My friend Mary and I are determined to experience everything possible in our lovely hometown. With the steady increase in magazine and blog posts dedicated to what is happening in Joburg (particularly http://www.inyourpocket.com), our list of things to do is getting longer and longer. So eventually we have started making inroads into the list. Here‘s the first three we hit:
1. A waffle and Paul’s Homemade Ice cream
We headed out to Braamfontein on a sunny Autumn Saturday morning to Father Coffee for a cappuccino and a waffle and a scoop of Paul’s Homemade Ice-cream. Father Time might be small, hipster and have wonky tables, but the waffle with a scoop of caramel ice-cream and salted caramel sauce was amazing.
I forgot to take a picture of my waffle, that is how delicious it was. So here is a picture of a tub of Paul’s homemade ice-cream from a different occasion.
This was followed by a walking tour and coffee tasting at many establishments in a very busy Braamfontein including Post, Velo and just a peek in the closed Love Food Cafe.
Rating for the day: 7/10.
2. Market on Main
Having been to Market on Main in its early days of operations, I had heard huge stories of new stalls and improvements. Mary and I were eager to explore a bit of Maboneng and taste the delights that Market on Main has on offer. We arrived on a rather cold Sunday to a pumping market. It was very difficult to choose what to munch for lunch, we were definitely spoilt for choice from Ethiopian delicacies, traditional roosterkoek, crepes to dim sang. Eventually I had a delicious pulled pork roll from the Smokehouse paired with a rather expensive (and quite heavy on the ice and easy on the mint and mojito part) mojito.
Entering the market!
The spiked coconut was delicious!
My biggest criticism would be the lack of seating, this could definitely increase. It is quite hard to hold your spike coconut and eat your crepe at the same time while standing. The vibe however is good, and I thoroughly enjoyed the developments and seeing the many cafes, coffee shops and restaurants in Maboneng. I admit that Neighbourgoods in Braamfontein is still my first choice market, Fourways Farmers Market my second but Market on Main does come in for a close third.
The required photo in Maboneng!
Rating for day: 6.5/10
3. Northern Foods in Cyrildene
Hailed as the new old China City, we heading to the infamous Northern Food Chinese eatery for lunch. Cyrildene was busy as usual, but Northern Food was not. Perhaps more of a dinner spot. We walked past the outside table of what I assumed was pork trotters and other Chinese delicacies, into a chilly restaurant. We were warmly greeted and given a pot of weak tea (which was delicious so I drank the whole pot). Despite the language barrier, we managed to order lunch of springrolls, a sticky prawn dish and some chicken cashew stir-fry as well as my new favourite drink – an aloe juice.
Sitting in Northern Foods!
What we received was rather… odd. Spring rolls with a strange orange oniony tasting crust, very crunchy prawns with a quick hardening sticky sauce and chicken stirfried cucumber (cucumber should just never be warm). We still had a great time, but next time we will ask for a recommendation – our neighbouring table’s food looked much better than ours.
Weirdly coated spring rolls!
Chicken and warm cucumber – oh no!
Rating for day: 4.5/10.
With three down, we have only ticked off the tiniest percentage of our list. Who knew there was so much to do in a city you have lived all your life?
owningthejourney 