Bev’s Burgers: My Joburg Burger Obsession
In a city/country that seems to be full of bad news, here’s a nice story: A man named Bev with no formal culinary training cooks hamburgers in his house during covid, starts selling said burgers to his...
View ArticlePomegranates and Turkish Food in Centurion
Centurion, an anonymous no man’s land between Joburg and Pretoria, is home to a magical place called Buyuk Chamlija: a self-described “Socio Eco Techno Village” that grows fat, juicy pomegranates and...
View ArticleFour Days in Rhode Island, America’s Smallest State
I’m back in Joburg after a month-long trip to the U.S. — my second American journey in 2023. I spent most of this trip dealing with administrative and family issues, spending time in the same places I...
View ArticleFriday Morning at the Biggest Fresh Produce Market in Africa
A couple of miles southeast of downtown Joburg, in a place called City Deep, there’s a produce market the size of a small town. The Joburg Market (next door to the Mutliflora Market) is the largest...
View ArticleSuurbraak: Paradise in the Overberg
Thorsten and I recently spent three days in Suurbraak, a tiny town in South Africa’s Overberg region. Thorsten (who is an architect) designed a holiday house there several years ago; now he’s designing...
View ArticleA Weekend in Greyton (and a bit of Malgas)
After our recent stay in Suurbraak, Thorsten and I had a weekend to kill in the Overberg before flying back to Joburg. We decided to spend two nights in Greyton, about 90 minutes from Cape Town, where...
View ArticleA Staycation in Kensington
I’ve always been intrigued by Kensington, a suburb just east of downtown Joburg. Kensington is similar in many ways to Melville, where I used to live, and Brixton, where I live now: An older...
View ArticleYola’s: The Place for Koesisters (and Koeksisters?) in Joburg
I’m struggling to figure out how to start writing this post because I’m struggling to figure out how to explain koesisters. The koesister ranks among South Africa’s most iconic foods, right up there...
View ArticleAsian Food Explorations in Rivonia
I’ve been meaning to write this blog post for weeks but I kept getting distracted by other adventures: a dazzling community light festival, a 2-billion-year-old meteorite crater, and a Heritage Month...
View ArticleWalking Downtown Jozi: A Photo Story
There are many tales of woe in Joburg right now: building fires, exploding streets, absent mayors, water outages, an ever-widening wealth gap, and a general spiral of doom. And these stories aren’t...
View ArticleA Jacaranda Special: Purple Pastries in Westcliff
It’s that time of year again: October in Joburg. Jacaranda trees all over Joburg (and Pretoria, too — more on that in a future post) are exploding with purple blossoms and everything wrong with the...
View ArticleEarly Saturday Morning at the Pretoria Boeremark
A couple of Saturdays ago, my friends Fiver and Stuart and I woke up at before 5:00 a.m. and drove an hour north to the Pretoria Boeremark in Silverton. I’ve been meaning to check out this market —...
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