HOW TO BEAT THE HEAT

The best way to the cope with a heatwave is to drink iced water and eat ice cream, right? Wrong. You need to fight fire with fire

To remove a thorn, you need a thorn. I’ve never doubted the wisdom of this old Zulu expression, which was handed down by my grandmother. At the height of Durban’s ferocious summer, she would put on a jersey and make herself a pot of tea that she would sweeten with condensed milk and share with me.

We would sit with the steaming cups under my father’s peach tree and tell stories, sweating. With the tea finished, and the sweat beginning to evaporate, I would feel light and refreshed.

Dazed by the heat of Joburg this past Sunday and not knowing how to deal with it, I found myself thinking of grandma’s strategy. I decided to try it out, or at least try a new twist on it. I thought I should find a meal that would be an antidote to the heat.

So I told my son Fred jnr we were eating out. I knew exactly where. We took the 1km walk to the local mall in sweltering heat.

Funny thing is, though we’ve been living in this neighbourhood for the past 20 years, we’d never been to this particular restaurant. It’s called Pappadums. We were the only diners. I remembered why I’d never tried the place: it’s always empty. I don’t like eating in an empty restaurant. The emptiness doesn’t recommend it. The atmosphere inside a restaurant — the music and the hubbub of voices — is what I pay for. I suspect I’m not the only one.

At any rate, the service was swift. For starters Junior ordered chicken lollipops — a fancy word for tiny chicken drumsticks dyed a fiery red so they look like popsicles. I ordered prawn pepper fry. Fried in an onion-based paste, the prawns were well-spiced, hot and divine. It was a refreshing approach to prawns. I could have that starter over and over again, it’s so spicily addictive.

I shared my prawns with Junior. Though he waxed lyrical about his fancy drumsticks — which I felt were run of the mill — I could sense he felt I had a better deal. My eyes were still smarting, my nose twitchy from the pepper, when the main course arrived.

Lamb rogan josh. You can’t go wrong with this if you’re at a proper Indian restaurant. Rogan means fat and josh means heat. What you’re doing is cooking meat on the bone, slowcooking it in its own fat. But you use lots of spices: chilli powder, cardamom, Kashmir shallots, cinnamon or bay leaves. The chef nailed it. I’d ordered hot and I wasn’t disappointed.

My son had chicken korma. I allowed Junior to dip into my rogan josh and I invaded the korma on his plate. I found it rather sweet, and contrary to the spirit of getting as hot as possible. So I stuck to my rogan josh.

I sweated profusely. Then I began to cool down. Iva likhishwa ngelinye iva.

Unlike my grandma who insisted on hot tea, I washed my meal down with a rather bland sauvignon blanc.

I shouldn’t have ordered ice cream for dessert. It was a cheap variety that undermined the whole superb dining experience. Junior took one spoonful of his dessert and pushed the thing towards me saying: “You grew up in Durban, maybe this will make sense to you.” The gulab jamun was so sweet it was inedible.

All round, Pappadums is an underrated restaurant which should always be teeming with excited customers.

Pappadums ★★★★

56 Morning Glen Shopping Centre, Kelvin Drive & Bowling Avenue, Gallo Manor, Sandton Tel: 011-656-1460

★★★★★ Kimi Makwetu

★★★★ Raymond Zondo

★★★ Cyril Ramaphosa

★★ Bathabile Dlamini

★ Steinhoff