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.
Luella's is a nouvelle BBQ outfit on the north side of Asheville. It is nestled among the trees in a lovely neighborhood. The restaurant has lots of windows for inside seating and plenty of outside seating. Service was courteous and amazingly fast. This is a combination plate with pork and brisket. Both were very moist and tender. For the pork, I tried both the mild and hot vinegar sauces. To my surprise, I preferred the milder one because it didn't assert itself too much. I enjoyed the spicy tomato sauce for my brisket. The hushpuppies were very good. The fried okra was fresh out of the fryer and excellent. The slaw was of the vinegary variety, which I usually enjoy, but this version is heavy on the white stuff and didn't have quite enough variety in tastes for me.

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