Reminiscent Meals - 12/29/12

Coco Wah Wah!

GABBY - We woke up at a relatively early hour and set off to start our day.  Our first stop was to the post office to relieve Ben of a hefty package.  We both put some presents, clothes, and books that we acquired during our time in South Africa in the big box.  It should get to the Ramseyer household in a month or two – just hope it gets there at some point.  After the post office, we headed to Rondebosch for a reminiscent meal.  I have talked up tramazzinis with Ben ever since we arrived in South Africa.  We have tried different ones along the way, but none have measured up to that of Coco Wah Wah.  We sat down at an outside table, one that I frequently visited during my semester studying abroad.  Coco Wah Wah is a popular place for students studying abroad because it’s an internet café that serves delicious food in large quantities for a relatively cheap price.  I got my “usual” tramazinni, a foccacia bread sandwich filled with mozzarella cheese, feta, sundried tomatoes and spinach.  Ben tried an avocado, bacon, mozzarella and feta tramazzini.  Both were served with potato wedges and left us feeling full and satisfied.  I’m convinced that they serve the best tramazzinis in the world.  After our brunch, we headed farther outside of Cape Town to Claremont.  We were going to spend a little time in the Claremont Cavendish mall.  We were also hoping to get to see a movie in the mall’s movie theater.  We hopped in a mini bus and headed to Claremont.  I was a bit out of touch with my Cape Townian self and completely passed the mall.  We ended up going all the way to the end of the line, which forced us to jump in another mini bus back towards Cape Town.  I was frustrated with my lack of knowledge, but I guess I’m just a little rusty on the mini bus routes after 2 years.  We eventually made it to the mall.  We bolted to the theater to see what our options were.  The Hobbit, Cloud Atlas, Les Miserables, and Skyfall were our top 4 movies of choice that we wanted to see.  The Hobbit and Skyfall were the only two in the theaters.  Ben wanted to see both, so I made the decision and went with The Hobbit.  We sort of lost ourselves for a bit in the theater, as we thought we could be anywhere.  It’s not like there are signs saying you’re in South Africa, the theater was a normal movie theater that could have easily been in Pennsylvania or New Jersey.  It was sort of comforting watching the movie because it’s one of our favorite things to do in the States together.  After The Hobbit, which was awesome and short lived seeing as it was only Part 1, we shopped around the mall for a little bit.  We wanted to catch a mini bus before night time, so we jumped in and took it all the way to the mini bus station, which is also the bus terminal.  I told Ben that I thought it was possible for us to walk back to our backpackers from where we were.  We walked through some pretty sketchy alleys before coming across the Company Gardens.  It was a good 30 minute walk, but we made it back to Ashanti Lodge, no problem.  We Skyped with our families for a bit, which was great.  Ben was able to talk to his family during their family Christmas, which meant he was passed around so that everyone could get a word in.  His Aunt Laurie was recently married to a wonderfully caring man named Jim, so it was nice for Ben to be able to give our congratulations.  While Ben was Skyping, I was trying (and failing) to get in touch with Corinne, our friend and co-volunteer from Orange Elephant in Addo.  I told her to meet us at Addis, an Ethiopian restaurant on Long Street if she got my Facebook message.  Later on, we left Ashanti to go grab some food at Addis and potentially meet up with Corinne.  Both Ben and I were psyched about going to this particular restaurant – 1 because it serves incredibly delicious, mouth watering Ethiopian food and 2 – because it was the first dinner I took Ben and Joel (Ben’s dad) to when they came to visit me 2 years ago.  We sat down in the small, low to the ground, wooden chairs and pondered what to order.  A bottle of wine was first on our list, for sure.  Then we went with a number of items consisting of lentils, chicken, lamb, chickpeas, beans, and prawns.  

Ethiopian date night with a lovely date...

Ethiopian is the best kind of food out there because you eat everything with your hands!  You are seated really low to the ground and close to the table.  Then, they give you large piece of spongy bread that covers the circumference of the table.  When the food is ready, they pour out the different dishes on that spongy bread (I don’t know the name, Joel would know).  Along with that food, you are served with rolls of that same spongy bread (looks like rolls of toilet paper) that you tear off and scoop up the different food with.  Everything tastes so fresh and I swear the food tastes better because the experience is so unique and you’re eating with your hands.  Ben and I enjoyed an incredible meal fused with animated conversation.  We ended up walking out of there 3 hours later sans Corinne.  Somehow we would need to meet up with her, but it wasn’t going to be today.