Guest Blog: Cape Town: Afrika Bites

My friend Shuvra contributes this guest blog from Cape Town where we both attended the same conference.

Afrika Bites at Victoria Waterfront. Victoria Waterfront in Cape Town contains a large food court and market called V&A Food Market. The multi-story building is filled with stalls providing inexpensive but very nice snacks, and meals of many varieties (African varieties, Thai, Hungarian, and various others). On my last day on this visit to Cape Town, I had lunch from one of these stalls, called Afrika Bites. Afrika Bites serves South African style dishes, including wraps, burgers, and stews. I chose the beef stew with "pap" balls. Pap is a "is a traditional porridge/polenta made from mielie-meal (coarsely ground maize) and a staple food of the Bantu peoples of Southern Africa" (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugali on 10/25/2018). The dish contained a very generous serving of beef, and was very tasty. The staff patiently introduced me to the various options available when I was trying to figure out what to order. The cost was 80 South African rand (a little under $USD 6) --- 55 for the stew and 25 for the pap balls.

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Eating Around Georgia Tech: Ecco

Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course)

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Cava is a DC area chain with light Mediterranean food. Saibal encouraged me to try lunch at their airport location and I was very happy with the experience. I ordered falafel on SuperSalad with assorted other toppings. The falafel was tasty. The SuperSalad was light, flavorful, and very easy to eat. Overall, a healthy and enjoyable lunch, something you can't always say about airport eating.

Atlanta etc.: Marilyn Wolf's Food Blog and Restaurant Blog

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