Shrewd Food

Locals browse around the food stalls at the Durban Street Food Festival on its final day.

The Durban Street Food Festival at Rivertown was a good idea, but there was plenty of room for improvement, writes Ingrid Shevlin

The Durban Street Food Festival held from September 24 to 27 at 8 Morrison Street was a great initiative. Food, music, art were on offer along with the promise that visitors would get to experience the melting pot of flavours, cultures, sounds and sights that make Durban the cosmopolitan smorgasbord it is today – in the words of the organisers, that is.
And to some extent they did.
Such intiatives should be encouraged not dismissed. We need more not less, especially those that give young entrepreneurs a chance to show off, market themselves in other words.
As it turned out on Sunday it was vibey and busy with locals taking full advantage of the warm weather to enjoy the good things Durban has to offer.
But there were some dissatisfied rumblings and hopefully the organisers will listen without taking offence if they are planning any more such events. Here are some issues that need to be raised. But first the good stuff….

Cakes to die for at a patisserie in Paris. More works of art than food.

Hard to resist this display at a patisserie shop in Paris.

Ripped off by Harrods disappointed by Paris’s Chinese food and disdained by the French waiters, Ingrid Shevlin, shares her alternative culinary experience abroad. 

After spending a month in the UK, and four days in Paris, I wish I could report amazing dining experiences in the French capital, at Nopi, Ottolenghi’s eatery in London, or at any of Jamie Oliver’s restaurants in London (Fifteen, Diner, Covent Garden). Or even at that exclusive Japanese restaurant in London that seats only nine and has just won its second Michelin star. It charges a staggering £300 for a set meal, which is about R6 000.
But with the crippling exchange rate – R20 to the pound – those were far beyond my means and dreams. But eat out I did with some interesting results.

This is how you order your food at Eatsa, a new restaurant in San Francisco that is totally automated

And the result. Delicious looking and healthy food.

FROM the toasted cheese sandwich going gourmet, a Japanese restaurant that allows customers to choose a waitress to be their pretend wife for the night to the latest kitchen gadgets and the wily ways in which restaurateurs rip off their customers, read it all below in the latest news from the wonderful world of food. Thanks to ShrewdFood.