tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43542023975250806802024-03-06T04:29:17.849+02:00Durban Deglazedscraping off the good bits since 2013Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-47950982902566177462015-10-29T20:46:00.001+02:002015-10-29T20:46:31.237+02:00Burger Fest 2<div class="MsoNormal">
Last night I checked out the ‘Burger Fest 2’ held at The
Plant in Station Drive (where the Morning Trade is held every Sunday). As the
name suggests, this was the second incarnation of the event. The first one was
so popular that it was either a huge success or failure depending on whether
you arrived early or late – by 6.30pm there was nowhere to park, and people
queued for 20 minutes just to get inside. (I was one of those who arrived, saw
the queues and left).<o:p></o:p></div>
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In an effort to address the crowding issues, Burger Fest 2
was promised to be much better controlled, with only 500 tickets for sale, and
presales preferred. The cheapest ticket was R90 which included vouchers for a
burger, a side and a dessert – great value! There was also an option to pay
R175 for a ticket with three burger vouchers, a side and a dessert. Not a lot
of point in this one, seeing as some burgers were only R35 (you do the maths).<o:p></o:p></div>
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My first thought on walking in, was that there were not very
many stands –only five selling burgers and sides, one or two selling sides only,
one beer stand, and two dessert stations. Having said that, the options were
all really enticing, and I ended up having to buy an extra ticket or two to
taste everything that I wanted to.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Somewhat surprisingly, only two of the five burger joints were
offering traditional beef burgers with chicken burgers, sausage meat and two
vegetarian options rounding out the choices.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEywXQOdq8ymimUf04M_E8EL3dwoK1P8rlhPdBdeJ1nKomDU36Yjun15Rq1fWQzfyZOu0UVV2T_aAih2FDa1kmgoT71wc30hUWfqzBXnMXnq_FiPKqhXayYU5MR5HtlboFo_9UTTLaEjE3/s1600/IMG_7255.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEywXQOdq8ymimUf04M_E8EL3dwoK1P8rlhPdBdeJ1nKomDU36Yjun15Rq1fWQzfyZOu0UVV2T_aAih2FDa1kmgoT71wc30hUWfqzBXnMXnq_FiPKqhXayYU5MR5HtlboFo_9UTTLaEjE3/s400/IMG_7255.jpg" width="266" /></a>I couldn’t resist Marco’s Italian sausage burger, which had
a focaccia bun, red pepper relish and an insanely good sausage patty. What
really impressed me though, were how good the veggie options were – I demolished
a Mexican Bean Burger by Out To Lunch (you’ll find them at the I Heart Market
where they sell amazing wraps) which I actually would have imagined was
completely beefy, there was so much umami flavour packed into the patty. Along
with the brilliant bean burger came lashing of rich hummus, spicy guacamole and
some fiery chilli (dried and fresh). The famous Falafel Fundi also pulled out
all the stops, delivering a beautiful falafel burger with plenty of brinjal,
fresh slaw, tomatoes and more creamy hummus. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We used our two tickets for sides for some of the best refried beans I’ve ever tasted (Out To Lunch), and some great root veg crisps. Burgers were washed down courtesy of the delicious beers from Standeaven – despite there being only one beer stand, these guys came to the party with about ten different beers and their famous G&T on tap – the Craft was my favourite on the night, but the Best Black Gold was also excellent, just the right amount of bitter.<br />
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To finish off, two servings of Scoop ice cream in salted caramel, a perfectly sophisticated flavour, perched atop great waffle cones.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Bring on Burger Fest 3!<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-30281513369920078482015-10-26T22:25:00.001+02:002015-10-26T22:25:09.571+02:00Secret Eats RebootedSecret Eats, the 'Underground Dining Experience' is back in Durban, having taken a leave of absence for most of the last year. My first taste of Secret Eats was back in June 2014, when it burst onto the Durban dining scene with a bang, pairing the edgy, urban hangout of the Factory Café by night with the renowned cooking of Marcelle Roberts of Café 1999.<br />
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The concept of pairing an unexpected, out of the ordinary space with a talented chef is a winning one, and pairing it with a heavy emphasis on social media buzz ensured that Durbanites were lining up for elusive tickets to the next event.<br />
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The first event in Durban in many months was announced online with much fanfare, and I was happy to grab two tickets, to see if the kind of magic that had been conjured up in the past could be created again. Secret Eats events are a bit of a lucky-packet leap of faith, as you have to pay upfront without knowing where the event will be hosted, or who the chef will be. Parting with my R1190 (R595 a head) I crossed my fingers, and hoped that the outlay would be worth it.<br />
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On the morning of the event, I received an email revealing the secret location for the event - The Green Door in Glenwood, a flexible events / shared office space converted for the night into our venue (it's next door to the Coffee Tree café).<br />
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Normally at these events, there's a bit of a fuss made about knowing a secret password to gain access. Silly, but sort of fun. This evening fell more on the silly side, as we delivered our line, and then rather than being ushered into a hidden venue, we were instructed to stand awkwardly on the pavement, where a gentle drizzle was drifting down.<br />
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A welcome drink of white wine sangria (peach, strawberries, Ernst & Gouws Sav Blanc, refreshing) was served, and gradually the guests for the night accumulated, up to the final total of around 35 or 40. While we stood on the pavement, sipping sangria and making an effort to feel sophisticated, we nibbled on mouth-sized bites of curry served on a kind of tortilla chip - lamb, cauliflower and chicken versions were served on mirrored trays, all very tasty.<br />
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Moving indoors, two rather sparsely decorated long tables were squeezed into the limited space, and the usual seating dance ensued, as everyone tried to sit next to either the people they came with, or having come on their own (as we did) opposite somebody who looked like they would make good conversation. This is actually one of the highlights of these events, as the chance meetings are almost always interesting and a fun way to meet people you wouldn't normally.<br />
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A card on the table informed us that the theme for the evening was South African flavours, in an unfortunately timed nod to the rugby world cup (minutes earlier, New Zealand had booted us out of the semi-finals). The chef was chef Ros (no surname given) of Olive Twist, a 'Bespoke Catering Company' according to their website.<br />
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The 'Coastal Consommé' starter was a winning effort, served in a tall glass bowl, and looking for all the world like a rock pool on a summer afternoon, complete with plump prawns, slivers of fish, rice-balls and salty broth. Fun to look at and to eat. The paired wine was a rather decent Chardonnay.<br />
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Lacking from the evening, sadly, was any real introduction to the chef, discussion of the food we were about to eat, or information about the paired wines being poured. This kind of fanfare at previous Secret Eats was part of what gave one the impression of being privileged insiders, rather than regular restaurant patrons.<br />
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Too soon after the starters were cleared, mains began to arrive, in fits and starts, with one end of a table being served, while the other waited. Service was not a high point of the evening, and waiters were generally only good for shuttling food from kitchen to table, and had none of the repartee and energy of the more student-y waiters from previous efforts.<br />
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The main course was described as 'a delicious black salt crackling of slow cooked pork, served with a true homage to our wonderful rainbow nation'. The true homage to our wonderful rainbow nation turned out to be steamed tenderstem broccoli, potato bake (the chef would have probably said 'potato gratin' and a lonely asparagus spear). Crackling was sadly noticeable by its absence (there was none on my or my wife's plates) and the dish was only just warm. Sure, the pork belly was soft and tender, but spice was lacking, and the whole dish brought to mind upper middle class weddings, which presumably is where it was first delivered. Buyer's remorse was starting to set in at this point.<br />
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Happily, dessert was more inspired, being a Durban inspired curried pineapple, served on a kind of cocoa/biscuit ground, and served with chocolate truffles and a dollop of ice cream. The tall glass bowls were back out, and we had another round of scooping food out from the bottom, which was quite enjoyable.<br />
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And that, sadly was that - having begun starters at 8, dishes were cleared by 9.30. No coffee was on offer, nor were any drinks available other than the paired Shiraz and Merlot. Not being a big red wine drinker, I returned to the welcoming sangria. An earlier promised charity raffle either failed to materialise, or took place after we hailed our Uber home at around 10.30.<br />
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My unsolicited advice for the continued success of this enterprise? First of all, pick venues with a little more of a wow factor. The Green Door seems like a lovely space, but doesn't exactly take your breath away. Try to work with chefs that enjoy greater name recognition - good food is not all we are looking for, we want a chance to see what our favourite chefs can do outside of their usual kitchen and regular menu. Make sure you employ waiters with a bit of personality. Have drinks other than the paired wines available. Generate a little anticipation for each course, and impress us with detailed descriptions of what we're about to eat. Put on some music, preferably live. Ramp up the number of courses. Keep your plates warm. Make this a secret too good not to share.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-24242194239982136492014-12-21T21:34:00.000+02:002014-12-21T21:34:56.744+02:00El Hombre, Florida Road<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 17.5636348724365px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
El Hombre in Florida Road (next to Spiga). Dropped in for a late lunch today and tried out the burrito and the taco. Ordering is fun, you pick your category (burrito, taco, nachos, etc), then main filling (beef, pork, chicken) and finally select from a variety of toppings, kind of like getting a schwarma.</div>
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Washed it all down with an ice cold Corona, and finished off with the chili chocolate churros - don't skip them, they are moreish! Well worth supporting in my opinion. Tacos/Burritos are about R50 each, churros only R20.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-12786511587628026932014-12-21T21:16:00.002+02:002014-12-21T21:16:54.055+02:00Zak and Tonics Asian Pop-Up<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #28323f; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Zak and Tonic</span> are as ubiquitous in Durban outdoor dining circles as bunny chows or braaivleis. You’ve eaten their silky and elegant crepes at The Morning Trade at 8 Morrison. You’ve devoured their Super Steak Rolls at the I Heart Market, or their fragrant pulled pork buns at the Market in the Square. You’ve seen them at the Wonder Market, you’ve spotted them on rooftop pop ups, and chances are you’ve even been hosted by them at one of Durban’s always popular Secret Eats evenings.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">This was a unique</span> opportunity though to see what they could really do when given free reign over a menu and a kitchen, for two nights only with forty people dropping in for an Asian inspired feast.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The venue</span> was The Foundry at 43 Station Drive – a renovated former clothing factory, and now a creative space that hosts workshops, studios and collaborative offices. For the night though, it had been transformed into a hidden Asian underworld. Two long trestle tables covered in cryptic Chinese newspaper and lined with chairs and benches were dotted with candles, while fairy lights illuminated the room and supported strings of airy origami cranes.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://tastedetectives.co.za/wp-content/uploads/dim-sum.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease, background-color 0.3s ease, border-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2ea2cc; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s ease, background-color 0.3s ease, border-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease;"><img alt="Zack and Tonic pop up restaurant Durban" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-11142" height="200" src="http://tastedetectives.co.za/wp-content/uploads/dim-sum-300x200.