COLOURFULWORLD

Thursday 13 July 2017

A taste of Africa - eating out at a South African restaurant

A couple of weeks ago, on a Saturday, my husband and I had lunch at a South African restaurant not far from our house.
I originally knew it as a shop that sold South African products, like chutney, biltong, Appletiser and Grapetiser (soft drinks), the delicious Romany Cream biscuits, Ouma rusks (hard biscuits), spices, South African music CD's, etc. 

I hadn't been there in a while, and through a friend I heard they had expanded to include a restaurant, so this was the first time we went for a meal at Kalahari - a taste of Africa.

The menu is small but has enough variety to suit all tastes - you choose what you want to eat, get your drinks from the fridge, order the food at the counter, pay for it all, and get given a table sign. 
The table signs all have typical South African words instead of numbers - Howzit (How's it going?), Lekker (tasty), Voetsek (go away)...
All the tables had a beaded sunflower in a jar, a tin with sugar and the delicious Mrs Balls chutney!

Peartiser (softdrink), sugar tin, beaded sunflower and Mrs Balls Chutney
The decor is simple but homely with a lot of African accents on the wall art. I liked the mat made with bottle caps joined together with wire (photo below).


My husband and I both ordered the prawns and chips with peri mayonnaise. When I saw there were only 2 prawns I thought it wasn't enough, but the prawns were gigantic, and the chips dipped in the mayo were fantastic (a treat as I hardly ever eat fried food). In the end the food was actually enough.


Dessert followed - Melktert (milk tart) for me and a slice of Black Forest cake for my husband. Both were marvelous.




Menu
If you want to enjoy a sweet treat at home, you can buy koeksisters (a very sweet plaited doughnut in syrup) and melktert (milk tart) to take away. 
They also sell meat, boerewors (sausages) and seasoned meats. If want a piece of meat for lunch, choose a seasoned steak, ribs or a sausage from the fridge, which can be cooked to your taste, and then order a side dish to accompany it. 

If you want to buy South African wines, bears and other spirits, they have a "Shebeen" (bottle store) in the shop too.


The Soweto Shebeen or bottle store to one side of the shop

The shop/restaurant is at 27 Augusta Street in Willetton and is opened from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5,30 pm and on Saturday from 9am to 5pm, although the kitchen closes at 3pm for meals.
If you live in Perth and would like to try some authentic South African food give them a try, we enjoyed it.


14 comments:

  1. Vivendo numa das cidades mais multiculturais do mundo, tenho tido oportunidade, ao longo destes anos, de experimentar a gastronomia de quase todo o mundo... exceto de alguns países de África, nomeadamente, da África do Sul! Fiquei com muita curiosidade e vou procurar aqui em Toronto por um restaurante desse país. Se já fui a um restaurante tibetano, por exemplo, de certo que encontrarei um da África do Sul onde posso pedir uma dessas refeições que me parece ótima!!
    Thanks for sharing!!!
    Gosto imenso de posts sobre gastronomia. : )))

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    1. Obrigada Catarina. Como vivi na Africa do Sul durante mais de 20 anos ja conhecia a gastronomia, mas gostei de encontrar um restaurante aqui em Perth. Apesar de achar que a nossa gastronomia Portuguesa e das melhores!

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  2. Black Forrest cake is rather German, is it? Lekker we write "lecker", guess it´s pronounced the same.
    I have another friend in Perth who grew up in SA and whenever I really fail to get a word she says: Say it in German and usually she understands. I´ll send her your link so she can enjoy, too.
    Biltong, though, wasn´t mine - but the shop we were at had lots of "Knorr" products we have in Germany as well.

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    1. I think Black Forest cake is German. Lekker is pronounced the same way :)
      The Afrikaans language being of Dutch origin has some similarities to German too.

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  3. Interesting. I don't think we have any South African restaurants here and perhaps we should.

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    1. Thanks Andrew. Perth is full of South Africans, but there must be some that choose to live in Melbourne.

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  4. I've never seen a South African restaurant anywhere near Kansas. It's too bad, but the prices you paid for two prawn would have fed 20 starving South African families for a week! I DID enjoy the restaurant and learning a bit about their art.

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    1. Unfortunately, those prices are quite normal in Perth. The average salary is higher than in the States, so everything is expensive.

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  5. There are a few South African restaurants here as you say Sami, there's one quite close to me in Woodvale! I think a lot of South Africans and people from Africa in general find the weather in Perth quite similar.

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    1. Yes, the weather is quite similar Grace. Didn't know about that restaurant north of the river, it makes sense since there are a lot of South Africans living in the northern suburbs.

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  6. The food looks delicious, Sami. It's a shame Perth is such a long way!

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    1. Thanks Carole. You need to save up a few weeks holiday for the trip, otherwise it's not worthwhile.

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  7. The restaurant seems great with all the funny table signs and decoration. The food looked good as well, especially the giant prawns. Now it makes me want to try South African food. Why did they have sugar on every table? Is that common?

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    1. Thanks Sara, I presume the sugar was there for the coffee, as this is mainly a coffee shop.

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