What is South African culture and how do you even describe it? It’s difficult – is it not? – to attempt an answer at this question, when it’s posed by an outsider. Perhaps it’s even more daunting a task to try and show ‘South Africa’ to a traveller from elsewhere. This is, after all, a country with many faces, many voices, and great complexities; especially, in a time of trendy hipster mania, the deconstruction of single narratives and the ever fluid socio cultural tableau of Cape Town Tourism.

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Given this backdrop, there might not be a more fitting time for the arrival of Sense SA; an experience which does not attempt to give a single answer, or a single version, of the South African story. No, it is more like a complex tapestry; exposing the many shades of food and culture here and blending it into an intimate night out.

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It seems ever tempting for modern chefs to recreate traditional foods in such a way that the cuisine is unrecognizable from its original form. However, somehow at this innovative event, the core of hearty South African meals, combined with the stories of their origin, was conserved; while also succeeding in creating great excitement and what seems to this layman to be five star foods.

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The music, comedy and art that went along with the evening tugged at sensitive heartstrings, and at times summoned bellowed laughter; and yet at other times, drew the mind into contemplative pondering.

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Yes indeed; Sense SA left me sensing… and now I just want to go back and do it all over again.