A local food-lover, Faldela Tolker, will be waiting to greet you on the doorstep of her neat, lilac-colored house. She’ll welcome you into her kitchen where a large metal pot simmers on the stove, emitting a spicy aroma.

Chef Faldela conducts cooking classes in her home in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town. The food cooked in this predominantly Muslin area is as piquant as the hot pink and burnt-orange painted houses that rise gently up the lower slopes of Signal Hill, part of Table Mountain.

Unique to the Western Cape of South Africa, Cape Malay cuisine fuses African tradition with that of Malaysian and Indonesian slaves, brought over by the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries. A blend of spices — ginger, fennel, star aniseed, tamarind, and, most importantly, turmeric — gives the food a distinct aromatic quality. Stews, roasts, and sauce-heavy curries are popular in Malay cuisine, as are meat patties, milk, and bread puddings.