On breakfasts and benedictions
BREAKFAST, lunch and afternoon tea. Well I’ve been spoilt for choice this week. And I certainly could quite easily do cheesecake for breakfast, and eggs for lunch, especially when the eggs are blessed with a benediction.
And so with a couple of hours to kill while the car was in the shop for something as mundane as new tyres, Luke and I walked up to Freedom Café, that designer container eatery tucked into the courtyard of the Concierge Boutique Bungalows hotel.
We relaxed outside under the trees, admiring the wall of air orchids. The setting is quirky and the food has a similar artisanal streak to it.
Pride of place on the breakfast menu was red juice, orange juice and green juice – all squeezed to order. You guessed it: red is heavily reliant on beetroot, orange on carrot and oranges, and green all those absurdly healthy things like spinach and celery and cucumber.
There’s an entire selection devoted to Benedicts, all served with organic poached eggs on fresh ciabatta from the Glenwood Bakery. So there’s everything from the traditional, to options with salmon and bacon, to ones with kale and chakalaka. There’s even a burger Benedict, although I think that might be a step too far. Then this is Durban and we love our burgers
Luke and I both went for the porkie Benedict, served on slices of home-made pork sausage, and while the eggs may have been a shade more medium than soft, it was very good. And beautifully presented garnished with pea shoots. It wasn’t quick out the kitchen, but we were in no hurry.
The menu proudly lists all the small-scale suppliers that go into the making of the dishes.
Besides all the Benedicts there’s a variety of fruit, oat, granola options that sound as squeaky as the green juice, and then there’s the cakes and confectionery, which are sinfully decadent.
And there are toasties with options ranging from simple avo to roasted tomato to a selection of cheeses. The Turkish breakfast that includes boiled eggs, feta and olives sounds like a good bet.
The coffee too was good.
Ialways enjoy a neighbourhood local where the food is reliable and the service fast and friendly. Where they will probably know your name and you’ll know someone eating there. Usually such establishments are ownerdriven and offer great value.
So whenever I’m in Durban North at lunch time, I pop into the Mayfair Café.
The setting is not much to write home about, but it’s simple, comfortable and light. And the greeting warm. I grabbed a spot on the deck to enjoy the sun. There are ladies who lunch, businessmen who lunch, moms with teens after the school pick-up. It’s very convivial.
Light lunches may take in toasted sandwiches or panini, or salads that include chicken, bacon, onion confit and croutons; or blue cheese, apple and pecans.
Home-made burgers obviously make an appearance, whether beef, steak or chicken. There’s a gobstopper with the works.
And all-day breakfasts are poplar too.
Then there is a selection of open sandwiches that includes brie, bacon and onion marmalade; or ham tomato and horseradish; or grilled steak, mushrooms and plum sauce. They’re available also as wraps. But in my view, the less said about wraps the better.
I opted for the rare roast beef with mustard, caramelised onions, rocket and Parmesan. I was warned that it was cheat’s roast beef, and was in fact slices of fillet steak instead. But it did not matter. The fillet was beautifully rare, the toppings good, as was the home-made toast it was served on. I tarted it up with a pot of their home-made chilli tomato relish.
Definitely a feast to keep you on the go. And it’s worth a stop even if it’s only for a cup of coffee
Still on a health kick, Luke and I stopped in at the Yoga Tree in uMhlanga this week. It’s the outdoor coffee shop and eatery that’s part of a health deli and the yoga studio. It’s full title is Tree Natural Café and Yoga Studio.
We’re greeted with a number of affirming sayings on the walls. The staff are friendly.
Smoothies are big here and come in all shapes and sizes, many reminiscent of the green, red and orange formula. The blender was certainly doing overtime.
There are some salads and healthy meals. The vegetarian pasta lunch being demolished by the hipster at the next table looked excellent. But we’d had lunch. Instead we settled for their cheesecake and a cappuccino.
The cappuccino was pleasant, if a shade millky, and the cheesecake interesting. The topping was delicious, but the base was a little too crumbly. It emerged that it’s a mixture of crushed almonds, coconut and coconut oil. A little work needed here.