Glenwood’s value for money gem
MAAN HING
Village Centre, 397 Che Guevara Road, Glenwood
Open: Tuesday to Sunday 11.45am-9.30pm
Call: 031 201 0115
IT’S ONE of mother’s favourite spots. She and the golden girls often go there for lunch.
The lunch menu B, which includes four crispy prawns complete with beef chop suey, sweet and sour pork, bow tie and ice-cream with soup and Chinese tea, comes in at a super budget- (and pensioner-) friendly R99. As mom rightly points out, some restaurants charge R99 for the four prawns alone.
And so in Glenwood one Saturday night and wanting a quick meal, a friend and I gave it a try.
The venue in a suburban shopping centre might not be much to write home about, with its pink lanterns and red tablecloths, but on a sweltering Durban evening the air conditioning was working well, and the welcome was warm.
We sipped on a couple of Tsingtao beers while we perused the extensive menu, which basically takes in most of the well-known Cantonese staples. The menu might not be challenging, but it is certainly familiar and comforting.
So expect a selection of sweetcorn soups, and chicken, beef, barbecue pork, fish or prawn chop sueys, fu yongs, chow meins or wor meins (in the former the noodles are fried, in the latter, boiled). But there are also some dishes of interest like chilli crab or crab with ginger, kingklip with dark bean sauce, lichee prawns or beef in oyster sauce. Most dishes come with an option with pineapple, peppers, or sweet and sour.
We started with two barbecue pork spring rolls (R71.95 for three) which came with a sweet and sour sauce and were enormous: they could make a light lunch all on their own. We enjoyed them.
My friend wanted to try the crispy duck in hoisin sauce, but unfortunately they were out of duck that evening, so we settled for the bamboo shoot chicken (R71.95) teamed up with the chilli peanut prawns (R80.95). Both were enjoyable and plentiful. I like the subtle flavours of bamboo shoots, although some may find these bland. The chilli prawns had a fair kick with pieces of fresh chilli chopped into the mix. I could have done without the massive hunks of green pepper, but these can be put aside. The rice is included in the dish, another plus.
Desserts might include the predictable bow tie and ice cream and fried banana and ice cream, but there is ice cream with ginger syrup, and longan and ice cream. A longan is the round, edible fruit of a tropical tree from the same family as the lychee, rambutan, maple and horse chestnut. I will try these next time.
We savoured the air conditioning over another Tsingtao instead.
Food: 3 Service: 3 Ambience: 3