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0.35em 1.5em 0.35em 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></a>Welcome drinks</span> were strong and pink, and segued nicely into a cash bar, which was doing a roaring trade in wine, champagne and craft beers. Zak was everywhere, plying the guests with generous tray-fulls of pea and green tea croquettes with kewpie mayo, while waiters handed out painstakingly handmade sago chips with a peanuty Thai dip. The volume levels climbed as the room filled up, and soon we were jostling for places at the tables as a beautiful starter of Tonic’s take on kim chi and prawns was served on folded banana leaves.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://tastedetectives.co.za/wp-content/uploads/steamed-buns1.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease, background-color 0.3s ease, border-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2ea2cc; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s ease, background-color 0.3s ease, border-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease;"><img alt="Zack and Tonic pop up restaurant Durban" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-11145" height="300" src="http://tastedetectives.co.za/wp-content/uploads/steamed-buns1-200x300.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0.35em 0px 0.35em 1.5em; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="200" /></a>For me,</span> though, the magic was really revealed with the dim sum courses. Bamboo baskets of steamed buns (char siu bao) were unveiled, their plump soft roundness just asking to be broken open and enjoyed. Crispy chicken wontons were held aloft on chopstick points, and dunked in sweet dipping sauce before being eaten, and platefuls of dumplings circled the table, at first handed over grudgingly, and then more freely, as the extent of the bounty was revealed, with plate after plate distributed among the diners.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">To be honest,</span> the next course probably wasn’t strictly necessary – as we were already as full as the well-stuffed dim sum we had just demolished. The description of the beef short ribs had us ready for more, though, with cooking times of six to eight hours bandied about, and obscene details revealed about the meat falling off the bones. Let’s just say that you know a rib is tender when you can eat it with your chopsticks.</div>
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<a href="http://tastedetectives.co.za/wp-content/uploads/tables.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease, background-color 0.3s ease, border-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2ea2cc; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s ease, background-color 0.3s ease, border-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease;"><img alt="Zack and Tonic pop up restaurant Durban" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-11146" height="200" src="http://tastedetectives.co.za/wp-content/uploads/tables-300x200.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0.35em 1.5em 0.35em 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Finally,</span> we were presented with coconut flavoured ‘sunscreen’ ice cream topped with some kind of ginger snap, and an old enamel bowl filled with white rabbit candies – what is it with those sweets that makes the rice paper wrapping taste so good as it melts on your tongue?</div>
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<a href="http://tastedetectives.co.za/wp-content/uploads/Zak-and-Tonic-at-work.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease, background-color 0.3s ease, border-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2ea2cc; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s ease, background-color 0.3s ease, border-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease;"><img alt="Zack and Tonic pop up restaurant Durban" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-11148" height="200" src="http://tastedetectives.co.za/wp-content/uploads/Zak-and-Tonic-at-work-300x200.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0.35em 0px 0.35em 1.5em; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></a>Tired, sated, and buzzing with beer and good conversation, we trickled out to the waiting cabs, Uber rides and Good Fellas. There were hardly enough hours left for a good night’s sleep before it would be time for my Saturday morning park run ritual. At least I knew I would be able to pop by Moses Mabhida for a Zak and Tonic steak roll if I needed it.</div>
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Want to know what Zak and Tonic are up to next? Join their mailing list at <a href="mailto:hello@zakandtonic.co.za" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease, background-color 0.3s ease, border-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2ea2cc; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s ease, background-color 0.3s ease, border-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease;">hello@zakandtonic.co.za</a>, find them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter @ZakandTonic.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-31018817552163994622014-09-22T20:54:00.000+02:002014-09-22T20:55:01.124+02:00Secret Eats: Open Plan Studio<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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At the Design Factory's Open Plan Studio in Morningside, four floors above the
empty streets, long wooden tables stretch across a sparsely decorated
industrial space. The tables are strewn with artfully arranged stacks of old
books, ceramics and antique appliances. At each place setting, long rows of
assorted cutlery reflect the candlelight: two knives, a fish knife, three forks
and a spoon. People sit on mismatched chairs - ten to a side and the noise of
animated conversation almost drowns out the background music as bottles of wine
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It’s Friday night, and it’s time for another once off event
hosted in Durban by Secret Eats, the underground dining experience with limited
seats and largely word-of-mouth advertising. The crowd have gathered here for a
unique dining experience, this one catered by Tarnah Blane, a graduate of
Christina Martin and owner of Private Chef Ballito.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Why go to the effort of applying for invitations to attend
pop-up restaurant in out of the way parts of town, or trying to remember the
tongue-in-cheek passwords at the door that are part of the Secret Eats
experience? Part of it is about the food, which is out of the ordinary, different
every time, and follows a set menu format that forces people out of their
comfort zones. Mostly though, I think it’s about the people who attend - the
spontaneous friendships that emerge across the shared tables, and the chance to
discover parts of the city where most of us wouldn’t ordinarily go.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The evening starts well with welcome cocktails and live
music from the talented Phil Moffett, who does strange things to a guitar that
sound pretty amazing (apparently it’s called slap harmonics). The cocktails are
served in retro glass ‘Cooee’ bottles, and involve what feels like large
quantities of gin, rosewater and those hipster-y paper straws. The evening’s
theme is #SouthAmericanFlavours (Secret Eats is big on social media) so we
snack on empanadas dipped in fragrant chimichurri sauce and choripanes
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chorizo sausage and <i>pan</i>, or bread) as
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We move through to the tables which have unreserved seating,
and form naturally into large groups of new found friends. I might be imagining
it, but the one table seems to hold a mostly 30s crowd, while the other table
is favoured by slightly older diners. We’re sitting at the kids table! <o:p></o:p></div>
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For starters we are served ceviche, the unofficial national
dish of Peru - raw fish marinated in citrus juices, and effectively ‘cooked’ by
the acid, leaving it tender and slightly chewy with a delicate flavour that
really reveals the fish – a perfect food for Durban! This one is adventurously
combined with toasted coconut flakes and fried banana fritters. Personally,
bananas are the one food that I refuse to eat, so I simply push the fritter to
one side. The fresh yellowtail, purchased the same morning from the docks is
meltingly tender and simply dressed. The crunchy flakes of coconut add a fun
textural component that really pulls the dish together.</div>
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Next, it’s a second starter sized portion of <i>panqueques con pollo a la crema</i> (chicken
wrapped in a pancake with butter beans, and served with avocado salsa). Pretty
tasty, although it could have been served warmer – a challenge for the chefs at
all of these functions is cooking for a crowd out of what is generally a
makeshift kitchen. Still, the plates are heading back to the kitchen wiped
clean, and we are clamouring for more.</div>
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The main course is shredded venison (blesbok) served atop a
pile of quinoa risotto and chargrilled sweetcorn and decorated with micro
herbs. Quinoa’s gluten-free status and high mineral and protein content have
made it a trendy superfood, but as well as being good for you it’s also really
delicious, and (we discover) goes fantastically with blesbok. Cell phones and
cameras are hovering over dishes before they are devoured, as each course is
sent out via Twitter and Instagram to those unfortunate enough to have missed
out on tickets.</div>
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Two of the guests are celebrating their birthdays, and there
is an impromptu performance of unaccompanied singing from Ian – a Drakensberg
Boy’s alumni who is sitting opposite me. Everybody pauses to enjoy the moment,
this is the kind of thing that makes these evenings what they are – a little
out of the ordinary.</div>
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Finally we reach the dessert course, which is bread and
butter pudding of croissant (known as <i>medialuna</i>
in Argentina for their half-moon shape) with dulce de leche and Chantilly
cream. It’s served in a tin mug, and it’s decadently soft and sweet – a perfect
end to the meal. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Open Plan Studio has a photo booth set up, so we
gather for photographs with some of the table, as well as Zak and Tam (of Zak
and Tonic, who run these evenings). Arms are thrown around shoulders as we
huddle up for a pose – just another group of old friends that met a couple of
hours ago.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-44475368327176548182014-09-22T20:41:00.000+02:002014-09-22T20:41:36.880+02:00Habesha Café<div class="MsoNormal">
Visiting Habesha Café in Glenwood’s bustling Helen Joseph
Road feels like being welcomed into an inviting, spice-scented Ethiopian home.
The venue is in fact a converted house, with old Berea yellowwood floors; high
ceilings, and generous bay windows. Warm Durban sunshine streams past hessian
shades, colourful cotton curtains and across casually scattered low seats. Chairs
are arranged around tables, or informally into circles, surrounding the
brightly coloured woven stands that carry the communal plates which Ethiopians
traditionally eat from.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The term ‘Habesha’ is a word used among Ethiopians and
Eritreans to refer to themselves, in a unifying fashion rather than delineating
groups along tribal or regional lines (check out the hashtag #HabeshaProblems on
Twitter for a humorous take on traditionally strict Ethiopian parents with high
expectations). No Habesha problems here, though – on arrival, you will be
ushered inside by the gracious, soft-spoken hosts Biniam and Fev, who treat you
more like returning friends than patrons.</div>
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If you’ve eaten at an Ethiopian restaurant before, you will
have a good idea of what to expect from the menu – a variety of chicken, beef
or lamb ‘wots’ (spicy stews) as well as a good selection of vegetarian dishes,
featuring split peas, lentils and chickpeas. The traditional spice mix
‘berbere’ appears in many of the dishes, and carries the warm familiar flavours
of chili peppers, garlic and ginger, as well as others that may be harder to
place: <i>korarima</i> (the dried seeds of a
ginger which grows wild in the horn of Africa), nigella and fenugreek.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Select a variety of dishes, place your order, and soon it
arrives, each wot presented in a separate bowl, and resting on a white
tablecloth of injera, the distinctive flat bread which serves as both plate and
utensil. In case you run out of bread with which to eat your meal, a bowl full
of extra injera is served alongside, in neat little rolls. Injera is made from
a fermented dough and has a lemony, slightly sour taste – Habesha’s version is
quite mild, however, with just a hint of acid.</div>
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On our visit, we demolished a combination of <i>tibs firfir</i> (cubed mutton curry tossed
through with injera), <i>shiro wot</i>
(split peas) and <i>misir wot</i> (lentils).
The lentils were served in a wooden bowl that seemed to add to the flavour. Eating
with our hands, the injera acted as an artist’s palette, each dish a flavourful
colour, to be mixed, swirled and recomposed into a personal work of art.
