or coffee first thing in the morning. Selling homemade koe'sisters helped many families supplement their income. In Bo-Kaap and other neighborhoods, people sell the dumplings at their doorsteps and in small shops.
The origin of the name is unknown. The book Bo-Kaap Kitchen, with recipes from the neighborhood cooks, records the explanation that the word might recall the low conversation of the girls who gathered to cook, but this is oral tradition. Since 2019, Cape Town celebrates World Koe'sister Day on the first Sunday of September.
Cape Town , Cabo Ocidental
Sweet of the Cape Malay community of Cape Town, associated with Sunday breakfast in Bo-Kaap and other neighborhoods.
Wheat-flour dough with cinnamon, cardamom, dried ginger, fennel and dried tangerine peel; hot sugar syrup and grated coconut.
Warm, eaten with your hands, accompanied by tea or coffee with milk, at breakfast.
Sunday morning, year-round. Also at family celebrations and, in some households, during Ramadan.
Your questions
The koe'sister, from the Cape Malay tradition, is an oval, soft dumpling spiced with aromatics, dipped in hot syrup and coconut. The koeksister, from Afrikaner tradition, is a braided crisp pastry soaked in cold syrup and very sweet.
At Sunday breakfast, with tea or coffee. In many Cape Town families the dough is made on Saturday and the dumplings are fried early on Sunday.
Cinnamon, cardamom, dried ginger, fennel and, in family recipes, dried ground tangerine peel.
Flavors of South Africa
Stew of mutton or lamb with waterblommetjie flowers, an aquatic plant native to the Western Cape, onion, potato and sorrel. It is a winter dish, made in the short season when the flowers are harvested from the province's lakes and marshes.
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.
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.
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.
