guilt-laden egg cups

As a rule of thumb when we cook for the two of us we don’t cook meat and generally we cook pretty nutritious and healthy food. Every once in a blue moon our rube roots come clawing through and WE CRAVE PERKINS. Yes, you heard me. At Perkins they have a cure for your hangover: processed foods laden with butter, bacon and fat. When my cousins from India were in the States for our wedding, we took them to this monument to American exceptionalism and together we ate our way through home fries and hash browns on many a hungover morning (it was a long week of celebrations).   Last Sunday P and I got sentimental for those breakfasts with my cousins and lamented that there was no Perkins in South Africa. Fear not, I told him. I too, can cook like a Perkins chef.
GUILT LADEN EGG CUPS:
2 small potatoes, grated
1/2 onion, diced very small
4 eggs
4 strips of bacon or 2 tbls of lardons
2 tbls of romano cheese, grated
salt, pepper and pimente to taste
2 ramekins or oven proof bowls
Preheat the oven to it’s max temp. Squeeze most of the moisture out of the grated potatoes  by putting them in between two paper towls and pressing down. Mix them in a bowl with the onions and salt. Divide between your two ramekins and throw into the oven for approx half an hour. While they’re in the oven, fry your bacon and save the bacon fat. Cut up your bacon into small bits and set aside. Using an oven mitt and being very careful take the ramekins out of the oven, pour some bacon fat into each one and replace into the oven. Now fry your eggs, sunny side up. When the potatoes are done take them out of the oven, dividing evenly add a layer of bacon pieces, then a layer of eggs (2 for each). Sprinkle on cheese and some salt, and return to the oven to melt cheese for about 2 minutes. Sprinkle with pimente and enjoy with some hot sauce and feel like you’re in America (if you’re not ).

Warm & Glad

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

As we head towards winter I’m glad that my friend Sazi introduced me to another adorable and yummy food spot in Jozi to keep me Warm & Glad (har har) when my drafty house is not. It is a combination of a coffee shop, specialty grocery store, cafe and art gallery. Currently on display are colorful screen prints that had me thinking about dropping some rands, they serve fresh juices (apple-carrot-ginger!) and their hot chocolate is a cup of steaming milk with pieces of milk chocolate to mix in on the side. Adorbs. A small but delicious menu with plenty of variety, and…free wifi! Try it, you’ll like it.

  • Alban’s Square
    357 Jan Smuts Avenue
    Corner St Alban’s Road
    Craighall Park

    Park in St Alban’s Road

  • SHOP TIMES

    Monday to Friday: 7.30am to 4.30pm
    Saturdays: 8.30am to 12.30pm

707 Panyaza

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

This weekend we had a delicious dinner at a bumping shebeen called 707 Panyaza in Orlando West, Soweto. We gorged on the buy and braai, achaar (which was more of a [delicious!] salad), pap, and the awesome music . We enjoyed a brew and danced in our chairs (it hadn’t quite turned into a dance party so I had to satisfy myself with remaining in my chair) and received a couple amused looks by the regulars. 707 is going to become a regular stop on our Jozi tour for our future guests and I can’t WAIT to go back and do more than just chair-dance to the music. Nico and Elisabeth also agreed that it was the highlight of our weekend. Much thanks to Steffen and Sibo for the tip.

707 Panyaza is located at:

White City Jabavu, Soweto

1736 Tumahole Street

Punching that into your gps will get you within a kilometer and then just ask around. Enjoy! xx

9 courses later: Cube Tasting Kitchen

Gallery

This gallery contains 9 photos.

As part of our jam-packed and thoroughly awesome show-Johannesburg-off-tour with our visiting friends, Saturday night we did chef Dario de Angeli’s Cube Tasting Kitchen in Parktown North. We spent an evening working our way through a nine course tasting menu (and … Continue reading

The Good Luck Club

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Last night  The Good Luck Club opened its doors (next to Wolves, same owners). And like Wolves it’s impeccably decorated (though minimally, which I like) with industrial fittings, metal Marais chairs (which had me dreaming of an oversized future farm table and Marais chairs as far as the eye can see, but I digress….)  and ironic cat wall paper. The crowd was fashionable hipsters in top knots and cool jewelry, and the menu is succinct (can a menu be succinct?) containing a few appetizers (edamame, dumplings, etc), soups, and a few noodle dishes and stir fry. Kate and I opted for some edamame to share and soups (she the chicken and I the bean curd) as it was a rainy, overcast rather Berlin-like evening. We enjoyed green tea, though there were a few carefully selected cocktails, 2 house wines, and a list of a few other creative teas available (i.e. pineapple Rooibos). I think the kitchen is still working out its kinks, as the soups took an extraordinarily long time to come out (though maybe that means they were made from scratch when we ordered them??) but the food was good, the restaurant is cute and has lots of potential. A few of the staff were the familiar faces from Wolves so that was nice too.

The Good Luck Club, 3 Corlett Drive , 011 447 3816

Open Tues-Saturday for lunch and dinner

Sunday for lunch only

Closed Monday

It also advertises a website but I don’t think it’s running yet

So wrong, it has to be right: Jozi’s answer to Berlin’s Doener Kebap?

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

While I like to consider myself somebody who eats right and cooks nutritious meals, there are times when you’re hungover we all must eat delicious bites of heaven that are really bad for you. I’m sorry to let you know about this but you’ll thank me in the end. There is a magical place called Akahlwaya’s which has the best Food for Hungover People, namely a Polony and Chip Roll. Polony is some sort of sausage (it doesn’t have pork here since Akahl’s caters to a lot of Muslim Indians) and the reason I liken it to a doener- both meats that are made in a way that we would rather not know about. On a  toasted roll, they put slices of polony, french fries, masala, chili sauce, ketchup and mayo and then toast the whole thing. I estimate it to be probably upwards of 1000 calories, but that’s neither here nor there- head to Akahlwaya’s next time you are having a bad day (Or your period. Which I guess is the same thing. TMI. Sorry.).

