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A Cape Malay Cooking Lesson in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Cooking in Cape Town Cape Malay Style – A Cape Malay Cooking Class in Bo-Kaap

Cape Town‘s Bo-Kaap neighbourhood is beloved for its picture-postcard streetscapes with their candy coloured terrace houses, cobblestones and quaint mosques. However, the real attractions for us are the aromas that waft from its kitchens and the chance to do some cooking in Cape Town – Cape Malay style.

The locals of this historic quarter have stuck firmly to their culinary traditions, and while anodyne versions of the signature Cape Malay dishes are available in restaurants in Cape Town, we were determined to sample the spicy sensations the best way possible – doing some cooking in Cape Town, in someone’s home.

We decided to do a Cape Malay Cooking Safari, which includes a visit to Bo-Kaap Museum, a stroll around the charming neighbourhood, and a hands-on Cape Malay cooking class.

Cooking in Cape Town Cape Malay Style – A Cape Malay Cooking Class in Bo-Kaap

Cape Malay History and Culture

We meet our guide Sabelo at Bo-Kaap Museum where he briefs us on Cape Town’s ‘Malay’ history as we wander around the excellent little museum.

Because Cape Town’s indigenous tribes were nomadic herders, hunters and gatherers, the Dutch colonisers imported slaves from the Indonesian archipelago, coastal India, Madagascar, and Mozambique from 1658 until 1807.

The Cape was also a convict station for prisoners from Batavia (present-day Indonesia), many of whom stayed on after their sentences ended. The language the convicts and slaves shared was Malayu, a trading language used from China to Madagascar, which is where the name ‘Cape Malay’ was derived to describe Cape Muslims.

After the British abolished slavery in 1834, most of the freed slaves settled in Bo Kaap area, which became a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood. It’s now home to around a dozen mosques, including the Awal mosque, the city’s first mosque, and the first madrassa.

Many of the former slaves became fishermen, and fish, especially snoek (a local favourite), became an important part of their diet, used mostly in seafood curries.

The Malays were sought after as slaves, and after they were freed as staff, because they had great cooking skills. The kitchen was the centre of the home for the Cape Malays, and the wok, mortar and pestle the utensils that were most used.

Cape Malay Spices and Ingredients

Spices are central to Cape Malay cuisine, and we learn just how important they are when we leave the museum and head across the road to Atlas Trading Spice Shop.

For someone who loves cooking, this shop is a heartening sight as busy workers hurry about filling orders and filling brown paper bags with aromatic spices, scooped from enormous jute bags, and destined for homes and restaurants across Cape Town.

A Cape Malay Cooking Lesson in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Here we play something of a guess-the-spice game, inhaling the spices that Sabelo offers us, guessing their name, and at the same time learning their Indian name. Our time spent in the spice souqs of the Middle East pays off and we do pretty well.

We are reminded that cumin is jeera, dried coriander is dhanya/koljanna, fennel is bariship and so on.

A Cape Malay Cooking Lesson in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

We learn that falooda or Chinagrass is grated and made into a welcome drink, that borrie (turmeric) is used as an antiseptic, and that pea flour is used as a replacement for wheat flour.

A Taste of Colourful Bo-Kaap 

Before we can begin cooking in Cape Town, we take a walking tour around the hilly streets of Bo-Kaap, Sabelo briefing us on the contemporary history of the ‘hood as we admire a kaleidoscope’s worth of colours on the way.

Once a poor neighbourhood, Bo Kaap is on the up. More affluent residents are moving in and gentrification is underway, resulting in higher property prices and higher taxes for everyone.

A Cape Malay Cooking Lesson in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

“The locals fear the flavour of their neighbourhood is changing,” Sabelo tells us, “But they are clinging on.”

We visit Biesmiellah, a shop, butchery and restaurant in one, where we try bollah, a delicious sweet bread, and a potato wadah, a very tasty snack. In the halal butchery next door, we admire the dhania sausages and taste their specialty, silverside, which is slow-cooked for 48 hours.

A Cape Malay Cooking Class

It’s a quick stroll across the road for our cooking lesson at the home of cooking instructor, Faldela Tolker, or Bo Kaap’s Tyra Banks, as she cheekily prefers to be called.

