Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA – At Youth Journalism International’s Global Conference this year, food became one of the ways we connected most deeply together.
With students and organizers having different dietary needs, including vegetarian, halal and gluten free, our meals in Cape Town were carefully and thoughtfully planned.
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We ate a wide range of traditional dishes from across the African diaspora, always bearing everyone’s needs in mind. On days spent writing at home, some of our friends cooked original meals for the entire house, primarily drawing on their favorite dishes from their own countries.
One of our favorite places we visited was a Malay restaurant called Bo Kaap Kombuis, which was lovely. The meal was served buffet-style, and we sampled roti bread, butter chicken curry and a butter bean dish.
We ate so many delicious starters, including samosas, a beef dish and a potato-based dish with apricot sauce. The variety of the food reflected the broad cultural diversity of Bo-Kaap with plates from Dutch, German and traditional South African dishes.
One thing that surprised us was that the cream soda (Gemma’s soft drink of choice) was a bright green color, while it is usually clear in the UK. It made for an interesting change. We were lucky that the owners Yusuf Larney and his wife, Nazli Larney, who is also the chef, came out to speak with us about the history of Bo-Kaap, which made the experience feel even more special.
The restaurant was filled with family photos lining the walls and many connections to District Six, including links between the owner’s family and the significant South African writer Richard Rive.
The atmosphere added to the homey feeling of the restaurant with a beautiful view of the mountain behind us.
Our favorite dessert was a scrumptious cinnamon-flavored sago pudding paired with a creamy custard – some of us couldn’t get enough and went for seconds! This family-run restaurant fueled by the diverse history of Bo-Kaap felt like the perfect introduction to Cape Town.
Many of us also had our first Ethiopian food experience at a restaurant called Addis in Cape.
It was a truly communal meal, as we shared traditional handmade Ethiopian bread called injera. The bread is used to eat a variety of shared sauces and stews. We sat on stools around one large platter, and before eating, our hands were washed with warm, scented water, as the meal is eaten without cutlery.
We tried both a lighter, rice-based injera and the original darker injera, which was more bitter but still delicious. The injera was laid flat on beautifully crafted traditional ornament plates and topped with a variety of fillings including pumpkin, beef, chicken, lentils, tomato salad and a spicy brown sauce.
The bread itself was soft and succulent, and we devoured the meal together.
One of the organizers tried a traditional coffee that came with frankincense on the side, representing the spiritual and communal aspects of Ethiopian coffee drinking, similar to practices in church.
The venue was beautiful, filled with colors and embroidered umbrellas covering the ceiling. Paired with the wide array of colors from the food we ate, it made the experience even more joyful.
The food was well seasoned and plentiful, and the shared experience made it even more memorable.
Back at home, our fellow student Lina Marie Schulenkorf, from Dresden, Germany, made Saxonian Linsensuppe, a lentil soup she grew up eating as a staple in German schools. It included lentils, potatoes, carrots, leeks, and stock, with balsamic vinegar and sugar added at the end.
The soup had a tangy flavor, tasted very healthy, and was so popular that some of us had it again for lunch the next day. Lina even made a video to accompany the meal of what it’s like to make the dish so we could try and replicate it in our own homes!
Food also became a way of teaching and sharing skills. Ahmed Elkamisy, a fellow reporter from Egypt, taught Anjola from London how to make an American grilled cheese sandwich, which Anjola enjoyed so much she immediately wanted another one!
Moments like this reminded us that we all carry knowledge of different meals with us, and that even the most unlikely recipes can be learned from each other through simple, shared time in the kitchen.
Even while far from home, we still found ways to celebrate and honor our backgrounds.
On Madagascar’s Independence Day, YJI student Tahiry Andrianotahiana from Andrainjato, Madagascar and her host sister Peace Corps volunteer Vanessa Paolella, cooked a celebratory Malagasy meal for us.
The dish included chicken, peas, carrots, beans, rice, and a fresh salad made with carrot, green pepper, tomato, onion and ginger. The chicken was soft with a gentle tang from the ginger, which balanced well with the vegetables. With so many components on the plate, each mouthful brought different flavors and textures, all soft and comforting, but distinct.
We had a grand time at the iconic GOLD restaurant in Cape Town featuring a lengthy but exquisite 14-course meal. The dinner included a mouth-watering tomato soup, Xhosa cornbread, pilau rice, beetroot cake with sweet sauce and fruit salad. Our fellow student Shiara Naveen from the Boston area, also wrote about the food there.
The dishes made some of us full quite quickly, but the variety made the meal feel abundant and celebratory, particularly as it was accompanied by live music, singing, dancing and other performances. By the end of the evening, we were all up on stage dancing!
Later in the week, we had our first braai, a traditional South African barbecue, hosted by South African YJI student Akhona Alwar and Angela Puchert, one of the adults helping out. The garlic bread was extremely buttery and delicious, and we also enjoyed minty sausages, chicken skewers, pap with Nando’s sauce, and a cold pasta salad with ingredients like peach and celery.
It was relaxed, filling, and full of flavor. Something about eating homemade food together in our house gave a family-like feeling that you just can’t replicate in a restaurant.
Sharing meals in Cape Town brought us closer together.
For some, these were foods they were tasting for the first time. For others, it was the joy of sharing beloved dishes with friends and remembering why they loved them in the first place.
It couldn’t be clearer that the fuel powering us through the conference was an essential part of the journey and experience of not just Cape Town, but a global conference! Yum, yum, yum!
Anjola Fashawe is a Senior Correspondent with Youth Journalism International from London. Gemma Christie is a Correspondent with Youth Journalism International from Cheshire, England. Together they ate their way through the 2025 Global Conference and wrote this piece together, but somehow omitted the part about Anjola’s love of breakfast muffins from Woolies.
Akhona Alwar is a Senior Illustrator and Junior Reporter with Youth Journalism International from South Africa. She contributed a photo to this article, and helped everyone better understand South African cuisine.
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