Moveable Feast Marino Corazza
FROM Benoni to Bedfordview, Florida to Ferndale, Swellendam to Sabi, cafes across the country are invested with same nostalgia. Their names refer to the places their owners emigrated from a long time ago — Mykonos, Apollo, Hellenic, Paphos, The Acropolis, like a travel brochure on Greece and the islands — while those preferring to remain inconspicuous adopt the names of the places where they arrived — Tramway, Station Terminal, and so on.
Tireless, modern-day Trojan Horse warriors are locked in there, manning them from early morning till late at night. Taki, Spero and Jimmy supply cigs, milk, bread and the bare necessities of life week in, week out, all year long. (Who hasn’t rushed in to one of these spots on the way to pick up a date and bought a stale box of chocolates at an inflated price? And gladly so. Or that tin box of crepe de Chine?)
So how does one rate a cafe from one to 10?
One doesn’t, as generally some are so-so, others indifferent; some owners are downright rude. Lots of cafes are simply ordinary; all are convenient in their own way. But some inventive and entrepreneurial Anatolians have taken their corner shops two or three notches above the rest. The good ones are often claustrophobic with merchandise, a bit like bazaars where, while browsing, you might just find what you’re looking for. I bought my first William Burroughs novel in one of these joints.
Across the road from Johannesburg’s King David School is the Linksfield Supermarket Deli and Bakery. It’s a kosher and gentile deli, well-kept and clean.
Bread is baked fresh every day. There are baskets of ryes, French and Portuguese loaves, hot dog and honeycomb rolls, sesame -seed-dusted breadsticks, bagels and kitkas. There is a substantial cake counter with syrupy angel hair baklava and spanakopita. Cakes are made to order.
There is a wide selection of nuts — bags of plain and peri-peri cashews, almonds, macadamias, walnuts and pistachios, shelled and ready for crunching.
The deli has a good selection of imported and local meats and cheeses. If you’re a glutton for imported chocolates, they have those, too. A speciality is dried and salted pumpkin seeds for munching or throwing into soups. Another is dried figs and dates imported from Turkey.
Grab your choice, drive up to the ridge and treat yourself to a scenic snack with a difference. On a clear day you won’t see forever but you’ll certainly see Pretoria.
Parkhurst has a little of San Francisco about it. Some of the avenues run down and then up to give the driver a gentle rollercoaster ride. Halfway down one of these is the Texas Cafe and Supermarket. It’s also bulging at the seams with goods, but the owner has specialised in two areas.
Firstly there’s a crisps and biltong counter. Crisps are home-made, thick and golden-fried. You can have them plain, salted or peri-peri dusted. They’re so good my kids will scoff a packet in no time. One blink and they’re gone, vamoosed, finished!
Ditto with the biltong which they supply fatty or lean, plain or spiced, dry or moist and bought whole, machine-sliced on the spot or cut into chunks.
Then there’s the take-away fare. I’ve had one of my best hamburgers ever from here: a generous, coarse-ground beef patty charred just right with freshly cut firm tomato, crisp letture and crunchy gherkin, enclosed by just-baked bun halves. Mac who? Same goes for their steak roll: juicy, grilled rump with fried, slightly blackened onions, drooling mustard.
With pregos, T-bones, Greek salads, Russians, fish and chips all ready to go and freshly prepared, it makes sense, in this hurlyburly time, to give the cook a break and just stop and pick the grub up. It’s solid good fare from Texas.
Linksfield Supermarket Deli and Bakery: Club Street, Linksfield (Tel: 640-5725/ 640-2716); Texas Cafe and Supermarket: 45 1st Ave., Parkhurst (Tel: 442-7340). Marino Corazza will continue to write about his favourite cafes in the edition of March 10
The Rocket Cafe is also popping with goods, so much so that you have to enter sideways. The drawcard for this establishment is the good buzz, it’s the local for the five high schools in the area. Besides the standard fare and wide selection of magazines they have two well stocked fridges, a Nola with magnums and a Walls with cornettos, the eat-on-the-trot ice-cream fashion from Europe that’s finally hit SA. With the kind of turnover they have with satisfying the kids’ sweet tooth wants, the ice-creams can only be but fresh.
They also have an endless supply of whatever craze is going around at the moment from marbles to soccer cards. My son had three of Baggio but they’re all lost now.
Rocket Cafe 19 Highlands North Centre Highlands North Tel: 887-0851
Hidden away from the revelling ravers of Rockey Street in the Liandria Centre is the Norana Bakery. Go down the three or four steps and you’re in. George the owner bakes every day with his own hands. He gives you a fresh choice of rye, special health bread, Greek and herb bread, French loaves, rolls and buns, side by side with custard rich Danish and slabs of Madeira, all shapes and sizes sof baklava and icing sugared, nutty Kourabiedes, the Greed shortbread biscuits. He also makes sesame seed and honey slices so brilliant in their simplicity that one has to scoff one down straight away.
The cold counter is full of tubs brimming with glistening green and black olives, calamata and local ones. And tubs of moist feta and haloumi cheeses together with round Kefalotiri (pecorino type cheese). The bakery also supplies a good selection of coffee, freshly ground or in beans and also has the imported Greek mixture t make the Turkish brew. The shop also stocks a selection of durum wheat Greek pasta, olive oil and halva.
His pies must be very good as there’s always someone sitting on the ledge outside enjoying one.
Norana Bakery Liandria Centre Rockey Street Bellevue Tel: 648-2102