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Cape Town's foodie scene gets full marks from Sarah Marshall

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The sight ahead of me is daunting. Trickier to tackle than mighty Table Mountain - and equally as iconic - it's beyond anything I can handle alone.

But the mammoth submarine sandwich sitting on my plate is easy work for hungry Capetonians.

Borrowing its name from F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, The Gatsby was invented in the mid-1970s when a fish and chip shop owner in the Cape Flats (an area where many townships developed) created a sandwich of leftovers to feed his workers.

Beyond being a budget feast - often feeding multiple mouths - the sandwich has a cultural significance. It represents the resourcefulness and community spirit of Cape Town's working-class neighbourhoods during apartheid.

Stuffed with chips, meat, gherkins and a rainbow array of unhealthy sauces, it's a monster of a meal. Costing half the price of a fancy coffee in British cities, it's also incredibly cheap.

At the time of my visit, the exchange rate sits at approximately 24 South African rand to the pound, but rates have been consistently good for some time.