Faldela tells us how she made a living for many years selling food to office workers for their lunches, until she became pregnant. She started teaching Cape Malay cooking five years ago and now lets visitors into her house a few times a week to learn how to make her home-style food.

A Cape Malay Cooking Lesson in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Faldela offers us the welcome drink of falooda that Sabelo had earlier told us about, made from cow’s milk, rose syrup and falooda seeds. It’s a drink the Cape Malays have to break their fast during Ramadan, and it’s delicious, a bit like a drink Lara used to make in Dubai where rose water and syrup was always on our shelves at home.

Introductions over, we finally start cooking in Cape Town, Cape Malay style.

Cape Malay Chilli Bites and Chicken Curry

First up is a snack to munch on while we cook, spicy chilli bites, which we make from chickpea flour, all purpose flour, turmeric, curry power, egg, salt, and – Faldela’s special ingredient – love!

The consistency of the mix shouldn’t be too runny or too thick, she advises. We spoon the mixture into the deep fryer and a minute late they’re done and they’re delicious.

A Cape Malay Cooking Lesson in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Next up, Faldela teaches us how to make roti. Sabelo rolls up his sleeves and joins in, kneading the dough like an expert baker. He tells us it was one of his chores as a kid.

The dough should be shiny and elastic, Faldela advises. The more you kneed, the less rising time you need, she says. It looks tough. I’m glad this is Sabelo’s job!

The Cape Malay chicken curry goes on next – Faldela has already started this one to save time – and a kilo of boneless, skinless chicken breast goes into a pungent curry sauce comprised of chilli, curry leaves, fennel, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and her no-longer secret ingredient of honey to counteract any bitterness.

Learning About Ubuntu

We’re interrupted by a young man who comes to Faldela’s open door asking for some food.

“Not now,” she tells him, “Can’t you see I’m working here?” Every day people come to her door, she says, and every night she cooks extra food for people.

A Cape Malay Cooking Lesson in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

“Because as a Muslim, I can’t refuse them,” Faldela explains. “Some days 30 people might knock on my door. It’s all about ubuntu.”

The African concept of ubuntu, Faldela teaches us, is all about interconnectedness, about being open and available, and about sharing.

Making Cape Malay Sambals and Samosas 

We make a tomato and onion sambal next. This one’s easy. We combine finely chopped tomato and onion, vinegar, black pepper, salt, sugar, chopped fresh coriander, and Faldela’s not so secret ingredient, a little apricot jam.

Once our roti pastry is ready, Faldela cooks the first couple before I take over duties. The smell is wonderful and I manage not to embarrass myself when I flip the bread over.

A Cape Malay Cooking Lesson in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

That done, we make the Cape Malay samosas. I tell Faldela that I’ve never bothered to make samosas because they look too fussy. Besides, in Dubai, if you want samosas you just call the local Indian place and half an hour later the delivery guy is knocking at the door. She gives me her fiercest Tyra Banks look.

After a slow start on my part, pretty soon my pastry folding and filling improve and are good enough to be signed off by Tyra and plunged into hot oil.

Tasting Our Cape Malay Specialties

Sabelo, meantime, has been setting the table and soon we’re sitting down together and eating the delicious feast that we’ve made.

The fresh roti are well worth the trouble and the samosas are the best we’ve ever tasted – and we ate samosas every week for a dozen years in Abu Dhabi and Dubai so trust us, we know our samosas.

A Cape Malay Cooking Lesson in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

We sample the delectable chicken curry that I’ve admittedly had little to do with, but Faldela gives us a packet of her special spice mix that she has used for us to take home, as well as the recipes.

And these are definitely Cape Malay recipes that I’ll be using – even the samosa recipe. And I’ll be sure to add Faldela’s secret ingredient. That thing called love.

Also interested in doing some cooking in Cape Town? Sign up here for a Cape Malay Cooking Lesson through Andulela.

Support our Cambodia Cookbook & Culinary History Book with a donation or monthly pledge on Patreon.

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About Terence Carter

Terence Carter is an editorial food and travel photographer and infrequent travel writer with a love of photographing people, places and plates of food. After living in the Middle East for a dozen years, he settled in South-East Asia a dozen years ago with his wife, travel and food writer and sometime magazine editor Lara Dunston.

