The Old Biscuit Mill

“You’re coming. We talked about this.” – Susan said to the super-confused me.

“Where are we going again?” – I asked.

“Your heaven.” 

Susan did not over-exaggerate. Despite how stress I was about my history paper and all my plans about spending my Saturday and Sunday in the library, I would not trade that Saturday trip for anything else.

Early sunshine Saturday morning, we caught a taxibus to the OBM – Old Biscuit Mill. The weather was sunny and bright. It would have been a perfect day without the chilly wind. Old Biscuit Mill is an old little village in the middle of the modern Cape Town. It used to be a … biscuit mill, obviously, and stills maintained most of the architecture it had then: Victorian warehouses and courtyard. It houses some of the coolest antique shops and boutiques in town with local designer goodies. Most importantly, however, is the fact that it also houses the most amazing market in town – The Neighbourgood Market. Besides the fact that this market has won several awards for its charm (nothing special at all), it consists of many many many specialty traders all over the place, ranging from local farmers, organic merchants, bakers, grocers, butchers, chefs, and … I ran out of vocabulary.  Hence, the amazing food.  

 As far as I have heard, there have always been some types of food and wine festival that take places here. To name a few: I <3 Coffee, Spring Fling, We <3 Real Beer, Wine and Chocolate, etc. (Check out more [professional] pictures of the OBM here)

Enough with the information, let’s get to the real stuff. I liked the place immediately, the moment I saw those adorable straw-sacks, arranged as chairs around little white wooden tables. The atmosphere was extremely brunch-ish. You know, those weekend mornings when you wake up, and have no concerns in mind but what type of toppings you should put on your waffles that would go perfectly with your latte. It’s one of those “you gotta wake-up slow” mornings in Jack Johnson’s “Banana Pancakes”. I forgot about all the time-slots I have carefully planned on my calendar, all at once, and just wanted to stay here all day, enjoying the weather and the atmosphere, even if I have to be hungry. 

Indeed, I was hungry. Susan has told me before hand to save my appetite for the best stuff. Once stepped inside the Victorian-style warehouse and I was exactly where Susan told me I would be, my heaven. Surrounded me luscious smell and delightful sight of all types of food. Orgasms in all senses, I’m telling you.

Susan, Carimah and I took a walk around all the stands and enjoyed ourselves tasting samples (amen for samples). Warm bread, macaroons, red-velvet cakes, tomato paste, cream cheese, honey, apple spice jam, and the list goes on. After an hour or so of exploring, we decided it was time to get us some real food, on courtesy of the hung-over Spencer too. We moved to the section of the market where they serve all different types of food that you could think of:  bagels, crepes, waffles, sushi, seafood, omelets, Italian pizza, Thai curry, Greek dishes, etc. We kept walking around, unable to make a decision of what we wanted. 

After fighting my desires and walking away from the crepes and pancakes stands, I settled in a long line (or queue, as they called it here), patiently waiting for my poached egg served with smoked salmon and hash brown, topped with home-made creamy mayonnaise sauce. Spencer got herself a sandwich bagel, with homemade ham and tomato basil. We were waited in line when a European guy, in his 20s, behind us started making conversation. It turned out that he was currently going to culinary school, just got an interview at a nearby restaurant, and stopped by for a quick lunch. It was interesting to hear his stories from Europe, travelled to all difference places and decided to settle in South Africa. Apparently, I had picked the place with the best and most diverse food in the world, according to him at least. Ambitious people are so inspiring. 

After finishing the most satisfying brunch ever, Carimah and I went on to our next mission: the dessert. We settled with macaroons, red velvet cake, chocolate cupcake, and each of us a yogurt parfait. The guy who sold the yogurt and smoothie was the most outgoing person. It was incredibly fun talking to him, and he let us try all the smoothie flavours too. We indulged ourselves in the sweetness of life, accompanied by a live band playing the best type of music – Frank Sinatra <3 Nothing can be better than enjoying a cupcake, a cup of coffee and listen to Frank Sinatra on saxophone? I felt like I had no worries in the world. Especially when I just paid about $15 for no worries in the world that definitely emptied my brain and filled my stomach. Although I did have someone in mind I wanted to share this experience with. He'd have loved it, and made it feel all the way better for me.

Without doubts, we left OBM, with happy stomachs and sugar-high brains. I also brought home with me raw dark chocolate for my chocolate pudding, another mission that I should accomplish soon. 

After spending the entire afternoon in the library and being productive, Spencer and I decided to hit Coco WahWah, a café down the street from where we lived, with an attempt to keep on fighting with the brutal history paper. It seemed like in order to win the fight, we needed all the energy in the world. Buried my head in books while typing away ideas on the computer indulged myself in a cup of tasty tomato and basil with crispy brown bread, and a cup of espresso. People who looked at us through the glass window must have thought we were crazy, spending our Saturday’s night away in homework. We awarded ourselves with a supersize, fresh and warm chocolate cookie and a three hour long Audrey Hepburn movie. 

That’s pretty much the highlight of my weekend. I spent all Sunday on campus, pulling my hair and hitting my head on the table, painfully making my way through the history paper. It was such a frustrating assignment that all four of us, Sarah, Monica, Spencer and I, went crazy. Thanks God for Wesley who decided to stop by that evening and baked chocolate muffins, or I would have thrown myself out the window. Ok, that was a little bit dramatic, but the muffins did help. 

After turning that stupid paper in, I’m now all free, having nothing to do but to chill and count down the days until I get to go on the exciting trip to the big 5 safaris in Africa. Given that the weather has been moderately nice, I checked out several novels from the library, and just spend my afternoons reading away. 

I should catch up on my blog though. There is a long list of ideas for entries that I have had in mind for a while. . 

[az]

[I'm having much problems naming this entry since apparently last weekend I had was also filled with desserts too. Me and desserts =.=]