Daleah's in Braamfontein

It’s been ages since we’ve been to Braamfontein and this past weekend we decided to go for a brunch in the area. We ended up in front of the bright green building in De Beer street that houses Daleah’s, a popular eatery. Inside we found a lovely, cosy interior with face brick walls, wood tables, art works on the walls and an oversized daily-menu chalkboard. We had french toast and crumpets and very good coffee. A good start to the weekend.

You can like their Facebook page here.

The Wolfpack

A weekend or two ago we tried out a new burger joint on Parkhurst’s 4th Avenue. It is called The Wolfpack and is all about craft beer on tap and gourmet burgers. They have at least ten local brewers’ beer on their very extensive craft beer menu and will whip up a cocktail in no time. Their out-of-the-ordinary burgers are served with very unusual complimentary sides such as polenta chips and Crispy Wasabi Onion Rings. Our food was delicious!  

The décor of the café-style dining area is modern with interesting murals on bare brick walls, a gorgeous checkered stencilled floor, retro bright orange chairs, clever lighting and a touch of grunge, just to make it interesting. The sidewalk has high tables and allows for great people watching, but it is the rooftop terrace outside that looks like the place to be on a balmy summer evening!

In case you’re wondering, the three wolves on the mural apparently represent the owner and his two managers who promised each other after a boozy night out that they will, like a wolf pack, always stick together. …

You can like their Facebook page here.

Image credits: Elanie Fourie and Nani Kornelius

Butter in Berario

From time to time the youth group at our church has cake sales to collect money for their activities. We usually make a beeline straight to the carrot cake baked by Janie Visser. So when we heard that Janie, together with her husband Pieter, opened a new coffee shop, showcasing her baking skills, this amounted to big news.

Butter is located in the small Berario shopping centre. The shop offers freshly baked cakes, including that famous carrot cake, breakfast quiches and daily specials as lunch offerings. The shop’s décor is charming with bright red enamel buckets as light fittings, colourful bunting and a fantastic wall feature with wallpaper depicting the multi-coloured houses of Burano.

On Saturday morning the four of us, in search of a decent cup of coffee, went to Butter. It has a wonderful neighbourhood feeling to it - the customers greeted each other and chances are very good that you will have had a chat with the owners before your cappuccino is done. For us, the decision Janie took to follow her dream after being a stay-at-home mum for 16 years means that we don’t have to wait for church events to have access to her talents, and that means that life is just that little bit brighter as a result.

Butter, The Bake Shop

Berario Shopping Centre

179 Arkansas Drive

Berario

A walk through Little Asia

On Saturday I took my friend Retha along and the two of us became, for the morning at least, tourists in our own town. We joined Ishvara Dhyan, a local tour guide on a guided walk of Johannesburg’s Chinatown. It is located in Cyrildene (close to Bruma) and most of the shops and eateries are in Derrick Avenue. This is not really a tourist destination, rather just a functioning neighbourhood favoured by new Chinese immigrants. This is where they live, where they buy their groceries and where they speak Chinese. There are even a Chinese police that collaborates with the SAPD, a Chinese medical clinic and the Chinese newspapers are printed right there in Cyrildene. 

We gathered under the big Chinese gate welcoming people into Chinatown and our first stop was a Buddhist shrine. The nuns welcomed us and, through an interpreter, told us a bit about Buddhist philosophy. A young Chinese boy played on two different Chinese flutes for us, one of the ladies did a demonstration of Tai Chi exercises with a sword and we were treated to a Chinese tea ceremony. 

Ishvara, a chef by training, focused much of the rest of the walk on Asian cuisine. He took us to an Indonesian shop, a fantastic Thai shop (complete with a picture of the Thai king and queen) and a few Chinese supermarkets. We also visited a Chinese tea store (if you need to buy the Chinese ambassador a gift, they stock some of the most expensive teas available in Johannesburg!)

Along the road we saw different Asian restaurants, but the one that I would love to return to is a Korean restaurant, called Gangnam Korean BBQ (yes, Gangnam style :-). Hot coals are set inside a hole in the table and the customers barbeque their food at the table. The food is served with an assortment of pickles and dipping sauces.

Another restaurant that caught my eye was called Delicious Casserole Food Rest. In this big urn on the photo below are different casseroles in small dishes, heated by a coal fire at the bottom of the urn.

It was the various fresh vegetable markets that fascinated most of us on the tour. We saw things such as Bok Choy, Chinese broccoli, bitter melons, silk squash, snake beans and Chinese white radish, to name a few. Ishvara explained to us how to identify the different veggies and how to use it in the different Asian cuisines.

The outing was a great experience and we left feeling inspired to look up a few Asian recipes, make a grocery list and return soon.

You can visit Ishvara's website here.