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Comments

  1. Sarah Wu says

    November 28, 2010 at 1:01 am

    Great food photo essay. Samosas looks so yummy, makes me want to go out and get some tommorow morning.

  2. Terence Carter says

    November 28, 2010 at 1:19 am

    Thanks Sarah, I hope you can find some as good as those ones!

  3. Tran says

    October 17, 2011 at 4:00 am

    When I make it to Bo-Kaap, I will definitely knock on Faldela’s door and see where ubuntu gets me. Your photo essay reminds me that food is a destination worth taking!

  4. Terence Carter says

    October 18, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    I think she’d like it better if you booked a cooking course ;)

  5. Bronwyn Pirrie says

    May 17, 2012 at 4:07 pm

    Hi, found this online at Twitter. Your photographs are simply stunning. I myself have done this tour and thoroughly recommend it to everyone visiting Cape Town! Thanks for a great journey back to my visit with Faldela!

  6. Annie says

    October 4, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    Great read thanks! How do I contact her to book a course??

  7. Lara Dunston says

    December 16, 2014 at 3:59 pm

    Hi Annie – only just saw this, sorry. Hoping it’s not too late and you’re following the comments. The links are above in the story – in the third paragraph.

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Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check o Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check out our seafood recipe collection, especially if you celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with a fish focused meal in the Southern Italian tradition, transformed by Italian-Americans into the Feast of the Seven Fishes, or like Australians, who celebrate Christmas in the sweltering summer, feast on seafood for Christmas Day lunch, we’ve got lots of easy seafood recipes for you.

Our recipes include a classic prawn cocktail, blini with smoked salmon, a ceviche-style appetiser, and devilled eggs with caviar. We’ve also got recipes for fish soup, seafood pies and pastas, salmon tray bake, and crispy salmon with creamy mashed potatoes.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/seafood-recipes-for-christmas-eve-and-christmas-day-menus/
(Link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas if you’re celebrating!! 

#christmas #christmasfood #seafood #fish #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #grantourismo #grantourismotravels #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you’re still looking for food inspo for Chris If you’re still looking for food inspo for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day meals, my smoked salmon ‘carpaccio’ recipe is one of dozens of recipes in this compilation of our best Christmas recipes (link below). 

The Christmas recipe compilation includes collections of our best Christmas breakfast recipes, best Christmas brunch recipes, best Christmas starter recipes, best Christmas cocktails, best Christmas dessert recipes, and homemade edible Christmas gifts and more.

My smoked salmon carpaccio recipe makes an easy elegant appetiser that’s made in minutes. If you’re having guests over, you can make the dish ahead by assembling the salmon, capers and pickled onions, and refrigerate it, then pour on the dressing just before serving. 

Provide toasted baguette slices and bowls of additional capers, pickles and dressing, so guests can customise their carpaccio. And open the bubbly!

You’ll find that recipe and many more Christmas recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/best-christmas-recipes/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas!! X

#christmas #christmasfood #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #salmon #smokedsalmon #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels 
#xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I sh If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I shared a collection of recipes for homemade edible Christmas gifts — for condiments, hot sauces, chilli oils, a whole array of pickles, spice blends, chilli salt, furakake seasoning, and spicy snacks, such as our Cambodian and Vietnamese roasted peanuts. 

I love giving homemade edibles as gifts as much as I love receiving them. Who wouldn’t appreciate jars filled with their favourite chilli oils, hot sauces, piquant pickles, and spicy peanuts that loved-ones have taken the time to make? 

Aside from the gesture and affordability of gifting homemade edibles, you’re minimising waste. You can use recycled jars or if buying new mason jars or clip-top Kilner jars, you know they’ll get repurposed.

No need for wrapping, just attach some Christmas baubles or tinsel to the lid. I used squares of Cambodian kramas (cotton scarves), which can be repurposed as napkins or drink coasters, and tied a ribbon or two around the lids, and attached last year’s Christmas tree decorations to some.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/homemade-edible-christmas-gifts/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Yes, that’s Pepper... every time there’s a camera around... 

#christmasgiftideas #ediblegifts ##christmasfoodgifts #foodgifts #giftideas #homemadegifts #christmasfood #ediblegiftideas #hotsauce #chillisauce #sriracha #pickles #homemadepickles #recipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood 
#blackcat #blackcatsofinstagram #picoftheday 
#christmas #christmastree #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas #cambodia #siemreap
This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’ This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’s perfect if you’re just back from the fish markets armed with luxurious fresh crab meat. It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, and very, very moreish.