Delicious, edible art.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Forget the tired dessert options of ice-cream, crème brûlée
or chocolate mousse. Here in little Ethiopia, meals are concluded with a
generous bowl of sweet and sticky pitted dates. Fev brings us black coffee,
served in a long-necked round-bottomed clay <i>jebena</i>
and poured into small pottery cups. The coffee is served with freshly popped
popcorn, which goes surprisingly well with the dates. We also tried the mint
tea, flavoured with fresh mint leaves and brown sugar.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Habesha Café is not licensed, so bring your own bottle, or
try their fresh juices like the mango and avocado. Dishes are very reasonably
priced, and our meal for two including three wots, drinks, tea, coffee and
dates came to just over R200.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-15025421583161975222014-09-22T20:34:00.000+02:002014-09-22T20:34:38.360+02:00Lupa Osteria: Westville<div class="MsoNormal">
For the past few months, Westville has been buzzing in
anticipation of the opening of Lupa Westville. Situated in a prime position on
Jan Hofmeyer Road (Westville’s restaurant strip) the chip off the Hillcrest
block has quickly taken shape on the site that until recently held old favourite
La Storia. Looks like there’s a new Italian in town.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In place of La Storia’s laid back décor of mismatched chairs
and tables, Lupa has mimicked the more upmarket feel of its Hillcrest venue, with
large black and white tiles; pillars clad in rough timber; raw brick and slate
grey walls. Many of the best aspects of Lupa Hillcrest have been replicated
here – including the cocktail menu - which was where we started - enjoying a
Romulus and a Remus, named for the twins of Rome’s founding myth (Lupa was the
wolf that raised them after they were thrown into the river Tiber by their evil
uncle). Sadly the glasses of breadsticks which we enjoyed on our
last visit to Hillcrest were not on offer here, hopefully they will still make
an appearance.</div>
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The clientele are probably a little older, a little less hip
than the Hillcrest crowd, but they certainly seem to appreciate the food, the
restaurant has been open for a month already, and this was the first time that
we had managed to secure a table. By 7 o’clock on a Saturday night the place
was already bustling – it seems that in Westville as in most of Durban, people
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We ordered zucchini fries with basil mayonnaise and pretzel
dusted calamari for starters. Both were fresh, hot and tasty: the zucchini -
thin strips of lightly battered, melt-in-your-mouth delights, sprinkled with
parmesan - the calamari, tender and moreish. Others at the table ordered the
beef carpaccio and the Parma ham with melon. My only quibble: a slight over
reliance on mayonnaise, which featured in three of the four starters – I would
have skipped it on the carpaccio at least, which was crying out for a good
balsamico.<o:p></o:p><br />
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Presumably due to the newness of the kitchen, there were no
specials on offer for the night, so we stuck to the menu, which in its defence
is full of good choices, from the traditional pizza and pasta, to some
interesting sounding veal, lamb, fillet and line fish dishes. I opted for the
fillet escalope, where the meat is thinned out slightly with a tenderising
mallet of sorts, making for a super moist and perfectly medium rare cut that
fell apart as I attacked it. The fillet was topped with perfectly ripe avocado
and oven roasted tomato, and served on a mushroom risotto (slightly underdone,
as seems to always be the case at restaurants). All in all, a very nicely put
together meal. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The gnocchi salsicce with fennel sausage, bacon, cream and Chianti
was also good – a hearty dish with a rich, red sauce, although slightly over
salted, which seemed to be true for the pastas at the table too. I had a taste
of a friend’s chicken marsala, which was excellent. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Dessert offerings include tiramisu, crème brûlée, and dark
chocolate tart, but we settled for scoops of the creamy and chocolate-filled
home-made ice-cream, strong espressos and an affogato. I saw other tables enjoying
the ice-cream in a sugar cone, which looks like a fun way to end the evening.</div>
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Westville is certainly better off for the arrival of Lupa,
which together with the Olive and Oil Café adds some much needed variety to the
local dining scene. While the Hillcrest Lupa is probably a little more flash –
Westville is a lot closer if you’re visiting from Durban. For inhabitants of
Westville, it’s our new local.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-55144142485152155022014-09-22T20:23:00.000+02:002014-09-22T20:23:11.536+02:00Marco Paulo<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in January, I reviewed the excellent Frank’s Speakeasy
in Mount Edgecombe, and had plenty of good things to say about their wide range
of beers, super-cool waiters, and epic burgers. Of course Frank’s is only half
of the story, and is separated from the more upmarket Marco Paulo bistro by only
a colourful stained glass window.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Marco Paulo itself actually has quite a lot of glass, with a
semi-circular floor to ceiling glass wall forming the front of the venue,
providing views into the bustling depths of the single space restaurant that
holds 20 or so tables. Sadly the view from inside the restaurant looking out is
only of the parking lot, which tends to be a bit annoying when SUV headlights
are flicked on and glare inside. <o:p></o:p></div>
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On the night that we visited, it was unusually cold for
Durban, and the first table that we were seated at felt cold and soulless,
being placed directly against the glass wall, with the bright lights of the
parking lot spilling across the table, and the cold air from the open doors whistling
past us. Happily, after making our unhappiness with the seating arrangement
known, the manager very smoothly relocated us to a table deeper inside the
room, which suited us much better. The more exterior tables are probably a
great place to sit at during the day, but definitely not where you want to be
for a romantic dinner.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Speaking of romance, many of the reviews of Marco Paulo
mention that it is a very loud space, which is true – not necessarily a bad
thing, but the atmosphere is more bustling than intimate. In my review of
Franks I mentioned the great 90’s soundtrack of Counting Crows and Third Eye
Blind – unfortunately on this visit, the same 12 songs (Counting Crows featured
prominently again) were on repeat, meaning that we heard each song twice by the
end of our meal. When one can fit almost 500 songs onto an ipod shuffle, this
is really inexcusable, but it has happened at two of the restaurants that I
have eaten at recently.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Technically, a ‘bistro’ like Marco Paulo is a small,
modestly priced restaurant that serves simple, homestyle meals. In recent
years, however, (or is it perhaps just in South Africa?) the term seems to have
taken on the opposite meaning, evoking an upmarket, fine dining atmosphere.
Perhaps 9<sup>th</sup> Avenue Bistro is to blame here. Anyway, Marco Paulo is on
the upper end of Durban restaurants, with main meals generally between R120 and
R180.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Marco Paulo styles itself as a ‘world food’ bistro, which is
kind of misleading, as the thrust is very much Italian, with pizza, pasta and
risotto sections on the menu. Throwing in a Thai red curry afterthought doesn’t
really make you world food. Actually, an international vibe would be nice, as
the menu choices, while tasty sounding, are rather traditional (fillet with red
wine reduction or peppercorn sauce, spaghetti bolognaise, Hawaiian pizza and so
on).<o:p></o:p></div>
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For starters I opted for the snails – there were nine of
them which was enticing, and they weren’t served in one of those weird little
artists palette plates, which was also nice – those always make me feel like
I’m in a pub. The snails came three ways; in a champagne butter, a more
traditional gorgonzola and a fairly unusual tomato and red pepper sauce. All of
them were good, although the gorgonzola was probably my favourite; I guess sometimes
the classic options are just the best. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Our other starter was the camembert spring rolls with a
chilli, tomato and ginger relish. The spring rolls were delightfully bite-sized,
a little stack of seven or so, and made for great finger food. The cheese was
good and strong, although the relish was a little uninspired, without much bite
provided by either the chilli or the ginger.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I had read a review that particularly praised the peri-peri
chicken, so despite not normally ordering chicken out, I decided to give it a
try, and was glad that I did. The bird was deboned, which makes eating so much
easier, and the sauce was wonderfully fragrant and spicy. It was served atop a
pile of shoestring fries, which soaked up the extra sauce in a very satisfying
half crunchy, half juicy kind of way. Apparently not everyone likes it served in
this fashion – the waiter offered to serve the chips on the side – but I
definitely recommend it as is.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Seeing as there is a whole risotto section on the menu here,
we assumed it would be safe to order a beef fillet with risotto side (underdone
risotto is my pet peeve). The beef fillet turned out to be excellent, one of
the tastiest, tender-est steaks I’ve enjoyed in Durban. The risotto, sadly, was
underdone – not terribly, but definitely more crunchy than creamy, so that was
disappointing. The red wine reduction was alright, although thin – a little
more reducing could have been done while the risotto finished cooking.
Strangely, a few large chunks of unadvertised butternut and some green beans
were hidden underneath the risotto, almost as if we were children that had to
be conned into eating our veg.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Desert – expect to see crème brûlée (we were offered
espresso flavoured) as well as chocolate fondant and some old school classics
including an apple crumble. After enjoying the fondant when visiting Franks, I
stuck with the tried and trusted and found it just as good the second time
around.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Verdict? Vibey atmosphere, good service, generally good food
(and an interesting wine list). If I had to summarise my issue with Marco
Paulo, it’s simply that the food is not as adventurous as I would have
expected. That, and the underdone risotto.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-39291031344172420502014-07-13T10:58:00.000+02:002014-07-13T10:58:19.260+02:00Bellevue Café<div class="MsoNormal">
Bellevue Café in Kloof is something of a local favourite,
with its beautifully designed spaces, indoor/outdoor appeal and double volume
interior. Popular with families, it’s a great place to sit back and relax while
enjoying the dappled shade under the trees on the patio. After a meal, there is
also a shop next door which is full of interesting gifts, and a gallery above
the restaurant, both of which add to the arty, hipster vibe of the place.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The café is open all day, but we were there on a mission for
brunch. The breakfast menu is available until 11.30, and features a pitcher of
orange juice paired with a bottle of champagne, so you know that they take mornings
seriously.</div>
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There is a fairly extensive menu that takes in all of the
usual suspects, as well as offering some more interesting choices. I opted for
the Bellevue Billionaire’s Club (with that name, how could you not?) which
involves truffled scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato chutney and parmesan on rye.
The rest of the brunching party each went their separate ways; one choosing an
exotic poached eggs, avocado hummus, bacon and dukka on rye creation; another
going with classic French toast and bacon, and the last with the spicy chicken
livers on toast, topped with a fried egg.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Billionaires Club was pretty good, with creamy scrambled
eggs, albeit without any detectable hint of truffle, making it maybe more of a
Millionaires Club. The poached egg creation had eggs that were perfectly done, soft and golden –
although the hummus seemed to have disappeared, and the dukka, which was such
an interesting sounding addition, was simply a sprinkled garnish, rather than
an integral part of the dish.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The French toast and bacon proved something of a winner,
with a generous heap of moist, fluffy French toast, piles of bacon and plenty
of maple syrup. The chicken livers were also well received, being spicy as
advertised and served in a rich sauce which soaked nicely into the toast.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Coffee was good – try the sweet and strong Turkish coffee,
and orange juice arrives in enormous glasses (seriously, you could share if you
were so inclined). We stayed on, lingering in the winter sun, and eventually
left before we were tempted to move on to lunch…</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-41396084720470400602014-06-09T21:48:00.000+02:002014-06-09T21:48:47.558+02:00Secret Eats: DurbanSo there I was, standing indecisively in a dimly lit parking area outside a factory building that was shrouded in darkness. Through the dusty window panes mysterious shapes moved past, and the distant hum of voices spilled out of a door, which was guarded by a clean shaven guy stylishly dressed in chinos and a button up shirt.<br />
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'Greg?' I asked him, 'from Secret Eats?'<br />
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He looked blankly at me, throwing me off momentarily - was this the right place? The email I received that morning had definitely given this address... Remembering the password I had been emailed hours earlier, I tried again, 'coffee or tea, it's all the same to me', I mumbled, feeling distinctly awkward. At the sound of the secret words Greg's face lit up at with a huge grin as he welcomed us inside of the normally off-limits downstairs area of the Colombo Coffee and Tea building in Glenwood (home of the Factory Café).<br />
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This is the concept of Secret Eats, a limited seating, underground dining experience that pairs food enthusiasts with award winning chefs in unique venues for once-off opportunities to come together and celebrate good food, wine and sparkling company. Besides the unconventional venues and exciting food, part of the appeal is in the secretive nature of the soirees, with only people who have signed up to receive invitations aware of the occasion, and no hint given as to menu or venue until the day of the event. Think of it like a Foodster Fight Club. The first rule of Secret Eats, is you don't talk about Secret Eats (until you're there of course - then Twitter, Instagram and the rest light up with our smug satisfaction at being in on the secret).<br />
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Until recently, Secret Eats was active in Cape Town and Joburg only, but this weekend was the launch of the Durban experience.<br />
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Inside the factory, a temporary bar had been set up and waiters were serving cranberry and Tanqueray cocktails. Various amuse-bouches were dotted around the room. At one end, a table covered in a lush layer of wheatgrass was dotted with chicken satay and sesame crusted prawn skewers. A tray filled with olive and sesame seed 'ground' was planted with crudités and people were grazing happily. Glass bowls of deep fried ricotta stuffed olives hung from a rusting piece of antique equipment and spoons holding bite sized cubes of bright tuna sashimi were carefully arranged on a chainlink fence.<br />
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The crowd was intimate, around 50 people in total, and conversation was soon flowing as we got to know our fellow diners, several of whom I knew from Twitter, or had met at one or another of Durban's markets (Zak and Tonic, the Delish Sisters and Cuizine Durban were all there).<br />
