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The Taste of Africa food tour kick-starts at the heritage property Windybrow Art Centre (Honest Travel Experience’s office) in Doornfontein. We recommend taking an Uber or Bolt as the area can be overwhelming to drive around. Alternatively, Honest Travel can also organise to pick you up for extra cost. From Windybrow it was then onto the Honest Travel minibus to jet off for the experience.
The first stop on the tour is the top of the Doornfontein Ridge. Looking out over the City Centre and east Joburg, our guide outlined a brief history of the area, how it has changed and explained the boundaries of the different neighbourhoods, which almost all seem to get confused as 'Hillbrow'. Explaining the area's unique cultural mix, the guide also emphasised the social and cultural cohesion aspects of this tour. Honest Travel's intention is to show that despite the multitude of ethnicities who live here, the traditional foods these communities eat share a lot of similarities.
From here it was onto Yeoville to start our food odyssey. Our first destination was an Ethiopian restaurant, Bersu Fekad, where we enjoyed a delicious Ethiopian meal. Of everything we ate this meal stood out for catering most closely to both vegetarians and meat lovers. Standouts were the Ethiopian pap, 'injera', a fluffy and light sour flatbread made of maize meal and goat cheese, which came with spinach, cabbage, potatoes and well-seasoned mutton stew, beef or mince.
The second stop is a Southern Africa destination, Ekhaya Restaurant, right next door which presents visitors the opportunity to experience South African dishes alongside great music and a vibe. Unlike at Bersu Ekad the food here caters more for meat lovers. We enjoyed beef stew and the typical 'seven colours' of veggies on the side.
Next up was a Ghanaian inspired restaurant, African Corner, which also served a variety of South African and Nigerian dishes. From the Ghanian menu we enjoyed the famous Jollof rice with chicken or beef on the side, Banku (a uniquely prepared Ghanaian pap) with Okra stew and Waakye, a rice and beans dish, all chased down with predominantly Ghanaian beats on the stereo.
Winding up the tour we ended our evening at a Cameroonian restaurant and bar, La Cameroonaise. On the plate was delicious grilled fish (poisson braise) served with deep-fried potato fries and a variety of condiments. The restaurant is dominated by middle-aged men (many of them shaking their thing to the strictly West African music on the dance floor) and the only women around seemed to be the cooks! This final meal was a small and simple taster to end the tour and of course there was also the opportunity to join the gents on the dancefloor and show off some moves before hopping back in the bus to the Windybrow.
TOUR COSTS AND HOW TO BOOK:
The Taste of Africa tour takes place every Friday and Sunday and last around four hours. The tour costs R460 per person, you must pay for your own drinks during the tour (all food is included). Tours include four to five food stops and venues change regularly. Find out more and book your tour online here.
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