Akahlwaya’s

100 Church Street in Mayfair (there are several, but my colleague recommends this one over the others)

Call ahead with your order, because there is ALWAYS a line 011 839 4003 YOU’RE WELCOME

Restaurant Recommendation Cape Town: Codfather

 Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

For delicious sushi and lovely sushi chefs try out The Codfather in Camp’s Bay.  They have your standard moving-belt sushi bar with color-coded plates. You may also make requests from the extraordinarily gentlemanly chefs, or sit at a table with a view and order the old fashioned way. Before 6 pm all sushi is half price (a happy surprise when we got the check) and the staff is friendly and helpful. Being a block away from the water it’s a nice respite from a hot day at the beach for a light, refreshing lunch and a few glasses of wine (well maybe it was just one glass but it was extremely potent since one is generally overheated after the beach).  I’ve never been for dinner but I would make a resi to be safe.

The Codfather is located on 37 The Drive, call (0)21 438 0782/3 for reservations.

Restaurant recommendation, Cape Town: El Burro’s

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

I would like to unabashedly gush about the best Mexican food on the continent of  Africa and maybe outside of the Americas (prove me wrong, I dare you). El Burro’s in the neighborhood of Greenpoint , Cape Town: on top of delicious, authentic food they have yummy drinks like their chili margarita (pictured above), a legitimate tequila menu (if you’re in the mood), adorable décor and adorable waitresses.  If you eat pork do yourself a favor and get the chilorio pork tacos (I get it every time I go and it’s sooo good I tried to recreate it in my kitchen). Pork shoulder that’s been braising all day in an adobo chili marinade, delicious fixins’, and homemade corn tortillas. They even fly in the good Tabasco from Cali and Mexico.  Make a reservation on a weekend night or busy time of year. If you’re into seafood P strongly recommends the seafood soup (big enough for a meal).

El Burro’s is located at 81 Main Road in Greenside on the second floor, look up!,  call for reservations 021-4332364 on weekend nights or busy times of year

The New Chinatown in Johannesburg

new chinatown in johannesburg, land of nams    On the top of my list of favorite things is food from around the world. So when my fellow Joburg expatriate Bing (she is showing up a lot in my blog posts huh?), who is from Singapore and is Chinese, said she wanted to take us on a trip to Joburg’s ‘new’ Chinatown we were very excited. She says the old Chinatown, which is in downtown Joburg, sells such cheap stuff that the Chinese won’t even buy it.  So we trekked to Cyrildene and reached glorious Derrick Avenue.  She showed us the best oriental grocery stores and Martina and I stocked up on all those hard-to-find ingredients for our Burmese and Indian dishes. I even took home some tapioca pearls to make Bubble Tea since I can no longer order them to my apartment like in good ol’ NYC. There were veggies as far as the eye could see, as well as electronics and massage parlors. Whatever you want, they have it for you and it is cheap as hell.

chinatown derrick avenue joburg, land of nams

Then Bing took us to the pièce de résistance:

 What, you ask. What is the piece of crap hole-in-the-wall doing on your sexy blog? It is a well-known fact that the dirtier the restaurant the better the food. We let her do the ordering, and man did she order…enough food to feed an army us three women. Pour l’entrée, lamb skewers. We couldn’t actually even tell what kind of meat they were because they were so deliciously fatty.

chinese style lamb skewers, land of nams

Then, a beef dish. Was it stir fry? I think it was salt and pepper beef. Who knows, I was too busy stuffing my face to pay attention to that.


salt and pepper beef, land of nams

Some noodles because if there was anything we needed after fatty lamb skewers, it’s lots of carbs.

Then to assuage our guilt, spinach.

spinach, land of nams

Another well-known fact is shopping is good for digestion. We headed to Bruma Oriental City to shop for all the cheap household stuff that we could ever need. If you are new to Joburg, don’t waste your money on household crap at Design Quarter. Look here first. We even found some bikinis, because if there is anything we are in need of, it is cheap chinatown bikinis.

When you’re in the mood for a cheap and extra delicious chinese lunch, some groceries, and some god-knows-what to stock your expat house with, make a trip out to the new Chinatown on Derrick Avenue and then Bruma City for some shopping and your wallet (and friends and hell, your husband) will thank you.

a night out in joburg with the hubs

Namrata Singh//oliva restaurant’s spicy duck risotto

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last night p and i dined at an spanish/italian fusion restaurant called oliva in illovo (a neighborhood next to ours). they have tapas and regular sized dishes depending on what you’re in the mood for. i had the spicy duck risotto, i snapped a pic of the left overs above (not bad, eh?) and it was a buttery spicy delicious dream. if you come and visit we’ll take you there! it was a tiny dark industrial little space with concrete lions and fountains and the wine was delicious. you feel like you are sitting in a restaurant that is a labor of love, with the owner walking around to the small number of tables and making wine suggestions.

all of the africa correspondents for p’s paper were in town for a continent wide meeting so after dinner we headed to a neighborhood called melville on the suggestion of p’s colleague for a fun night of drinks. while it is wonderful to meet and make friends with local south africans, there is something so fun and satisfying when you live abroad about getting tipsy with your fellow countrymen and talking about godknowswhat after a few drinks. topics that we slurred about discussed included a declaration that we agree australia shouldn’t get the designation of its own continent. there are only 21 million people there and we should henceforth refer to it as the largest south asian island. i wish i remembered the name of the bar but all i remember is the men were patted down to make sure they weren’t packing which always adds a little excitement to your evening. 

5th october, 2011