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As the last of the snacks were disappearing, our host Greg led us upstairs, past the fairy lights of the Factory Café space and to two long tables simply decorated with white tablecloths, candles in large Mason jars and occasional succulents in white ceramic pots. The big tables made for lively dinner chatter and as the wine was poured generously, I had the feeling of being surrounded by a rowdy extended family or perhaps attending a particularly well catered wedding.<br />
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To cries of approval, we were introduced to our mystery chef for the night, Marcelle Roberts of Café 1999 and Unity fame. Working out of a very small kitchen, Marcelle managed to feed the hungry hordes, bringing her signature modern Mediterranean flair to the table.<br />
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We started with a Jerusalem artichoke soup scattered with slivers of tea smoked duck and drizzled with chive oil. The duck was soft, sweet and subtly smoky, and married perfectly with the soup, which was slightly sweet and nutty (Jerusalem artichokes it turns out are not artichokes at all, but the tubers of a sunflower family member).<br />
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Continuing with the coffee and tea theme, the main course was an amazing coffee rubbed lamb loin. The loin was served just past pink and carried an earthy almost chocolate flavour from the coffee. In a move that delighted lamb lovers, the loin was paired with a 'lamb reduction' that was basically a moist, succulent pulled lamb, meaning there were two different textures to enjoy. The plate was finished off with a fantastic roasted aubergine that was silky smooth and soft, as well as a dash of chickpea puree and a red pepper salsa.<br />
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The dessert did not disappoint, and was just the right portion to finish off a memorable meal. A yoghurt and vanilla panna cotta served with a scoop of light green pistachio ice cream and decorated with three pretty cubes of rose jelly. I alternated eating the elements separately and combining them in various combinations on my spoon and was only sad that I finished every scrap before I could decide on my favourite way to enjoy it.<br />
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After the dinner was complete there was still wine to enjoy (an excellent Bakenskop Chardonnay and a Lushof Shiraz) and a selection of locally made cheeses. I'm pretty sure I spotted some of Chrissie Briscoe's cheddar, which fans of the Shongweni Market will be familiar with. And of course, we had to finish with some of the expertly pulled espressos from the Factory Café.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-11189973809313775392014-05-22T20:54:00.000+02:002014-05-22T20:54:24.517+02:00Bar Ba Coa, Umhlanga<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
The primal appeal of a flawlessly cooked steak has been expounded
upon at length by writers and gourmands alike, and I will not attempt to outdo
them here. I will only ask, as John Cleese did, that if God didn't intend for
us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of meat?<o:p></o:p></div>
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I love eating steak straight off the coals, almost still smoking;
fire crusted and dripping fat, with rusty red juices escaping at the first
touch of the knife. I also like it pan fried; seared in nutty butter;
caramelised, and drizzled with the deglazed pan residues. I have enjoyed it rare,
bloody and marbled with fat – and pink, tender and topped with a freshly fried
egg. No meal, perfectly done, is so satisfying; or poorly executed, as
disappointing as a simple steak. As Anthony Bourdain reminds us - when you eat
meat, something did die, and you have an obligation to value it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Because of my preference for perfect porterhouse, I view
steakhouses with a somewhat jaundiced eye. Too often the steak is served well
done when you demanded medium rare, or the natural flavour of the meat is
hidden under cheap sauces or ill-conceived garnishes. Sometimes the meat is
cold, occasionally it is tough and generally it falls short of expectations,
leaving one feeling disappointed and cheated.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For these reasons, it was with a tremble in my step that I
approached Bar Ba Coa in Umhlanga on a recent Friday night. Bar Ba Coa calls
itself an Argentinian grill and bar – good start. The Argentinians are famous
for enjoying one of the highest per capita consumption rates of red meat in the
world; and the vast herds of cattle ranging on the open pampas form part of their
national psyche.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Interestingly,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>barbacoa<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i>from which the term 'barbecue'
derives is actually a form of cooking meat that originated in the Caribbean – Argentinians
rather refer to their national dish as 'Asado', which is used to refer to both
the method of cooking meat on an open fire, as well as the social occasion
surrounding it (much like 'braai' is used in South Africa).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Bar Ba Coa is one of our higher-end steakhouse, and is priced
accordingly. Starters go for around R50 to R60 and steaks range from R115 to
R180. Their Facebook page features tables of smiling Sharks rugby players and
local minor celebrities, so it’s the kind of restaurant that you go to spoil
yourself a little.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The place is attractively decorated in a masculine style, with
wooden floors, more wood on the tables, plenty of leather, red walls and
elegant lighting. There’s an inside area, which is more formal, and an enclosed
outdoor area that is a little lower key (large screen TV screening sports), and
which is where we were seated. It’s a popular venue, so be sure to book in
advance.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We kicked our meal off with a portion of empanadas as well as the ‘dedos
de carne’. The empanadas (basically little Cornish pasties) were filled with
chorizo, corn and cheese and served with the restaurant’s signature chimichurri
sauce (parsley, garlic and red pepper flakes in olive oil and vinegar). Torn
apart and dipped in the sauce, they were delicious, and the serving of four is
probably enough to share as a starter. The dedos de carne were somewhat less
satisfying – described as 'beef strips fried in a red wine jus' the carne
itself was pretty good, but the tortillas it was served with were a little thin
and uninspiring, and the garnish of a pile of limp shredded lettuce might have
felt more at home in a roadside burger house.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Obviously, though, we were there for the steaks, so we scanned the
menu carefully and weighed up our various options for the main course. We wanted
to maximise on the South American flavour, so we avoided the game options and
the monkey gland sauce (too South African), and settled on the carne Argentina
(naturally) and the carne Mexicana. Both are 300g sirloin steaks which come
topped either with streaky bacon, grated cheddar and ‘drizzled with chimichurri
butter' (Argentina) or nacho chips, melted cheddar, guacamole salsa, jalapenos
and sour cream (Mexicana). Yes, the Mexicana is basically a steak topped with a
portion of nachos – what’s not to like?</div>
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Sadly, like too many other restaurants, the fine print at the
bottom of the menu stated: '*All mains
are served with a choice of chips, baked potato, rice, mash or salad'. Is it
just me, or is that getting old? I don't come to a restaurant to design my own
dish – this was not supposed to be a choose your own adventure. To my mind, sides
should enhance the dish that they are paired with, the flavours, textures and
colours carefully chosen to complement the main feature, not simply tacked on
as an afterthought. I ended up going with chips, but honestly – one can get
chips with a steak at Spur. Here, in an upmarket establishment, it would be
nice to see something a little more thought through, perhaps a portion of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>verdurajo</i>, the Argentinian
grilled vegetable dish made up of potatoes, eggplant, corn and onion cooked on
the grill.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The meat at Bar Ba Coa is advertised as ‘grilled on charcoal to
bring out the natural flavours'. Unfortunately, to me it tasted a bit like the
natural flavours of the charcoal, rather than the meat. It certainly wasn’t
overpowering, but the first taste that hit me as I started on the steak was not
the smoky, dark, woody flavour of an open fire under a starlit sky, but rather the
dusty taste you might find at the bottom of the charcoal bag. Honestly, I
couldn't quite work out what was going on here. The restaurant features a large
kitchen with a viewing area, and I could see the staff flipping meat over a
stack of coals, so it should have been great – but there was this insistent raw
charcoal taste hanging on the outer edges of the meat. Kind of like the taste that
results when you lose control of your Weber and resort to throwing water over
the flames, kicking up ash.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
Inside, both steaks were lovely and juicy (almost verging on
underdone for a medium rare, with pink blood pooling on the plate) but I felt that
they were under seasoned, simply not enough salt or pepper. Now I understand
that Argentinians do not traditionally apply anything beyond the basics to
their meat, but I think a slightly heavier hand with the seasoning would have
helped to bring out the flavour of the meat.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
The toppings were alright, but also not very inspiring – the
chimichurri was probably the best part, and the chips were very standard, I
might have preferred a more rustic, thick cut, skin on chip to better match the
big slab of beef.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
Desserts consisted of a rather familiar looking line up: crème
brûlée; ice cream and chocolate sauce; an Argentinian take on tiramisu.
Something I did enjoy was the option of two scoops of Mozart’s ice cream served
in a sugar cone. A good way to end off the meal and you can even walk out with
it if you choose to – pudding to go!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
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<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
All in all, Bar Ba Coa is not really a bad steakhouse – it’s just
that it falls prey to what bothers me about most steakhouses, with the added
issues that at their prices, I expect a lot more. Next time I’ll stick to my
Weber.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-74869886664161500622014-05-11T10:30:00.000+02:002014-05-13T07:50:09.091+02:00Jack Salmon<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">Jack
Salmon (Jack Salmon Fish House - to give it its full and slightly odd title)
has been open in Durban for a year now, and is already making major waves,
winning rave reviews, full bookings and Eat Out 2014's stamp of approval as
'Durban's best seafood only restaurant'.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">In
the kitchen is Australian seafood chef John Porcelli. I first heard of Porcelli
back in 2008 when I was living in Hilton. His eponymous restaurant there sadly
closed soon after we moved to the Midlands and before we had a chance to try it out. Some
years later, he opened a pop up restaurant in Pietermaritzburg that operated on
weekends out of a coffee shop. We went along very excitedly to see what all the
fuss was about, and ran straight into one of my pet peeves (read it on the bio:
<a href="http://bit.ly/1ivMVUO" target="_blank">The Hungry Hedonist</a>) – overdone tuna steak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">Based,
rather unfairly, on this one poor experience, I had been wary of visiting Jack
Salmon until now (I’m like a culinary elephant, I never forget). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">On
arrival at the restaurant you will immediately see that the venue is a delight
- Durban has a surprising lack of venues that take advantage of our coastal
views, but Jack Salmon gets a good piece of sea view in from its second story
position in a small centre in Glenashley. Part of the view is obscured by the
coastal scrub that grows between the Ruth First highway and the beach, but the ribbon
of blue that you can see unfolds over 180 degrees and sets the scene
beautifully.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">Inside,
the restaurant is pretty tastefully decorated, with a large sepia wallpaper
print of a fishing boat on one wall, and large mirrors on the other. If the
weather is good (and this is Durban, after all) the balcony is the best place
to be to enjoy the fresh air and the sea views. A word of warning, however, an
onshore breeze will carry with it a haze of cigarette smoke from those last
desperate individuals that are yet to shake the habit and who congregate on the
stairs for a quick puff.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">The
wine list (look carefully and you'll find it hidden on the back of the menu) is
a very short one, with 9 whites and 3 reds - we went with the Tokara Chardonnay
which Platter's describes as easy-going but firm with 'invisibly supportive
oak', whatever that means. It went well with the view, anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">Starter
options include calamari in its various forms; mussels; prawns; oysters, and
even a seafood soup. We wanted a bit of everything, so opted for the mezze
platter (calamari tubes and tentacles as well as olives and grilled halloumi).
Annoyingly, the waiter returned to our table 20 minutes after taking our order
to let us know that there was no halloumi. This is a(nother) pet peeve of mine
for two reasons: one - that you shouldn't be running out of basics, and two -
how did it take 20 minutes for awareness of this sad state of affairs to sink
in?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">Having
agreed grudgingly to substitute extra calamari for the absent halloumi, the
platter then arrived cold. The calamari was delicious, tender and sea-salty,
but would have been markedly better warm. The marinated olives were plump and
ripe and pips were soon flying merrily into the hedges below us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">In
Jack Salmon’s defence, it was an unusually cold afternoon, with a chilly breeze
blowing in from the Drakensberg. However, I was wary of receiving another cold
dish (cold fish - not good), so we took a tactical decision to go for sushi
(already cold), and the 'scrumptious prawn and fish cakes' which would stand up
better to the weather than a delicate dish like the (apparently excellent)
grilled and poached Norwegian salmon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">The
scrumptious fish cakes lived up to their name admirably. The dish was made up
of two good sized, grilled cakes that were a lovely blend of subtle fish
flavours and prawn pieces, served on a bed of mash playfully studded with a
scattering of peas and sweetcorn. The lemon, pineapple and sweet chilli sauce
was a particularly pleasant surprise, the sweet pineapple marrying well with
the hint of prawn in the fishcakes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">The
sushi was also very good, with a couple of nice finds, particularly the crunchy
California rolls (the crunch comes courtesy of Panko crumbs inside the roll)
and the rice paper rolls, which substitute the usual nori wrap for a delicate
rice paper cover. Happily we discovered that sushi is half-priced most
afternoons: Tuesday to Saturday 12 to 6 p.m. One quibble for the sushi - the
rice was not sufficiently sticky, and so the rolls tended to fall apart a
little under enthusiastic soy-dunking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">On
the dessert front, there was a novel take on the classic chocolate brownie
which has to be recommended: two spheres of brownie each surrounding a caramel
centre and carefully coated in Panko crumbs! A fantastic idea and a winning
combination. The brownies were served with vanilla ice cream, however, which I
have recently decided needs to be banned from all restaurants nicer than a Spur
(homemade ice cream with real vanilla excluded). Let’s get serious and have
some salted caramel ice cream or pistachio and honeycomb, or butter pecan.
