POP IN IF YOU’RE POOPED
Tired of taking pot shots at our political panjandrums? Pop in to the Pot Luck Club for a prandial pep up
Three months to go to the end of the year and I am exhausted. We are all exhausted. Why, you ask? President Jacob Zuma and his friends the Guptas are still around — years after their capture of the state and institutions like the NPA and SOES like Eskom was exposed. Sure, we are all kicking KPMG around and we will probably get rid of Mckinsey and others who aided and abetted the Guptas and Zuma’s son Duduzane. We collapsed Bell Pottinger, after all.
But the real culprits are still in town and operating like there is no problem here. Their big boss, Zuma, was in New York last week representing us. Or the Guptas. Or some jailbirds who have now become his best friends.
It’s all very tiring. And we still have three months of the man in the ANC presidency. And another year and a half at the Union Buildings. By May 2019, what with Julius Malema shouting and Mmusi Maimane litigating, we will be ready for a nice long holiday as we usher in a new political party led by the former ANC MP Makhosi Khoza.
Thankfully we can all go eat, drink, be merry and ignore — even for an evening — the sheer nightmare of having gone from Nelson Mandela to the current bunch. In just 18 years.
So off I went with my lovely wife and two friends to the Pot Luck Club pop-up restaurant in Joburg. You will remember the Pot Luck Club. It is chef Luke Daleroberts’ second restaurant at the Old Biscuit Mill, where his popular The Test Kitchen still commands pride of place and still draws in hungry, well-heeled Capetonians. The Pot Luck Club in Woodstock is popular for its collections of tapas-sized plates. We loved it when we went there two years ago.
Joburgers have not been as complimentary about the Joburg popup. Me, I like it. I like the fact that it is in the Joburg city centre — down in Doornfontein near Maboneng, at the Hallmark Hotel. The Marabi restaurant/jazz venue is gorgeous: lovely décor, nice lighting, great service and jazz musicians who know their way around an instrument.
It is all about the food and drink, and we were thirsty and famished. The wine list is huge and excellent, and the food menu kept faith with Dale-roberts’ Asian tapas inspiration. There are 14 tapasstyle dishes on the menu, and you can order as many as you like to share.
We started with fish tacos of ceviche, black bean purée, avocado and sour cream. Don’t go to this place without having them. Delicious. We followed this with the fish crudo (raw fish) with granadilla tiger’s milk. Another winner. The tacos were as good as I remembered from our visit to the Pot Luck Club in Woodstock. Other winners here were the beef tataki, the peri-peri chicken and the smoked beef fillet. I quite enjoyed Dale-roberts’ special pork belly, but we over-ordered.
I always think it’s a bit unfair to expect a chef to produce exactly what he does in Joburg, at a pop-up restaurant, as he would at home in Cape Town. The venues are very different, and consistency is impossible to achieve under such circumstances.
In Cape Town two years ago we had incredible food. I thought that the menu in Joburg was a little less imaginative and expressive than Cape Town, but I still very much enjoyed the idea and execution at the beautiful Marabi venue. I will definitely be going back. It’s grand.
The Pot Luck Club Pop-up ★★★★½
Zuma and his friends’ shenanigans are all very tiring. And we still have three months of the man in the ANC presidency
The Marabi Club 47 Sivewright Avenue New Doornfontein, Johannesburg Tel: (010) 591-2872
★★★★★ Makhosi Khoza ★★★★ Excellent ★★★ Good ★★ Poor ★ Jacob Zuma