It’s not often enough that my beloved sister, our BFF Julie and I get together, what with Dale living in London, Julie in Durban and me all over the place. When we do, revisiting the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands Meander has become a tradition – even if we have only one day for it.
And so the Three Mustgetbeers of old, with trusty Julie at the wheel of her Toyota RAV4, set off early one weekday morning for the KZN Midlands. The mission: to revisit a couple of favourite haunts and possibly find a few others.
Shopping was as usual high on the agenda, topped only by eating and drinking. Thus it was that we pulled in to Howick, for breakfast at the new and recommended Farmer’s Daughter in Yard 41.
Before I could get my camera out, Dale and Julie tore into their poached eggs and ham on spinach and sweetcorn fritter (R88) – delicious, they said. Mine was a savoury muffin served with a bit of butter and some of the tasteless grated gloop that passes for gouda in South Africa.
Piggly Wiggly is always a must – be it for biltong, smelly bath salts, interesting wines, giraffe pyjamas for one’s baby grandson in Perth, or a new hat for Julie, pictured below.
Next on the itinerary was Nottingham Road.
After popping in at Lime & Roses and admiring this temple to the god of coffee, it was time for lunch at its neighbour, Country Road. Again I chose badly and was beset with food envy: apart from its lovely cheesy topping, my picturesque beetroot and gorgonzola salad was composed of a woody sort of arugula, tough slices of raw beetroot and various other challengingly chewy ingredients. On a happier note, this meal put me into a sort of calorie deficit – I reckon that in digesting it I used up more calories than it provided.
Better were Dale’s garden Greek salad (R105) and Julie’s fish cakes (R85).
Before heading home, we popped into Piggly Wiggly just in time before they closed at 4.30pm. Lemon meringue pie and scones with jam and cream soon corrected any calorie deficit, and all was right with the world.
Until next time, my friends!
