Hake and slap chips is a signature dish of South Africa; we have verified places to eat it in Cape Town. Deep-fried hake with soft vinegar-soaked chips, wrapped in paper and eaten standing up at a harbour counter. Start with where to eat Hake and slap chips in Cape Town.

Hake and slap chips · Cape Town

Deep-fried hake with soft vinegar-soaked chips, wrapped in paper and eaten standing up at a harbour counter. Snoek replaces the hake when the boats are in and the price is right.

Cape Town's fish and chip counter is a Greek and Portuguese inheritance, built through the twentieth century by families who ran the city's milk bars and fish shops, which is why a Cape Town fish shop still sells calamari beside the chips. Slap, from the Afrikaans for limp, is the point: the chips are fried once, kept soft and doused in white vinegar, not crisped. Hake is the everyday fish because the Cape trawl fishery lands it year round, while snoek and yellowtail are seasonal. Kalk Bay and Hout Bay harbours sell it a few metres from where the boats tie up.

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