Our crab omelette recipe was one of our 22 most popular egg recipes of 2022 on our website Grantourismo and it’s no surprise. It’s appeared more times than any other egg recipes on our annual round-ups of most popular recipes since Terence launched Weekend Eggs when we launched Grantourismo in 2010.

If you’re an eggs lover, do check out the recipe collection. It includes egg recipes from right around the world, from recipes for classic kopitiam eggs from Singapore and Malaysia and egg curries from India and Myanmar to all kinds of egg recipes from Thailand, Japan, Korea, China, Mexico, USA, Australia, UK, and Ireland.

And do browse our Weekend Eggs archives for further eggspiration (sorry). We have hundreds of egg recipes from the 13 year-old series of recipes for quintessential egg dishes from around the world, which we started on our 2010 year-long global grand tour focused on slow, local and experiential travel. 

We’re hoping 2023 will be the year we can finally publish the Weekend Eggs cookbook we’ve talked about for years based on that series. After we can find a publisher for the Cambodia cookbook of course... :( 

Recipe collection here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio):
https://grantourismotravels.com/22-most-popular-egg-recipes-of-2022-from-weekend-eggs/

If you cook the recipe and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either in the comments at the end of the recipe or share a pic with us here.

#recipe #recipes #eggs #eggslover #breakfasteggs #WeekendEggs #egg #breakfast #brunch #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #lookingforapublisher #writingacookbook  #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angko I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angkor Archaeological Park, home to stupendous Angkor Wat, pictured, celebrated 30 years of its UNESCO World Heritage listing. 

That’s as good an excuse as any to put this magnificent, sprawling archaeological site on your travel list this year.

While riverside Siem Reap, your base for exploring Angkor is bustling once more, there are still nowhere near the visitors of the last busy high season months of December-January 2018-2019 when there were 290,000 visitors. 

Last month there were just 55,000 visitors and December feels a little quieter. A tour guide friend said there were about 150 people at Angkor Wat for sunrise a few days ago.

If you’re looking for tips to visiting Angkor, Siem Reap and Cambodia, just ask us a question in the comments below or check Grantourismo as we’ve got loads of info on our site. Click through to the link in the bio and explore our Cambodia guide or search for ‘Angkor’. 

And please do let us know if you’re coming to Siem Reap. We’d love to see you here x

#siemreap #cambodia #asia #travel #instatravel #traveldeeper #slowtravel #localtravel #experientialtravel #exploremore #neverstopexploring #goexplore #igtravel #angkorwat #angkor #temple #temples #angkorwithoutcrowds #unesco #unescoworldheritagesite #unescoworldheritage #archaeology #archaeologicalsite #traveladdict #beautifuldestinations #beautifulplaces #travelgram #wanderlust #picoftheday📷 #grantourismotravels.
Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky, flavourful and succulent chicken thighs that are fantastic with steamed rice, Chinese greens or a salad, such as a Southeast Asian slaw. 

The chicken can be marinated for up to 24 hours before cooking, which ensures it’s packed with flavour, then it can be cooked on a barbecue or in a pan.

Terence’s soy ginger chicken recipe is one of our favourite recipes for a quick and easy meal. I love the sound of the sizzling thighs in the pan, and the warming aromas wafting through the apartment. 

It’s amazing how such flavourful juicy chicken thighs come from such a quick and easy recipe.

Recipe here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio): https://grantourismotravels.com/soy-ginger-chicken-recipe/

If you cook it and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either here or in the comments at the end of the recipe on the site or share a pic with us x 

#recipe #recipes #chicken #soygingerchicken #asianfood #southeastasianfood #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #cookingtime #recipe #recipes #comfortfood #foodblog #food #foodstagram #healthyfood #instafood #healthy #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re mak Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re making with my market haul from Psar Samaki in Siem Reap — all for a whopping 10,000 riel (US$2.50)?! 

Birds-eye chillies thrown in for free! They were on my list but the seller I spent most at (5,000 riel!) scooped up a handful and slipped them into my bag. She was my last stop and knew what I was making.