Vanilla is so done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
J<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">ack
Salmon's is not a cheap and cheerful spot (they consider themselves ‘semi-fine
dining’ and most of the main courses will set you back around R140), so you do
go expecting a lot. I did have a couple of criticisms, but that won’t stop me
from coming back for more at some point - even if only for sundowners and half
price sushi.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-90834626817387784622014-04-29T22:04:00.000+02:002014-04-29T22:04:54.963+02:00Max's Lifestyle, UmlaziIt's another sunny Saturday afternoon on the East Coast. The sky is an uninterrupted blue ceiling and a gentle breeze is stirring through the palms. We're relaxing at a smart wooden outdoor table on a raised deck shaded by a large awning. Around us, tables full of friends laugh, drink beer and consume large quantities of braaied meat off wooden platters. The crowd is mostly young and trendy, men dressed in Soviet jeans and Guess T-shirts, ladies in high heels and figure hugging dresses. There are families here too, with prams and babies in tow. All in all, a fairly unremarkable scene, other than that this double storied entertainment venue and restaurant is not in town, or the suburbs, but rather in Umlazi township, V section, 1328 Mbe Road.<br />
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We're out for lunch at <b>Max's Lifestyle</b>. The incomplete sounding name is reflective of the fact that the venue is not easily defined as a restaurant, a tavern or even a club - its all of those things, but it's more than that too. Max's started out in 2002 serving braaied meat from a single roomed shack next to a taxi rank, but under the savvy ownership of Max Mqadi it has expanded into a bustling bar, lounge, butchery and restaurant that is known as a place to see and be seen. It's frequented by government bigwigs, local celebrities and assorted black diamonds as well as locals, and is the venue of choice for those seeking a dose of authentic Kasi (township) culture.<br />
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The dining experience here has a uniquely township flavour - there are no waiters or menus, so we order a couple of beers from the bar while we watch the regulars to see how its done. The bar is outfitted with dark wood and granite tops, so don't expect to order quarts - you can get bottles or draughts of the usual SAB fare as well as high end whiskys and spirits - Dom Perignon, Henessy and Belvedere rub shoulders with Johnnie Walker Blue and 21 year old Glenfiddich. It's lunchtime, so we stick to Castle Lite and enjoy the music and the people watching. The bouncer is doubling as a DJ, and spinning a range of tracks from R&B slow jams, to Afro-soul and even Westlife on one occasion.<br />
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Turns out that its pretty easy to place an order - the first step is to take a short stroll over to the built in butchery at the back of the deck. There's a refrigerated glass display case and you get to pick your own meat and then sit back and relax while it's expertly grilled and returned to your table. The butchery focuses on cheap cuts - there are mounds of thinly sliced chuck steak; heaped piles of beef short rib; pork chops; chicken pieces and thick loops of boerewors. There are also whole beef livers and tripe if you're into internal organs. The ladies behind the counter will individually weigh and price your selections and pile them onto a wooden slab before liberally dusting them in a mystery powder from a large plastic container.</div>
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'Aha - Max's famous special spice mix?' I ask the lady behind the counter - 'what's the secret ingredient'? She looks confused. 'It's barbecue spice', she says. Oh well.</div>
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After paying (prices err on the ridiculously reasonable side - lunch set us back about R80 for two, exluding drinks), the meat board is handed back to the customer, who carries it to the braai area out back. Here a sweating staff member is tending to two heavily laden 40 gallon drum braais. There is a haze of smoke, and the smell of sizzling steaks mingles with the scents of charcoal, roasting chicken and the fat that's dripping slowly into the flames.<br />
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Service is relaxed rather than prompt, but when the meat arrives it is worth the wait. The chicken wings make perfect finger food starters, and have a lovely flame-grilled finish, while the boerewors is of surprisingly good quality - juicy, well spiced and bursting with flavour. The beef short-rib and the chuck steak taste great (maybe there is more to the barbecue spice than meets the eye), and while not tender, the enjoyment of gnawing meat off the bone should not be underrated. There are no utensils here, save a single steak knife, and no plates either so meat is enjoyed the way nature intended, out of your hands.<br />
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It's obvious that Max's is run by a man - there are no vegetables in sight, with all of the sides on offer being starchy in nature - steamed bread (ujeqe), dumplings (dombolo), and pap are headliners. Many of the tables near us forego sides altogether and simply devour their huge platters of meat washed down by endless rounds of beer.<br />
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We order pap, which comes in a polystyrene container and is thick, stiff and cool, contrasting nicely with the hot, fatty meat. An additional side is a disposable cup holding a generous portion of a thick red chili sauce that would not look out of place in an Indian restaurant. According to Max's legend, this sauce is the perfect cure for a hangover. The only other seasoning is two little piles of table salt served on the meat platter.<br />
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There are no desserts to speak of, although the butchery does include what is basically a small spaza shop selling chips, cool-drinks, and ice creams, so you can always finish your meal off with a Magnum if you feel so inclined.<br />
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Umlazi is only a few kilometers down the road from the more familiar face of Durban, but it would be easy to spend a lifetime in the city without visiting South Africa's second biggest township (after Soweto). Max's stated aim of creating a space frequented by all cultures and races is the perfect invitation to explore this world - and get a great meal into the bargain.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-74211918489754547882014-04-26T16:16:00.000+02:002014-04-26T16:16:42.235+02:00Cafe AbyssiniaAn enormous, shallow platter is gently lowered onto the table before us. Completely covering the dish, and extending slightly over its edge is what appears at first glance to be a thin, off-white flannel table cloth. Resting on its surface in three bowls are fragrant stews of lamb, lentils and split-pea.<br />
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Our host, Charity, picks the bowls up one by one and gently spills their contents out onto the cloth. The cloth of course is not actually cloth, but <i>injera </i>- the famous flat bread of Ethiopia. The porous surface of the bread immediately begins to soak up the flavours of the stews and the air is filled with the aromas of <i>berbere</i>, an Ethiopian spice mix featuring chilli, coriander, fenugreek and more.<br />
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At Durban's Café Abyssinia, as in the horn of Africa, the bread is at once plate, food and utensil. There are no knives or forks needed here. You simply tear pieces of injera off the edges of your platter, scoop up a morsel of stew and pop the whole thing into your mouth.<br />
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The injera has a unique, slightly sour, lemony flavour - the result of a fermentation process similar to that used when making sourdough. Some consider it an acquired taste, but I happily acquired it on the first bite and kept on eating until the platter was clean. Traditionally prepared on a large clay plate over a fire, here it is made in what looks like an enormous electric frying pan, almost like a pancake. Because injera is not flipped, the underside remains smooth, while the top is spongy and perfect for soaking up juices.<br />
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Of course man can not live on injera alone, and the selection of <i>wats, </i>or Ethiopia's answer to the curry, are the perfec partner for the slightly sour flavour of the bread. We selected a yebeg alicha wat (lamb stewed with garlic, onions and tumeric), shiro (split peas) and misir (lentils) wot. Each dish was delicious, with just enough chilli to raise a mild sweat, but nothing that would detract from the depth of flavours imparted by the gently cooked meat, pulses and Charity's special berbere mix.<br />
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Vegetarians will rejoice in the fact that Ethiopians are strict observers of various fasting days when meat is avoided, and half of the menu options at Café Abysinnia are meat-free. For carnivores, there are beef, lamb, chicken and even seafood options, and the doro wot (chicken in lime, garlic, ginger and berbere) is apparently particularly good. On our visit, we also enjoyed a starter of beef meatballs, which came in a fantastic garlicky sauce that ended up being mopped up by extra injera when our main course arrived.<br />
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You will be surprised at how easy it is to put away a manhole-cover sized portion of injera, so be sure to order three or four wat's per couple. If there are more of you, just keep ordering - Charity will bring extra injera to the table in little rolls.<br />
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Café Abyssinia is unlicensed, so bring along a bottle of wine to enjoy with your meal (no corkage was charged). After dinner, be sure to order the coffee - Ethiopia is the birthplace of the bean, and coffee is served hot and black out of a clay pot, alongside lashings of sugar. I generally take my coffee with milk, but this brew managed to be strong without being bitter, and in an interesting twist, is served with a bowl of popcorn, apparently an Ethiopian tradition.<br />
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Prices are extremely reasonable. Wats vary from R40 to R60, coffee is R15 and injera is complimentary. Service is slow, but friendly as Charity works in the kitchen, front of house and as a waitress. It's not a big space, with only five or six tables in a room that spills out onto the pavement and the decor is minimal, but appropriately themed, with Lions of Judah and Ethiopian flags lending an out-of-town appeal to the place. Get there soon, before the whole of Durban finds out about it.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-83125823359142407362014-04-01T20:04:00.000+02:002014-04-01T20:04:23.813+02:00Cake and Satay HouseEating out is something I love to do for a variety of reasons, one of the least of which is simply to satiate my hunger. Yes, I'm a hungry hedonist, but the emphasis is strongly on the hedonism - I eat out for the pleasure of it. One of my favourite activities is exploring a country through its food - ideally in a street market or bazaar, but otherwise while discovering new flavours right here in one of our Durban restaurants.<br />
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The <b>Cake and Satay House</b>, specialising in Indonesian food is just such a place where one can go to experience something new. Often described as being in Umbilo - probably because of its proximity to Umbilo Road, it's actually situated in Glenwood, in Albert Dlomo Road (formerly Willowvale), not far from Parc Café and Glenwood Bakery. From the street, a small sign indicating 'Cake and Satay House: Indonesian Delicacies' is the only hint at what lies behind the door that leads up a short flight of stairs to the front room of Anita Leong's house. Here, her and her husband serve up a variety of Indonesian, Chinese and Thai inspired dishes to a small, but appreciative audience.</div>
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At the top of the stairs, a security door is opened before you can be beckoned inside. There are two eating areas: a small, enclosed outside room, ringed in fairy lights, and inside, a slightly larger room with a row of tables running down the centre and a display case featuring a handful of sweets and sauces for sale. There are only four or five tables in the restaurant, with a potential capacity of about 20 diners. On the night that we visited, however, we were the only customers. You have to book for dinner here, not only to ensure that you get a table, but also because there is a fair chance that the restaurant won't be open otherwise. </div>
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Ambiance comes courtesy of a single CD of traditional Indonesian music, which reminded me vaguely of the Midi soundtrack on a 1980s video game. It's probably not the ideal restaurant for a first date, but it's a great place to come with a bunch of friends who are happy to create their own buzz. They aren't licensed, so its strictly BYOB, but they don't charge corkage, and they do stock a variety of cool-drinks if you prefer. Also, remember to bring cash - they don't accept credit cards.</div>
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Starters are limited to a selection of fried delicacies (wontons, spring rolls, crispy prawns) or soups (chicken or wonton). They also serve those colourful, tongue-sticking, deep fried prawn crackers - either individually, or by the plate. The wontons are hot, crispy and filled with minced pork; the spring rolls are enormous and bursting with crispy vegetables, pork and prawns. A bowl of bright red sambal oelek (basically raw chilli paste) and soy sauce is served alongside, with a small plastic spoon. It's Asian street food, simple, tasty and good for sharing.</div>
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The main course options are more extensive, with separate sections for Nasi Goreng (fried rice); Mi Goreng (fried noodles, much like Chinese chow mein); sweet and sour dishes; cashew chicken; black bean dishes, and the titular satays. There are also a handful of sea food dishes, including curried and chilli crabs, which are apparently excellent.</div>
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I went for the house speciality and ordered the chicken satay, served ten kebabs deep, with a fantastic, spicy peanut sauce. The pieces of meat are smaller than on a typical South African sosatie, and more tender, coated in a sticky sweet and salty sauce which has blackened on the edges where the flames have caught at it. The satay is served with a small bowl of plain steamed rice - good for when you accidentally eat too much sambal oelek.</div>
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We also ordered beef in a black bean sauce and sweet and sour pork. Both came with plenty of lightly fried peppers, onion and carrots. The sweet and sour pork was crunchy-edged, and came with a dark, pineapple-sweet sauce. The black bean dish was full of tender beef, mushrooms and vegetables, although the sauce lacked depth and could have used more black beans and coriander.</div>
