It’s becoming quite the precinct – Station Drive. From a wasteland of warehouses, it’s fast becoming the city’s hip, up-and-coming urban playground.
There’s the Morning Trade market that makes this a Sunday meeting point, and S43, the brewery and gastro pub from Sean and Marcelle Roberts, has set a marker of intent. Above them is the newly opened 031 – but more about that next week.
Also recently opened is Con Amore, a vast, trendy decorating shop with some antique flourishes and some fabulously opulent leather sofas. In among the giant armoires, Persian carpets and oversized mirrors is a great little coffee counter. I enjoyed my espresso immensely.
It’s also home to the Loading Bay art gallery. Neville Trickett, of St Verde fame, has a cactus nursery. And Mo’s Express is here.
So for all the Berea types who went into decline when Mo’s Express made the trip north, well, your favourite dishes are back on your doorstep.
It’s a simple menu – eight of their most popular dishes – and it’s plastered on the counter in funky design.
The space looks like a bit of a food hall, but you can buy the chairs and tables you’re sitting at, and it is a work in progress. One section of the giant warehouse was being worked on as we munched.
The famed star salad would have to be there – as is the lentil and feta salad variety, although I can’t help feeling this may have had its day. But one can’t argue with popularity.
When Helen and I arrived for a late lunch, the place had been cleaned out of calamari, so that was four of the eight dishes down. The rest are a variety of ways with chicken.
I opted for the green chicken curry, Helen for the peanut chicken with coconut noodles. My curry was pleasant enough, the chicken tender and the veg fresh, but it was somewhat coconut milk heavy and there was no real kick.
Helen enjoyed hers – the chicken was beautifully tender although it was scattered with peanuts rather than being peanut chicken per se. The noodles, as expected, had had a good bath in coconut milk. But it was fun and I’m sure with all the trendy offices and design workshops going up there, it will be a popular pit stop.
Mo’s Express
Inside Con Amore
Station Drive
Stamford Hill
Also recently done up is the eatery attached to Sun Sun, the Chinese grocer and deli at the start of Umhlanga Rocks Drive.
Previously, the little eatery was hidden at the back of the shop, but now it is a fully fledged restaurant. Well, it feels more like the office canteen, but is clean, efficient and orderly – a favourite meeting place for people of Chinese descent. And we are here for the food, after all – and the company. Anne Stevens and Dave are joining me for lunch.
First up is navigating the menu – and we’re later given a takeaway menu – as well as a specialised Udon noodle menu. And then there are the combo plates – that’s soup, noodles and and main course served together. Think something like sliced lamb with green bean noodle and a kimchi pot. And then there are the meals you cook at the table as you go along.
And so you have rice dishes and noodle dishes and of course soups – all accompanied with the likes of roast duck, spicy pork, minced pork, or deep-fried chicken leg. The list is extensive. The hot stuff is marked in red on the menu – a handy visual guide. You order an A19 or B6 or C something else. I leave that in Anne’s department.
I enjoyed the crispy duck noodle soup – lots of flavour, though the duck could perhaps have been more crisp.
The pork fried rice was enjoyable, although it could have had a little more oomph. And I even enjoyed the pork with kimchi, and I am not a fan of the fermented cabbage. But the highlight was a beautifully fresh wok-fried bok choy that accompanied our meal.
Sun Sun is a simple good value eatery. The food is tasty, the service quick and the pricing cheap. And then there’s the fun of browsing through the delicacies in the deli.
Sun Sun
63 Umhlanga Rocks Drive
Durban North
031 564 4548
Open Monday-Sunday noon-9pm
One of my wishes for this year is that establishments would stop calling something a cheesecake when it isn’t. Usually it’s some kind of milky fridge tart propped up on gelatine crutches.
A recent dessert at California Dreaming was a cake in point. Homemade cheesecake, the menu read.
Well, Jo took umbrage to the fact that it had this dyed green cake base – it was, after all, the festive season. So I gave them a little cheer.
But for me it was the “filling”. What arrived was another bucket of blancmange souped up with some overly sweet berry coulis that tasted more like jam. Oh, and the cream was probably of the spray-on variety.
My response is just don’t do it. A cheesecake goes in the oven. It does not have gelatine in it – if it does, it’s not a cheesecake.
Well, at least we fared better than the rest of the party that opted for the deconstructed lemon meringue pie. What arrived was a plate full of artless twirls of glossy sweet white stuff, intermingled with some glossy sweet yellow stuff with a few biscuity bits scattered around. It was so sweet no one could finish it.
I’ll take the blancmange, thanks.
California Dreaming
150 O R Tambo Parade, Durban
031 332 0037
Open: Daily lunch and dinner