Smart takes on food, coffee & service

Coffee Shops

LOVIN’ COFFEE AT CON AMORE

Con Amore luxury home decor store at the Station precinct in Umgeni road.

Con Amore luxury home decor store at the Station precinct in Umgeni road.

If you like your coffee full-boded without the bitterness you'll find it at this coffee bar at Con Amore.

If you like your coffee full-bodied without the bitterness you’ll find it at this coffee bar at Con Amore.

How to spend your Sundays eating, shopping for home furnishing and drinking fine coffee.

Wake up most Sundays wondering how to spend your day? Well, here’s some ideas. It’s a given you probably  know about the Morning Market at the Station precinct off Umgeni road, but if you haven’t been there in a while, go. There’s always something new to see, buy or eat.  And here’s an extra incentive to visit. Con Amore a luxury home furnishing and decor store is right next door. It’s open Sundays. But, not only can you browse around the furnishings, but you can also buy a superb cup of coffee. And in the near future, noodles and sushi will be available.

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Guest Blogs

FOOD OR FREUD – THE PHILOSOPHY OF DINING

 

You may not be partial to snail porridge or chicken liver parfait contained in a mandarin jelly skin, but when you dine at any of Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurants, it's less about the food and more about showing just what a sophisticated inner you are .

Blumenthal’s chicken liver parfait in a mandarin jelly skin (above) might not appeal, but when you dine at his Fat Duck restaurant, it’s more about showing off your sophistication than the food.

When we eat at a trendy new restaurant, we want more than good food, says a British philosopher, who suggests we are more interested in absorbing its values and be seen as sophisticated as the restaurant. And you thought it was only about eating. By Pierre Brouard 

Is eating out about food or Freud? Well both, says British philosopher Alain de Botton, who applies his discipline to everyday life. In this case, eating out.
In his book on how we devour news, not just food, De Botton says we want consumer experiences, not only because of the quick rush buying brings us, but to fulfil “an unconscious desire for some form of psychological transformation”.
So eating out, especially the variety that appeals to foodies, isn’t just about tasting the grilled salmon that everyone’s been raving about at that new bistro down the road. Nor is it only about the mousses, gels and foams that mimic the efforts of an elusive molecular gastronome. No, De Botton says we want to “absorb the values of the restaurant itself”. We want to become like it. The dishes, the décor, the service all say something about the restaurant and we hope to imbibe some of this when we dig into the 300g grain-fed (and well-aged) steak with the signature sauce the venue is known for.

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Restaurants

IT’S WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE AT WATERBERRY

Waterberry Coffee Shoppe - view from the deck over indigenous forest.

Waterberry Coffee Shoppe – view from the deck over indigenous forest.

Inside Waterberry's main dining area. Light, airy and welcoming.

Inside Waterberry’s main dining area. Light, airy and welcoming.

Waterberry Coffee Shoppe
Corner of Dolphin Crescent & Leonora Drive, Ballito,
Call: 032 946 2797
Open daily from 8am

It’s hard to be indifferent to the charms of family-friendly Waterberry Coffee Shoppe. It’s a bright, airy restaurant in soothing shades of greys and blues with a stunning location in the middle of a coastal indigenous forest. It’s home to a rich birdlife and duikers. Staff members are warm and welcoming and, judging by their website, so are the owners, who seem to be decent, god-fearing folk.  And their faith has certainly been put to the test. Opened in 2003 their first disaster struck at the end of that year when a huge tree fell on their deck, requiring some serious reconstruction.
In June 2013 the entire restaurant, a wooden structure, burnt to the ground and had to be rebuilt. Then, in June this year, the restaurant caught alight again. This time the damage was not nearly as severe but some rebuilding was necessary. On their website they describe the fires rather whimsically as “A Berry, Berry Big Fire” and a “A Berry Little Blaze”.
Fast forward to October and all is well with Waterberry.  But there is one blot on this picture perfect landscape and it’s the food.

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Food News

TASHAS PUT TO THE TONGUE TEST

Tashas's prawn, pea and pasta dish

Tashas’s prawn, pea and pasta dish – picture by Jean-Paul Brouard

MILLY BROUARD  reviews Tashas by Natasha Sideris and puts two recipes to the test. 

I like to think of myself as a bit of a foodie. I like eating and I like cooking, although I’m still new to it – the cooking, not the eating. Even so, when, after three months of marriage my newly acquired husband Jean-Paul  was having a birthday, it seemed only natural to cook him a birthday feast.
Inspiration for the meal came from a recipe book my mother gave me before my husband’s birthday – Tashas by Natasha Sideris (Jonathan Ball). Natasha Sideris is the creator and founder of Tashas restaurants. Having started with one restaurant in Atholl, Johannesburg in 2005, Tashas has grown to include 12 stores nationally, including one at Gateway, as well as one in Dubai.
More used to my mother’s collection of 1970s cookbooks, the images of  beautifully-presented food in Tashas were particularly appealing. The book is divided into chapters. Each chapter is neatly laid out and each recipe is placed alongside its corresponding photograph. Photographer David Ross has done a great job of capturing images that reflect the relaxed, sociable approach to food that Natasha articulates so well in her introduction to the book.
Natasha’s strong Greek heritage is also reflected in her book, which is sprinkled with memories of a childhood filled with meals and kitchens and the magical mysticism of cooking that is so often portrayed in movies about food. Aside from this, the recipes are clear and concise.
But do they work?

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Restaurants

BIG EASY, BIG HEARTED FOOD

Big Easy, mix of rustic and contemporary charm.

Big Easy, mix of rustic and contemporary charm.

Anarchic balls made with pap, not the traditional risotto rice.

Anarchic balls made with pap, not the traditional risotto rice.

BIG EASY WINEBAR & GRILL
Hilton Hotel
12-14 Walnut Road, Durban
Call: 031 336 8166
Open daily for lunch and dinner

While South African golfing legend Ernie Els has not quite swopped his golf clubs for the kitchen stove, his new restaurant, the Big Easy, offers him not only the chance to showcase his talent as a winemaker, but also share his knowledge and experience of restaurants.
“Having travelled the world and dined out literally thousands of times, I understand the essence of what makes a great restaurant. It has to have warm hospitality and a fun, relaxed environment”, says Els
This he has achieved at the Big Easy, which is his nickname incidentally, thanks to his imposing height.  Although I admit to having had some initial trepidation when suggesting the family eat there two days after its formal opening on October 8. You see, I’ve rarely dined  at a hotel restaurant – even a five-star establishment – and not wondered if the food had been cooked by numbers in a central kitchen operated by conveyer belt cooks.
But, boy, was I wrong.

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