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As far as I know, Cake and Satay House is the only restaurant in Durban specialising in Indonesian food. If you get a taste for it though, as I have, you can also get lucky at the Durban Night Market where you'll find Suki's Indonesian Food, offering a fantastic selection of satays, Nasi Goreng and Mi Goreng. Now I have to go try that Ethiopian place on Cowey Road...</div>
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Apparently in Italy there is an eating out hierarchy which goes something like this: an 'osteria' is a simple place to grab a glass of wine and a bite to eat, often at shared tables. Next comes the 'trattoria', which serves reasonably priced meals in a slightly more formal environment, and finally the 'ristorante', which is a full service establishment complete with long menus, snooty waiters and elegant decor. <b>Lupa Osteria</b> in Hillcrest is probably selling itself a little short then, as the food, the decor and the service are all well above your average neighbourhood dive.<br />
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First of all, there's a fully fledged bar at the entrance to the restaurant which serves up some of the tastiest cocktails that I've enjoyed in Durban to date, as well as stocking an array of local and imported wines and plenty of craft beer too. The cool, grey interior and warm lighting draw you inwards toward a seat at the bar, or at one of the high tables to enjoy a drink before your meal - which is exactly what we did. The 'Lupa' - a shaken concoction of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey, bitters, lemon and orange wedges is a good place to start.<br />
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The best part about the bar though is the glass full of parmesan dusted grissini (breadsticks) that are placed on the tables. Seriously moreish, you'll end up fighting over who gets the last one, and possibly stealing them off the tables next to you too.<br />
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Moving into the body of the restaurant, tables are scattered through a large, inviting room which is busy, but still manages to feel somehow intimate with a few carefully placed pieces of furniture dividing up the space. Pretty much every table is full, so its the kind of place that you want to book at least a day in advance. <br />
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It's a good restaurant to eat out at with friends, as the menu is extensive and is backed up by a chalkboard showcasing the days specials. There's a lot to choose from, and we ordered a selection of starters and main courses for the table to share - perhaps the easy going enjoyment of the food here is what inspired the use of 'Osteria' rather than 'Ristorante'.<br />
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Portions are definitely on the generous size, and some of the starters looked almost big enough for mains. We tried out the beef carpaccio, decorated with thinly sliced mushroom, parmesan, rocket and (score) more breadsticks - delicious. After that came a bowl full of fragrant mussels in a rich tomato sauce and topped with a slice of crusty bread. The dishes kept coming, and soon we were enjoying more bread (there's a theme developing here) heaped with spicy chicken livers - I enjoyed these, and I don't normally even eat liver. The final starter was a selection of juicy meatballs in a creamy sauce (plus more bread). We're all leaning over each other to tuck in by this point, and the flavours are mingling as plates fly from one side of the table to the other. </div>
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Antipasti done, we moved on to the primo, where I was seduced by the offer of gnocchi with a pulled pork ragu. It's a deceptively simple dish, but the combination of endlessly simmered pork with pillowy soft gnocchi, wine, tomato and fresh herbs is devastatingly effective - it's instantly one of my favourite dishes. </div>
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Another main course of calamari is also enjoyed, tubes and heads are coated in (apparently) pretzel dust, which sounds rather cool, but is not really distinguishable from your regular batter. Either way, it's tasty calamari, fresh and soft, and not too oily. Served with cheesy linguine, marinara sauce and mustard mayonnaise, it's almost too rich, but that might just be the previous courses talking.<br />
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Not quite defeated yet, we ordered a sundae with caramel popcorn, peanuts and sugar cone, and - the Italian classic - tiramisu. The waiter warned us that this particular batch of tiramisu didn't turn out quite right and might be too coffee drenched for everyone's taste. He's kind of right, its a little bit soggy, but we were warned, and we enjoy it all the same. The sundae is adequate, but after the fun of the first few spoonfuls there's a lot of rather bland vanilla ice cream to get through. The affogato looks like a good alternative - alongside the ice cream and espresso, you get a shot of Amarula too.<br />
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So - great cocktails, addictive breadsticks, carbo-loading goodness, Italian classics, and I haven't even tried the pizzas yet. Lupa is named for the she-wolf in Rome's foundation myth, but it could equally well refer to the way you'll keep looping back for more.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-43707160347420327882014-03-17T22:22:00.002+02:002014-03-17T22:22:07.297+02:00Parc Cafe, GlenwoodTwo weeks ago we were enjoying breakfast at the excellent <a href="http://durbandeglazed.blogspot.com/2014/03/glenwood-bakery.html" target="_blank">Glenwood Bakery</a> when we realised that there are actually two amazing venues squeezed into the intriguingly named 'Oslo Building' on Esther Roberts Road. Like Glenwood Bakery, the adjacent <b>parc café</b> (<a href="http://www.parc-cafe.co.za/" target="_blank">parc-cafe.co.za</a>) is surprisingly understated in announcing its presence. There are no signs outside, and initially I mistook them for an extension of the Bakery. After peering inside for several moments, however, I noticed their simple chalk drawn name on a black feature wall, largely given over to their extensive and tempting breakfast and lunch menus.<br />
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It turns out that parc café has been around since May last year, and is run by a brother and sister team, Brett and Lara Gentles (Brett was previously at 9th Avenue Bistro). I was excited to try them out, and we managed to get back to Glenwood last weekend for a Saturday morning breakfast.</div>
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On arrival, you can instantly feel an arty, hipster vibe which in true Durban style manages to remain completely unpretentious. The waiters are fun and friendly and the clientele range from young locals arriving on fixed gear bicycles to out-of-towners who park their hulking SUVs alongside the small tables which line the pavement.</div>
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Being Durban, it's already pretty warm by nine in the morning, and we ask our waitress if she can find us a couple of iced coffees.<br />
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'It's just espresso and milk over ice', she warns us. 'We don't crush it or anything'.<br />
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We assure her that we are fine with that - the coffees at Parc are made from beans supplied by Colombo Coffee (of Factory Café fame) and when they arrive they are delicious - cool, silky-smooth and full bodied.<br />
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We pick two of the breakfast options off the chalkboard and order. Reluctantly, we omit the 'Not-so-Benedict' (bacon and poached eggs with hollandaise on next door's rosemary potato bread) - I am still cherishing the memories of my last Eggs Benedict, and it would feel like a betrayal to be moving on so soon. Luckily there are plenty of other exciting sounding options, and before long we are presented with two plates - one holding a toasted scone topped with poached eggs, bacon, roast red peppers and wholegrain mustard cream, and the other piled high with corn and zucchini cakes, poached eggs, halloumi, lemon and olives with a tomato and vanilla relish.<br />
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In situations like this, the time honoured tradition of 'eat half and pass on' is enforced, and I can't decide whether to be happy or sad at half time, as each dish is wonderful, and both are so fresh and unusual. The 'eggs on scone' comes first - eggs are perfectly poached, bacon crispy and mushrooms joyfully sautéed. The mustard cream pulls the dish together, and the scone base is a great idea - plenty of room to soak up all of the juices. This particular scone is a little hard, but with the quality of the other ingredients I'm hoping that this was a once off error. </div>
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Next arrives 'eggs on corn and zucchini cakes'. The cakes are basically a stack of fritters, lightly bound corn and zucchini just fried through - warm and moist. The lemon and olives are not the first things I would think of when it comes to breakfast, but they work together beautifully, in harmony with the eggs, the fritters and the halloumi (my only request here is for MORE halloumi).</div>
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Our waitress tells us that she doesn't have Tabasco sauce, but she does have chilli sauce. A simple bowl of blended chilies arrives - the perfect accompaniment to eggs, and one that leaves a warm glow after the table is expertly cleared and the bill promptly delivered.</div>
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On the way out, we popped into the Glenwood Bakery for a couple of bagels - heavenly!<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-57537831425996448682014-03-02T17:27:00.000+02:002014-03-02T17:27:00.093+02:00Glenwood BakeryGlenwood Bakery (398 Esther Roberts Road) is the kind of place that you hear about from a friend - and having been there, the kind of place you want to share with your friends. Completely unflashy, the bakery sits in a quiet suburb of leafy Glenwood in a two storey building topped with a red tiled roof, like so many Berea houses. With no prominent signage, the only indications of its presence are a small 'open' sign in a window sporting a tasteful Glenwood Bakery logo and a collection of three small tables that line the open pavement. Looking into the light, airy space, a central communal table fills most of the room, while a bookshelf filled with well thumbed books lines one of the walls. A wire rack holds the days offerings - biscotti, grissini, wholemeal sourdough, croissants, and other freshly baked treasures.<br />
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Because it's a Saturday, Eggs Benedict and Eggs Royale as well as a variety of toasted sandwiches are also being served. Apparently you can get pizza on a Monday night, and the rest of the week sandwiches are available. It's pointedly more a bakery than a restaurant, but that only makes the limited offerings all the more desirable.<br />
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We sit at one of the small mosaic tiled tables outside and order two Eggs Benedict and two glasses of homemade iced-tea. Within ten minutes our food arrives. Naturally, the eggs are served on the bakeries homemade bread - one of their dark sourdoughs. A sliver of finely sliced cured meat (possibly Chuck & Bob's prosciutto?) rests beneath two perfectly poached eggs, which must be from the most organic, free-ranging chickens in KZN, as the yolks are an almost startlingly orange and taste like happiness and sunbeams. The whole creation is cloaked in a soft yellow blanket of hollandaise, which is rich, buttery and contains just a hint of lemon to holds the flavours in check and keep the dish as fresh as the dusting of bright green chives scattered across the plate.<br />
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It's the kind of food that you would make yourself the morning after a late night out - if you were a master-baker capable of whipping up a quick mother-sauce, and always kept a leg of dry-cured ham hanging in your larder.<br />
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Oh yes, and we also took a rye bread sourdough home, which made delicious toast and sandwiches.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-64298262453705047722014-03-02T13:00:00.002+02:002014-03-03T20:37:00.564+02:00Market at the SquareThe sun has been down for an hour but the heat of the long day continues to rise from the warm streets and walls of Umhlanga's Granada Square in bustling Chartwell Drive. The sound of a crooned Mumford and Sons cover mingles with a hundred conversations, the barked orders of food vendors and the sizzle of meat on flame. Above, a constellation of lights stand in for stars. It's standing room only at the popular Market at the Square, so I'm enjoying feeling a part of the crowd, sipping on a glass of chilled champagne and debating the merits of falafel rotis over lamb pitas.<br />
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Falafel roti wins out, so I join the queue in front of the ever popular Falafel Fundi. I don't know his name, so I'll just call him the Fundi, but he was in fine form, rolling and stuffing his rotis at an impressive pace, while keeping up a constant stream of jokes and chatter. Rotis came with or without chilli - I had with, while two others with me had half chilli and no chilli - like Goldilocks' three bears. The rotis were great - bursting with flavour, chock full of falafel balls with the earthy, silky fried chickpea contrasting with the crunchy salad, the warmth of the chilli and garlicky tahini.<br />
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Earlier in the evening we also ate at Zak and Tonic, who impressed with their steamed buns, crispy wontons and other dim sum, which were snapped up at such a rate they sold out by the end of the evening.</div>
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Several glasses of champagne later, and it's time for something sweet to end off the night. The humorously named 'Legen-dairy' ice cream offers four fantastic flavours, including peanut butter, which I have to try. It's a generous portion, seved in a paper cup with a wooden spoon, and it's as good as you would imagine - do you like peanut butter? Do you like ice cream? Yep, you'll like this then. Only after eating half of my dessert I discover that mixed portions are also possible, so next time I'll definitely throw in a scoop of the oreo and cheesecake ice creams.</div>
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In an increasingly crowded market schedule (ten this weekend alone according to my handy market bible produced by <a href="http://cuizine.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/cuizine_markets_mar.jpg" target="_blank">@CuizineDurban</a>) the Market at the Square stands out for the great food, chilled vibes and friendly atmosphere. As well as the good eating, there are also plenty of craft stands selling jewelry, art, decor and other fun odds and ends. A fun night out.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-56446957394001804242014-02-23T19:38:00.001+02:002014-02-23T19:39:50.192+02:00Weekend Wrap-up: Waxy's, Mali's and Afro'sAs I mentioned in my previous post, there are a ton of great places to eat out in Durban. Just this weekend we hit three spots that we hadn't tried before and loved all of them!<br />
