Chunky beef and vegetable soup

April 11th, 2011

Winter is fast approaching. A time when one starts thinking of heart warming and wholesome soups and the flickering flames of a welcoming fire.

I wish.

It’s invariably Butternut this and Butternut that or for the very adventurous a minestrone and sometimes leek and potatoe.  But on the whole the restaurants on the Garden Route stick to a well thumbed menu and they have learnt from bitter experience that it is sheer folly to venture out and explore.
There are however a few exceptions to the rule and when I am in George I will inevitably end up at the House of Flavour in Meade St where they will serve me coffee, a chunky beef and vegetable soup with crisp slightly toasted ciabatta for breakfast.

 

 

A pub lunch – Joplins

March 16th, 2011

You can find Joplins on the left hand side as you leave Wilderness heading towards Knsyna. It is well worth a stop if you could do with a steak, egg and chips. But its only steak egg and chips. There is a limited menu. Limited to steak and chips with a  choice of a fried egg and garlic butter.

I stop regularly. You can also get Rock Shandies or something thats cold which will quench the thirst while you wait for them to prepare your steak

Those Special Places

March 12th, 2011

Personal recommendations and travel experiences in the Garden Route in South Africa. Tourism, accommodation, local services, entertainment, restaurants.  Offer trip planning and an Ask Me service.

Thai Kitchen

February 20th, 2011

Thai curryThai Green Curry, better than the one your friend made.

Joy at Thai kitchen tells me that she has had her kitchen ( beautiful and simple and clean) fitted out just like the one she had in Thailand when she opened her first business. So it’s authentic. This is real Thai food. Not the kind you get in a shopping mall with a triple tiered garage. Real honest interesting characters who ended up in Knysna because the place is that rarest of things, a cosmopolitan village. A small place with very sophisticated tastes.

Thai Kitchen is a bright, cheerful place where Joy and her staff prepare cuisine right before your eyes. There is something dramatic in this. The conversation before dinner. The magic being worked just a little further into this cheerful little haven from the bustle of Knysna’s main street.

Situated in what has become the acknowledged home of the better restaurants in Knysna, Memorial square, Thai Kitchen is open for lunch and dinner most days except sunday, Joy has a regular crowd of Thai aficionados, mainly locals, but if you’re looking for a special evening with a large group, call and book to make sure.

Fill your senses with Phad Thai, Green Thai Curry, Tom Yung Kung or the very popular Song sa Haai, a combination of chicken and prawns that should probably be served with a warning label (It’s addictive). You’ll be back for more of that one I guarantee it.

Thai kitchen has been running for two years and Joy is definitely developing something of a following amongst those discerning diners who know the difference between overpriced uninteresting food and something truly amazing from the developed palate of Thailand.

Joy is a practising Buddhist and I’m pretty sure this helps her to cope with the very difficult job of finding ingredients for all this. Something of a miracle that this bright Thai entrepreneur pulls off here. It may seem like magic but to be sure; skill, experience and know how are what makes the behind the scenes difference at this fabulous little taste of Thailand right here in ‘Good Old Knysna’ on memorial square.

Eco-Reserves

February 19th, 2011

Many years ago I organised a diving trip to Sodwana with a few nights at a new reserve that had opened up. This was Phinda at a time when it was still possible to afford what has become a rare privilege. And after all the intervening time the one impression, the only lasting impression I came away with was the clearing, cutting and rehabilitating that was taking place. It was powerful stuff. A huge undertaking, a daunting task. But nonetheless one that was addressed and I assume one that has since changed the face of a tiny corner of Africa.

Bangkok

September 6th, 2010

One of my first and also last stops when visiting Bangkok is a little shop you find downstairs in the Fortune Shopping Mall. It is not always open but it offers one a display of the most exquisitely crafted miniatures. It is the showroom for the work that is produced by Kydceramics.com . And for one that is all thumbs, it is a humbling experience to have the privilege to witness the precise attention to detail, the absolute dedication and craftsmanship.

This has to be one of those special places.