My Khmer is poor, even after all our years in Cambodia, as I don’t learn languages with the ease I did in my 20s, plus I’m mentally exhausted after researching and writing all day. I have a better vocabulary of Old and Middle Khmer than modern Khmer from studying the ancient inscriptions for the Cambodian culinary history component of our cookbook I’m writing.

So when one seller totalled my purchases I thought she said 5,000 riel but she handed back 4,500 riel! The sum total of two huge bunches of herbs and kaffir lime leaves was 500 riel.

Tip: if visiting Siem Reap, use Khmer riel for local shopping. We’ve mainly used riel since the pandemic started— rarely use US$ now as market sellers quote prices in riels, as do local shops and bakeries, and I tip tuk tuk drivers in riels. I find prices quoted in riels are lower.

Psar Samaki is cheaper than Psar Leu, which is cheaper than Psar Chas, as it’s a wholesale market, which means the produce is fresher. I see veggies arriving, piled high in the back of vehicles, with dirt still on them — as I did on this trip. 

The scent of a mountain of incredibly aromatic pineapples offloaded from the back of a dusty ute was so heady they smelt like they’d just been cut. More exotic European style veggies arrive by big trucks in boxes labelled in Vietnamese (from Dalat) and Mandarin (from China), such as beautiful snow-white cauliflower I spotted.

Note: the freshest produce is sold on the dirt road at the back of the market.

#cambodia #siemreap #foodwriter #foodblogger #foodphotography #igfood #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #instadaily #picoftheday #market #siemreapmarket #psarsamaki #marketfresh #vegetables #healthyfood #marketshopping #traveltips #foodtravel #culinarytravel #localtravel #cooking #cookingtime #curry #homemade #currypaste #grantourismotravels
My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recip My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recipe makes tender meatballs doused in a delightfully tangy-sweet sauce, sprinkled with crispy fried shallots, with carrot-daikon, crunchy cucumber and fragrant herbs. 

The dish is inspired by bún chả, a Hanoi specialty, but it’s not bún chả. No matter what Google or food bloggers tell you. Names are important, especially when cooking and writing about cuisines not our own.

This is an authentic bún chả recipe:  https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-bun-cha-recipe/ You’ll need to get the outdoor BBQ/grill going to do proper smoky bún chả meat patties (not meatballs).

My meatball noodle bowl is perhaps more closely related to dishes such as a Central Vietnam cousin bún thịt nướng (pork skewers on rice noodles in a bowl) and a Southern relation bún bò Nam Bộ (beef atop rice noodles, sprinkled with fried shallots (Nam Bộ=Southern Vietnam) though neither include meatballs. 

Xíu mại= meatballs although they’re different in flavour to mine, which taste more like bún chả patties. Xíu mại remind me of Southern Italian meatballs in tomato sauce.

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, home to millions of Khmer, there’s bánh tằm xíu mại. Bánh tằm=silk worm noodles. They’re topped with meatballs, cucumber, daikon, carrot, fresh herbs, crispy fried onions. Difference: cold noodles doused in a sauce of coconut cream and fish sauce. 

Remove the meatballs, add chopped fried spring rolls and it’s Cambodia’s banh sung, which is a rice noodle salad similar to Vietnam’s bún chả giò :) 

Recipe here: (link in bio) https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-meatballs-and-rice-noodles-recipe/

For more on these culinary connections you’ll have to wait for our Cambodian cookbook and culinary history. In a hurry to know? Come support the project on Patreon. (link in bio)

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It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour matches the furnishings of our rented apartment. So, no, I did not colour-coordinate the interiors to match our cat’s eyes. 

I keep getting DMs from pet clothing brands wanting to “partner” with Pepper and send her free cat clothes and cat accessories. Although she did wear a kerchief for a few years in her more adventurous fashion-forward teenage years, I cannot see this cat in clothes now, can you? 

#pepper #blackcat #blackcats #blackcatsofinstagram #blackcatsrule #blackcatsmatter #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #catlover #catlovers #catlove #catoftheday #catphoto #catpic #catpics #cambodiancat #cambodiancatsofinstagram #catlife #catloversclub #catoftheday #catgram #catstagram #cats_of_instagram #catphotography #catsofig #catsoftheworld #catsofinsta #cats🐱 #siemreap #cambodia

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