Max's Lifestyle, Umlazi

It'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.

We're out for lunch at Max's Lifestyle. 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.

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.

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.

'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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cafe Abyssinia

An 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.

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 injera - 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 berbere, an Ethiopian spice mix featuring chilli, coriander, fenugreek and more.

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.

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.

Of course man can not live on injera alone, and the selection of wats, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cake and Satay House

Eating 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.

The Cake and Satay House, 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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

Lupa Osteria, Hillcrest

Exciting news! You may have already seen the blog post below on the Taste Detectives page. That's because I am now a contributing taste detective, under the rather cool name of 'The Hungry Hedonist'. I'll still be posting all of my content here, but you'll see it first on Taste Detectives.

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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. Lupa Osteria 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.

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.

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.

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.

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'.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Parc Cafe, Glenwood

Two weeks ago we were enjoying breakfast at the excellent Glenwood Bakery 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 parc café (parc-cafe.co.za) 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.

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.

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.

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.

'It's just espresso and milk over ice', she warns us. 'We don't crush it or anything'.

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.

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.

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. 

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).

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.

On the way out, we popped into the Glenwood Bakery for a couple of bagels - heavenly!

Glenwood Bakery

Glenwood 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.

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.

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.

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.

Oh yes, and we also took a rye bread sourdough home, which made delicious toast and sandwiches.

Market at the Square

The 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.

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.

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.

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.

In an increasingly crowded market schedule (ten this weekend alone according to my handy market bible produced by @CuizineDurban) 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.