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On Thursday we decided to get the weekend started early, with beers and burgers at <b>Waxy O'Connors</b>, or as everyone seems to call it - Waxy's. Waxy's is in one of my favourite streets in Westville, Jan Hofmeyer Road, where the dining options include La Storia, Le Thai and Foon Lok Nien. It's one of those faux Irish pubs that you find all over the world, from Thailand to Dublin, so the decor, as expected, involves a lot of dark wood, dark green and the occasional shamrock. What seems to set Waxy's apart is the energy that pours out of it and into the packed car park - even on a Thursday the place is bustling, and empty tables are hard to come by.</div>
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The burgers seem to be the main attraction - we tried the Paddy Sanchez (beef burger with a nachos and guacamole topping) and the Molly Malone (chicken, avo, bacon, feta). Both were good, although the chicken burger was better than the beef, which was a touch dry. Chips were hot and fresh, and there was a generous portion of onion rings, which we enjoyed. Apparently every week there is a 'Waxy Wednesday' special involving two burgers and two 500ml draughts for R100. No wonder it's popular...</div>
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On Friday we headed out for part two of 'The Great Friday Night Bunny Chow Experiment', which involves digging through town for the dodgiest dives serving the best bunnies with a big group of friends and friends of friends. Last time round we did the Brittania, which is rightly famous, and seemed like an appropriate place to start. This weekend, I suggested <b>Mali's</b> - a fairly new restaurant on Smiso Nkwanaya (Goble) Road - which turned out to be a complete flop, as it wasn't at all dodgy, served amazing curries, and featured super cheerful waiters, who were rather offended when we asked if they did bunnies.</div>
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This is definitely somewhere I will be eating again soon - it's at least as good as Little India, and possibly better. Arriving late, we were in a bit of a rush to order and so stuck to the tried and tested, but Mali's menu shows a lot of promise waiting to be explored, and doesn't stick to the same old dishes that all of the other Indian restaurants in Durban are offering. </div>
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A nice touch was the small bowls of chickpeas served as a snack, with hits of jeera and chilli, that had us eagerly awaiting the arrival of our main courses. Despite the fact that the restaurant was humming with patrons and there were about 15 at our table, the service was quick and efficient, and we were all tucking in within twenty minutes of ordering. The paneer tikka masala was the best that I have ever tasted, and the dhal makhani was excellent, although a little thinner than I am used to. The depth of flavours was evident from the first taste, and the heat was ever present without threatening to overpower. Mountains of fluffy white rice and various naans and rotis were passed around, and everyone forgave me for suggesting a place that doesn't do bunnies.</div>
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On Saturday mornings we like to head down to the beachfront for a 5 km run with about 600 other Parkrunners. Feeling virtuous after our workout, we headed down the promenade to South Beach where <b>Afro's Chicken</b> have set up shop in a funky converted container painted an eye-popping yellow. The waves were looking good, and groups of surfers were waiting for burgers, chicken strips and coffees. It's a simple menu, with breakfast offered until 9 am and chicken thereafter, and the two ladies in the container were working hard getting out the orders.</div>
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The service isn't the fastest, but there are table and chairs in the shade to chill at while you wait, and Paul Simon's Graceland was playing on the little sound system inside. The lemon and herb, and peri-peri chicken strips are worth the wait, tender, succulent and served in a beautiful little cardboard boxes with brown paper. The chips are fantastic too, but I gave them a miss, as I didn't want to undo all the work of the run. Definitely gonna get them next time though!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-31222371403116449102014-02-17T21:45:00.001+02:002014-02-17T21:45:10.385+02:00Market Revisited<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
With over 300 restaurants to visit in Durban (according to
Tripadvisor) I am always excited about where I am going to eat next. My mental top ten list, is constantly updated based on reviews, comments, recommendations and new places opening up (I'm looking at you The Wok Box). With so many places to go, and a
limited number of opportunities to eat out, there aren't yet many Durban
restaurants that I've visited twice.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One restaurant that I've been to more than
twice is Market. There's a lot to like about Market. It's in a beautiful
courtyard just off Gladys Mazibuko road, so it's easy to get to. It's next door to
Shoppe, which is my favourite place to peruse for gifts and arty objects for
the house. The waiters are among the best in Durban: friendly, informed,
efficient. And the food is obviously very, very tasty.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So far, we've eaten at Market for
breakfast two or three times (<a href="http://durbandeglazed.blogspot.com/2013/10/this-little-piggy-went-to-market.html" target="_blank">This little piggy went to Market</a>) and
for lunch on several occasions, and it hasn't let us down yet. I went there for my birthday. I took along my parents AND my parents-in-law. So I was really
excited to head over for a day-after-Valentine's dinner and see what their
night time fare was like.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As I expected, the place is magical at
night. When we arrived, the sound of South African Jazz welcomed us into the
courtyard, where the trees were draped in gently glowing fairy lights. Inside,
naked bulbs hung from high ceilings and shed a soft glow on the tables below.
We were seated on the veranda area and enjoyed the benefit of the breeze
outside.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Our waiter Simphiwe was great fun, guiding
us through the night's specials, guessing (correctly) what we were going to
order, and suggesting an excellent bottle of wine which we hadn't tried before
- the 2011 'Bamboes Bay' Sauvignon from Fryer's Cove (5* from Platter's: <a href="http://www.wine-sa.com/wine-news/fryers-cove-gets-a-platter-5-star-rating-for-its-bamboes-bay-sauvignon-2011/" target="_blank">WineSA</a>). Before starters, a simple
platter of hot fresh bread was brought to the table and Simphiwe anointed
plates with olive oil and balsamic which he poured theatrically from a height, laughing infectiously.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sadly, the magic didn't last. For starters
we had the fish cakes and the ostrich carpaccio - and while both were tasty
enough, they lacked the imagination and flair of dishes we had enjoyed in the
past off the lunch and breakfast menus. The carpaccio was presented with little
thought in a subdued heap and adorned with halved cherry tomatoes and wilting rocket.
The fish cakes flavours were overwhelmed by potato filler and the dips (soy and
sweet chili), uninspired.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For mains we tried the duck confit with
butterbean mash and tomato and bean compote. The duck was quite tasty, the mash was alright, and the compote was either so minimal that it eluded detection, or quite possibly was completely absent. We also ordered the ostrich fillet served on polenta
bread and finished with a port and whole-grained mustard sauce. The fillet was
tough and underdone, which was a shame, as it was a generously sized portion of
three large medallions. The port and whole-grained mustard had, by some
mysterious alchemy, turned to green peppercorn sauce, and the polenta 'bread' turned out to be just fried polenta really, which was also kinda disappointing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Striving to hit at least one high note, we
risked ordering two desserts, one - Market's famous chocolate brownie which I
had enjoyed twice before, and two - a baked lemon cheesecake. On the previous
occasions that I have ordered the brownie, it was served with a delicious homemade
vanilla ice-cream. Sadly this portion arrived with what I am 90% sure was
Country Fresh Vanilla Flavoured Frozen Dessert*<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">with vegetable fat</span>.
The cheesecake was equally bland, I think one of those Woolie's ones in the
little plastic container might have been nicer. At least the coffee was great
- and served with one of those crystallised sugar stirrers, a nice touch.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The final one-two was the arrival of the
bill (expensive) followed soon after by stomach cramps and nausea.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The next day I sent an email to the
manager to let him know how disappointed we were with our meal, and its after effects. I got an
auto-response informing me that he was on leave. A case of the sous chef blues?
Here's hoping our experience was a once off - but I won't be back in a hurry.<span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-10536423998252480822014-02-09T21:44:00.000+02:002014-02-09T21:44:16.376+02:00Quo Restaurant, Gillitts'You simply have to try this baked potato, Brandon! Whether you like it or not. It's out of this world!'<br />
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The obnoxiously loud woman at the table alongside ours was haranguing her friend to take a taste of her main course. Having recently poured the dregs of her table mates' wine glasses into her own while they were on a smoke break outside, her tone was increasingly belligerent and higher pitched.<br />
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'I've never tasted potato like this!' she enthused - waving a crisp skinned roast potato with a soft and moist interior in Brandon's face. Her generosity I imagine was wine fuelled - at Quo, the food is almost too good to share, and more easily inspires jealous protection than such open handed largesse. Luckily for me, I have a standing sharing arrangement with my dining partner, which doubles the number of dishes that I can enjoy, and allows me to drop my guard against the kind of opportunistic fork that approaches unbidden from across the table.<br />
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We had found our way to Quo up a rather dark and winding road to the imaginatively named Gillitts Shopping Centre at the intersection of York and Clifton roads. It's a nondescript mini-mall that houses a pizza joint; a shop selling sexy (tacky) dress up items; a pleasant courtyard, and Quo Restaurant, the creation of chef Jonathan Jones.<br />
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The decor is different from most Durban restaurants, with a simple, modern interior. The lighting is quite bright, but softened by the addition of candles on wall sconces. There is a broad stripe of duck egg blue on the walls, and tables have either simple plastic chairs or deep leather wingbacks. The focal point of the room is an impressive collection of about 20 flowering orchids in white, pinks and yellows that line one of the walls. Either someone has quite the green fingers, or they must be spending a lot of money on bringing in fresh plants every other week. The photo below was taken at the end of the evening - every table was full while we were there, although we managed to get a booking that morning for the same night.<br />
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The service was brisk, and we soon had a bottle at the table from the brief but reasonable wine list. Quo's menu doesn't really do the food justice, being a single laminated page, with dishes presented a little haphazardly. Starters are described as 'light meals or starters to share', which I wouldn't really agree with - I easily managed one on my own, and they are reasonably priced in any case. The style of the food could be described as modern fusion with an Asian influence, but there is no real cohesiveness to the offerings, with salads, sea food and Italian inspired dishes rubbing shoulders.</div>
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No matter - the food, which arrives promptly is great. We started with an Asian fillet bruschetta which combined fresh French loaf with tender strips of rare fillet cooked in a fantastic sauce that might have been oyster sauce based - dark, rich and sweet/salty. Deciding we had space for another starter, we then shared the calamari pan fried in a pad Thai sauce and were very glad that we had - the calamari tubes were tender and simply cooked, but the sauce was even better than the last, with hints of sweet and sour tamarind and lemon, salty shrimpy flavours and fresh coriander.<br />
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The main courses, like the starters, are a bit of an eclectic bunch, featuring sections for baguettes, linguini, and beef fillet as well as a handful of others. The special of the day was pork belly, but we opted for the lamb cutlets, and a beef fillet and prawns combination. </div>
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Both dishes were excellent - the lamb cutlets were moist and pink and served with an Asian style basting. The fillet was sliced into quite thin medallions and topped with juicy deshelled prawns. Both main courses were served with the aforementioned baked potatoes - which really were out of this world. Again, there was plenty of fresh coriander garnishing the meals, which I love, but may not be to everybody's taste.</div>
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During the meal it was great to have the chef visit our table on more than one occasion to see that we were enjoying ourselves. While some restaurants skip this nicety completely, and others overdo it with intrusive commentary on every course, Quo struck a good balance, and I felt like I could have brought up any issues, had there been any. As it was I merely enthused as to the quality of the food and the sauces (mostly in gestures, as my mouth was generally full).<br />
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The dessert menu was fairly short, and we opted for the 'bread and butter' pudding (made with croissants - which sold it for me) and the Turkish nougat served with dark and white Belgian chocolate. The bread and butter pudding is something of a signature dish there it seems, and was pretty good, and not something that I have ever ordered before. The croissants are baked (with butter, one imagines - as well as chocolate and cranberries) in an individual portion, and were crisp on the outside and soft and warm on the inside. The dish went well with the vanilla icecream, which I suspect was homemade.<br />
