South African FOOD adventure part III (and Kanya's birthday party~)

if you’ve missed part I and part II, you can access them here: Part I, Part II

On Sunday the 16th, I was invited to Kanya's 30th birthday party, a lunch gathering at Donatello's at the MonteCasino.

Lunch was supposed to start at 1:30pm when Kanya arrives.  But by the time everyone finished socializing and got settled down it was around 2pm.  There was the option to have a set menu or you can order off the menu.  Feeling like someone actually spent the time to put together the 3 course set menus, I should appreciate the effort, have a big lunch and then skip dinner. so I went for it.

Appetizer: Escargot (or just Snails, which is what the menu said)

someone else' pasta , fettucine with ham

my pasta main with beef strips

Dessert: Italian kisses (they were ice cream inside a chocolate/caramel shell) quite delicious

Little Kayla :D

You can count on Maita to organize games, everyone got a clothes pin with a letter on it, and you have to write something that starts with that letter that describes Kanya

A picture for Jeanette :D Me and the birthday girl and her bundle of joy 

This guy was on the window display of big blue (a south african brand) he was too funny so i took a picture

It was a beautiful celebration and a lovely lunch (except it lasted until around 5:30pm) so I definitely didn't need dinner after that (I went home and made a bubble tea though).

On Tuesday the 18^th,  my friend Alison took us to her favourite Cape Malay food restaurant called D6 in the Emmarentia area.  Unfortunately, I was not able to try this cuisine when I was in Cape Town,  but lucky for me, this restaurant is quite authentic since the chef/owner is from Cape Town (who apparently used to be a street entertainer there)

Because the food was meant to be shared Alison invited two of her co-workers (2 Bainees from the boston office, one technically from my class Kate, and the other , an SAC named Greg).  I brought Peter along and the 5 of us began our adventures.  It was a BYOB restaurant and lucky for us Alison was a regular and hence she came prepared with 3 bottles.

We ordered a starter to share and it was a delicious house salad with a variety of samosas.  It might look ordinary, but somehow it was just delicious.  We cleaned the plate and eagerly waited for our mains to come.  We each ordered something different and then had  a bit of everybodys.  I’ve been dying to try the smoked Snoek(a fish), so that’s what I got. Alison was on her veggie diet, so she ordered a veggie curry, Peter ordered a green beans bredie (a stew cooked with beef and chopped green beans), Kate had a beef bobotie, and Greg had the Lamb curry.   The main was also served with rice and three “sauces” type sides – beets, onions and tomatos (like a salsa) and a spicy-ish chutney.

The delicious house salad with samosas (they disappeared quite quickly before I could take a proper picture because everyone was hungry)

smoked snoek

veggie curry

lamb curry

beef bobotie

The food was delicious.  The smoked snoek had a very strong flavor and it was boney at times.  It was cooked with cabbage and potatoes which lessened the saltyness a bit.  The green beans bredie and the vegetable curry were also quite delicious.  The bobotie was great (like the one I had at heritage day in Bryanston).  I did not try the lamb curry.  Dinner passed by quite quickly with discussions on adjusting to Joburg, things that were only in South Africa (to prepare for Alison’s costume party – more on that later), how to be safe in Joburg, travel plans etc.   We also talked about the people who stand in the middle of the road (on the lanes, I’ve mentioned this before) either asking for money or trying to sell stuff.  Apparently they have encountered not only the common sunglasses, hats, cell phone covers, and hangers, but have also encountered hanna Montana posters, Justin bieber posters, whips and safety vests.  (I have since seen those blown up swimming assist life vest things for kids)

When we were done our mains we then excitedly ordered the desserts.  The Milk tart is their specialty (milktert) and also the melva pudding (Nicole strongly recommended that I have it).  We’ve also ordered a “kooksister” (sounds like cook sister) which is a donut type dessert dipped in sugar and cinnamon.  The milktart was quite flavourful but it was not heavy.  The melva pudding served in warm custard was absolutely heavenly.  The kooksister was not as popular, but oh well.

melva pudding (looking at the pictures again as i write this blog makes me want to go and get one)

milk tart! their specialty (need to get one of this too)

kook sister (not this one)

It was definitely an awesome restaurant and a hidden gem (it is quite small and definitely a hole in the wall).   I would totally return to it and strongly recommend you to do so if you’re in Joburg!

The last of my food experience would be with Nando's! Yes, I finally tried it! It's been described to me as healthy fast food, and chicken, so I was kinda expecting like a swiss chalet.

That day, thembi and I decided to go out and get nando's for lunch.  I decided to try their Lemon and Herb flavour (there is varying degrees of spicyness) and thembi went for a mild.  We each got the quarter chicken meal which comes with fries or peri-peri wedges (GO FOR THOSE WEDGES, they were delicious!) and a drink for ~R40 ( 8 dollars?) 

I really enjoyed it except that the chicken was kinda small.  Another co-worker said that the chickens have actually decreased in size over the years... guess it was inversely proportional to inflation!

Now that i've tried the authentic south african version of Nando's, I definitely need to try the Canadianized version when I get back!

Ooh, there's one last picture of my venture back to the Lucky Bean in Melville. Peter and I wanted to see if they have changed their menus (updated it since the last time).  They haven't yet but we found the most amazing tuna ever.  It was so delicious - Seared tuna wrapped in seaweed, yum.. and to end my meal perfectly, i had the blue cheese and fig ice cream and chilli mango again. Delish!