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The nougat was probably the weak point of the meal, simply pieces of nougat served with bowls of melted milk (not dark) and white chocolate, and too sweet to really enjoy. It would probably be better with a dark chocolate, but might be one to share if you just want a little something with your coffee at the end of the meal.<br />
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Quo has recently moved to the top spot on Tripadvisor's recommendations for Durban Restaurants (on the strength of relatively few, but very positive reviews) and you can see what people like about it. The decor is attractive, service efficient and friendly, food tasty and imaginative and prices reasonable.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-23739177204993900432014-01-21T21:42:00.004+02:002014-01-21T21:42:50.911+02:00Friday Night Drinks: Frank's Speakeasy, Mount EdgecombeLuxuriating in the country club atmosphere of Mount Edgecombe, within a driver's range of the nearby golf courses you will find Marco Paulo Bistro, and its adjoining bar - Frank's Speakeasy. Frank's styles itself a 'speakeasy' after the illegal American prohibition-era saloons that were spoken of quietly, for fear of alerting the authorities. Here, however, I think the speakeasy nature most likely applies to the locals reluctance of 'outsiders' discovering the existence of this stylish venue.<br />
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Outside of Frank's, the luxury SUVs line up in neat rows, while inside, the predominantly middle-aged and wealthy crowd sip on craft beers, and tuck into great bar food. There's a definite sense of an unofficial dress code, with Golf Dads rocking shorts and Superdry T-shirts and Soccer Moms wearing leopard-print blouses and skin tight pants. The waiters sport beards and tattoos and dress like they've stepped off a Levi's commercial, in skinny jeans and V-neck T's.<br />
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The bar has a cool, industrial feel, with bare light bulbs and blacked out walls featuring chalked on specials. There are a handful of deep booths with plushly upholstered seats that will suck you in and make it hard to leave before final rounds. The soundtrack ranged from Counting Crows, Third Eye Blind and Coldplay to recent hits from Imagine Dragons.<br />
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The first port of call on arrival must be the impressive list of beers, including perennial crowd pleasers like Darling Brew, CBC and Jack Black but extending to more unusual selections like the Imperial Tequila Ale (at R100 for 660ml). If you're not a beer drinker, there are some good wine choices too, as well as plenty of single malts and pretty much anything else that you're after.<br />
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Frank's shares a kitchen with Marco Paulo, so you can enjoy the fine bistro fare, or you can pick from a shorter list of bar specials on the wall. I started with a snack from the bistro menu - brinjal done three ways, including with risotto; parmigiana style, and atop bruschetta. Classy and tasty - particularly the risotto.<br />
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Now feeling really hungry, I went with the Frank's burger from the bar menu. It's a serious burger, featuring 250 grams of aged, grass-fed Angus beef from Greenfields in Mooi River; white cheddar; onion rings and chips. Apparently the meat is dry-aged on the bone for three weeks before mincing and flame grilling - it was certainly the best burger I've had in ages, full of flavour and so good I ate it all and was too full to finish the onion rings. This was sad, as the onion rings were excellent.<br />
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The dessert choices were rather limited to the usual suspects of crème brûlée and chocolate fondant, along with retro-classics like bread-and-butter pudding and apple crumble. I picked the chocolate fondant, and was not disappointed, probably the best one I've had anywhere, with a luxurious, molten chocolate interior nestled inside a light, crisp edged cake. Served with a simple scoop of vanilla icecream, it was understated but excellent.</div>
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So, I've broken the first rule of the Speakeasy (you do not talk about the Speakeasy) - but hopefully they will let me back in. I need to go back, firstly to try out the bistro experience at Marco Paulo next door, but also to return for another go at those onion rings.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-10054070869308485922014-01-19T21:30:00.001+02:002014-01-19T21:30:41.197+02:00The Greedy BuddhaBuddha, or Siddhartha Gautama as he was also known, was born in the Himalayan foothills around 2500 years ago, and found enlightenment through a 'middle way' which avoided both sensual indulgence and severe self-restraint. So he would possibly be a little bit peeved at being called greedy. Having said that, if he were to eat a meal at this fresh and cheerful Durban North restaurant he would probably be forgiven for throwing caution to the wind and getting really stuck in - after all you only live once (a little Buddhist joke there for you).<br />
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Describing their approach as 'Asian fusion tapas', The Greedy Buddha delights with playful morsels, tastefully presented and served by a knowledgeable and friendly staff. When we visited, we were seated at a round table for eight and found that conversation (and tasters) flowed much more freely than in most venues, where a couple of small square tables get stuck together for larger groups. The food and the menu here are structured around sharing (not greedy at all really) and this is an ideal venue to visit with a group of friends.</div>
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The decor is simple - white plastic tables and chairs with green cushions, and all of the seating is outdoors on a covered veranda, which works well in Durban and adds to the easy going ambiance. The tables are bare, except for a central lazy Susan which makes it easy to shoot your dim sum from one side of the table to the other in a kind of delicious Asian roulette.<br />
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As it was our first visit, we were happy to try the '11 Tastes' option which offers eleven selections from each portion of the menu, excepting desert (at a reasonable R185 a head). At this point our waiter came in very useful, assisting us with choices and pointing out the various possible combinations and permutations. </div>
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We began our trip through South East Asia with a Japanese miso soup. The soups are all served in espresso cups, and this one was mildly flavoured, salty and slightly sweet, with mushrooms, sweetcorn and spring onions - a good opening act for the dim sum that followed.</div>
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Dim Sum are available in three variants: 'potstickers', which are pan fried on one side, then steamed; 'shumai' with translucent wonton wrappers holding together steamed fillings, and steamed buns, with soft, fluffy dough that breaks open to reveal lamb, duck or roast pork.</div>
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Each kind of dim sum has a choice of three fillings, and the beauty of the tasting menu is that you don't have to think too hard about it, because you can try a lamb, chilli and coriander filling in the potsticker (there are two per portion) then move on to duck, spring onion and hoisin for the steamed buns, and finish off with pork and ginger shumai. This kind of approach avoids a lot of menu envy, and each combination that we tried was delicious. The sides were also excellent, with the sweet and sour pickled cabbage that came with the potstickers so good, it could have almost stood proudly as its own dish. </div>
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Next on the menu was a miniature Yorkshire pudding with roast beef and horseradish wasabi mayo - I guess this is the 'fusion' aspect of the restaurant's offering. It was a tasty morsel, that at another establishment would have been well received as an upmarket bar snack, but here I felt that it didn't really add anything to the overall experience, with the introduction of a British classic a step too far from the main thrust of the meal. Perhaps if the wasabi had given a real kick, rather than just a subtle poke.<br />
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The next group of courses from the 'Classics' section of the menu headed back in the right direction with the aptly named 'ducking fantastic', crisp slices of pork belly on braised red cabbage, sweet and hot glazed halloumi, and an unusual dish of crispy spinach - a deep fried treat with a dusting of five spice sugar that made it moreish in a way spinach shouldn't really be.<br />
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Our final course before dessert was from the wok - calamari in a Kung Pao sauce, served with steamed rice. I was won over by the mention of Thai Sriracha chilli in the sauce, but found this dish slightly wanting. The calamari was tender and enjoyable, but the sauce was a little thin and sweet for my taste, with not enough fire, and too little rice to soak everything up. </div>
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Some people have mentioned about this restaurant that the portions are too small, and that they left hungry. I felt overall that the portion sizes were well balanced, although I easily managed 11 tastes, and still had room for desert, so keep in mind that one or two courses will not fill you up - this is tapas after all.<br />
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Desserts are changed regularly, and when we visited there were two interesting options to choose from, a chocolate brownie with candied orange rind and rice crispies in white chocolate, or a lemongrass panna cotta with green tea sherbet. Both options were dinky - the chocolate brownie is about half the size of a box of matches, but are a great sweet mouthful to end on. The brownie was more like a square of dark chocolate mousse, resting in an intense orange sauce - slightly too much for me, but I'm not a huge fan of orange and chocolate. The panna cotta was lovely, a lightly flavoured, smooth shot of panna cotta, with a refreshing jolt of sherbet dusted on top. Very close to Nirvana...<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4354202397525080680.post-67522881213471642882013-12-29T19:25:00.000+02:002013-12-29T19:25:48.269+02:009th Avenue BistroA lot has been written about 9th Avenue bistro (almost all of it good), now open for almost thirteen years, and consistently considered one of Durban's best restaurants.<br />
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Like many excellent restaurants, it is more concerned with the food than with the exterior view, and is found in the Avonmore Centre in Morningside, an unremarkable location with an inadequate parking lot and a view of... well, just the parking lot really. Having said that, the place has undergone a revamp sometime in the last year or so since we last visited, and the interior is no longer entirely minimalist. A small, enclosed terrace is lined with accents of raw wood, and the interior is painted in cool grey tones. A feature wall carries a collection of paintings and photographs of aloes while the opposite wall holds some of their excellent wine collection. Simple hanging bulbs create a welcoming light, and my only quibble with the interior was the use of plastic flowers (fake protea pincushions) on a high shelf.<br />
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The wine list is short enough to read through, but long enough to mean business, and includes offerings from several boutique Cape wineries. We ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc No 7 from Hermanuspietersfontein, a winery we were lucky to visit earlier this year. Platter's gives it four stars - I give it a delicious.<br />
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The menu itself is tight and focused, with around ten starters and ten main courses over two pages. We didn't get to dessert on this visit (birthday cake!) so no comments on that front. Prices are on the steep side, but in line with the level of service.<br />
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To begin, we selected the pork and chorizo stuffed squid and the crispy fried calamari, which seemed a good combination. The calamari was tender, well battered, hot and delicious and came with two dipping sauces, a Vietnamese and a roasted jalapeno aioli. Both sauces were tasty, but didn't do full justice to their names - they could equally well have been described as a soy sauce and a chili mayo - it would have been good to taste some real smoky flavours from the roasted jalapenos. Presentation was on a wooden board, which I liked, sitting on a paper serviette, which I didn't (soggy serviette, bad).<br />
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The squid was artfully presented, the plate painted with squid ink and piled with a rustic couscous, the stuffed tubes, a scattering of Cajun prawns and a dusting of some kind of powder in one corner, which looked good, but was almost flavourless. The pairing of pork and squid was great - although I think that can be said of all pork pairings (bacon chocolate anyone?).<br />
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We were well satisfied with our starters, as were the majority of the table, with the exception of the soup of the day (field mushroom) which was rather weak - blandly presented and thin.<br />
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Main course was a tough choice, with the pork belly and duck options vying for attention. In the end I went off menu for one of the nights specials: suckling pig (under three months old - I asked, and then felt guilty), roasted whole, pulled off the bone and packed into a slab, topped with crackling and served with a warm salad of potato, apple and basil and a roasted carrot.<br />
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The picture doesn't do it justice - it was one of the most wonderful things I have ever eaten. The shredded pork meat was amazingly soft, with just the right proportion of fat, enough to carry the wonderful flavours, but not enough to overpower the senses. The highlight, however, was the crackling, which was thin, crisp and yielding, unlike some crackling, which can be hard enough to break a tooth on. The side salad nicely balanced the pork, with just a hint of apple with the potato. By the time I was done, nothing was left on the plate, and I was sorely tempted to pick it up and lick off any remaining sauce.<br />
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I have mentioned before my misgivings about ordering risotto (too often underdone). Happily, 9th Avenue's effort was spot on, with tender, gooey rice, subtly flavoured with leek, mushroom and soft cheese. The risotto was served with 'spring vegetables', which turned out to be asparagus, grilled courgette and peas - simple, tasty, and a welcome improvement on what normally passes for vegetables at most restaurants.<br />
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As we were visiting to celebrate a friend's birthday, we ended the meal with a delicious birthday cake, along with coffees (small and strong). We will have to visit again soon to review the desserts...<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11828770618989606246noreply@blogger.com0