Springboks in the sky (Ponte City)

[J.] We really miss Joburg and our friends and colleagues there. It is such an amazing city ... This was one of the last things we did before leaving Joburg, watching the worldcup rugby game between the Springboks and Scotland at the 51th floor of the Ponte Tower in Joburg and we had a blast (also, of course, as the Springboks won).
We booked the tickets via Dlala Nje's homepage (who are located at the bottom of the Ponte Tower). As far as I understand, Dlala Nje is renting the apartment on the 51th floor for entertainment purposes. The history of the Ponte Tower was the magnet for us to have a closer look at this building. The view onto Joburg from one of its top floors is absolutely stunning. Few impressions of this evening below...

Emmarentia - Dog Walking Park

This morning I went with the girls for a relaxed walk to the Emmarentia Park quite early in the morning. The dog walking area is close to the botanical gardens and the Emmarentia Dam. You can access the park via various entrences with good parking facilities (e.g. Orange Road or Thomas Bowler Street). This dog walking park accomodates a lot of little lakes/dams, all connected with little natural or man-made streams which makes it perfect for hot summer days. Of course the water offers a lot of fun during the winter period as well... 

The accessible walking area is wide spread and in general it is a good place to socialise your dogs. For really good socialisation I would recommend to visit the park during the week as you meet the regular dog walkers with well socialised dogs while over the weekend the quantity of the "sun-shine-only"- dog walkers is slightly increased and you might meet some not so well behaved dogs. However, in general this park is very nice for dog walks, just always watch the cyclists!

The snapshot below was taken this morning and shows Lula. I cannot believe that she is already one year old now! She is a fantastic swimmer and even enjoys our pool in the garden quite often. She basically lies in the water without showing a lot of moving effort. It's really fun to see her swim as it looks to elegant. Something she very often lacks having solid ground under her feet...You can spot Gogo in the background pretending to go for a good swim as well. In fact, she is not fond of swimming at all and should something in the water accidentally touch her feet you can be sure that she's literally running out of the water. "Don't trust what you cannot smell or see!"... 

Makes perfect sense to me.

Roberto's Italian Bread Recipe

A while ago we bought some stunning photographs of Joburg CBD from Kutlwano Moagi which we will finally be able to put on the wall when we move to our new house. Have a look:

These photographs are actually quite large (1.1m x 1.1.m) and we wanted to get them framed. We randomly picked a gallery close to where we live and there we met Roberto who runs a gallery on Jan Smuts.

He is an Italian gentiluomo and while we were chatting we he mentioned that he likes to cook and to bake bread. He gave us a sample of his bread and next time we met to pick up the pictures he gave me the recipe. Both the recipe and the framing is excellent and I am sure you get both if you visit him.

I am still trying to figure out how to execute his recipe properly but I wanted to share it and show my first results.

The ingredients could not be more simple:
1.7 kg of flour (any kind)
1 Paket of dry yeast
2 Tbl Sp Salt
some sugar
Water
some additional Flour for the baking tray

Actually I added the sugar to this list. It was not in Roberto's original recipe.

Ok, now here is what you do:
Take some warm water and dissolve the yeast with some sugar and a couple of spoons of flour. Wait until you get some bubbles on the water. In the meantime get a large bowl and put the flour in it.


Pour the water with the yeast into the bowl. Knead the dough a bit. Dissolve the salt in another big cup of water and add it to the dough.

Now you have to knead the dough for a couple of minutes. Probably not more than 5. Add more water or flour as required. You will feel that the dough will come off the bowl and it will not be sticky anymore. It should be elastic and firm.

Next cover the bowl with a plastic bag and let the dough rest somewhere warm for about 2-3 hours. After that the dough should look like 'cow shit' - at least that is how Roberto described it. The dough should actually have more bubbles than shown on the picture below so I must be doing something wrong but I am not sure what it is.


Next you pre-heat the oven to 240°C or as hot as you can. Cover the baking tray with some flour and carefully take the dough out of the bowl. I use my fingers to scrape the dough from the sides of the bowl to get it out. Cover the baking tray with a clean cloth and let it rest again for 30 min. When the oven is at 240°C put the tray into the oven and close the door quickly again to not lose the heat. Wait for 20-30 min until the crust of the bread is a dark brown colour and than reduce the heat to 140°C for another 90 minutes.

Here is what the result looks like:
Compared to Roberto's bread my version is too dense and has not risen enough. But it is still delicious! If you want to you can add other ingredients to the dough. Today I made a bread with black olives and ricotta which works quite well.

New house owners in Melville

Naa… let’s say, we are this close of buying a house. Nothing is written in stone yet, but we do have the verbal confirmation. Huhuuuuu!

I must admit, these are very exiting times. First time house ownership feels like first job, first degree, first time driving a car… You know what I mean. We knew that this is our home when we first stepped over the door sill… Booom! Hopefully we can take and post some photos soon. However, the next six months are very likely to turn our lives upside down as this house is old and a lot of things need to be fixed and renovated and we are lacking exactly these skills. So good times to improve them soon...

The property is located in Melville. To be honest, I did not really know a lot about this old urban area besides the fact, that I simply liked its look and atmosphere. But “no knowledge” is nothing that cannot be changed into something like “having some basic knowledge” with doing a bit of research. So, here we go:

Melville is over 100 years old and almost as old as Johannesburg. The area was established on the 5th October 1896 and named after the land surveyor Edward Harker Vincent Melville. Melville was constituted as a working-class area. The class origins of the suburb are clearly discernible today: houses are close to the road and facing the street with minimal parking. This was not a suburb of grand driveways and stables. From its very first days, Melville as always been recognized for its picturesque village feel and its magnificent views.

The Melville Koppies Nature Reserve or just “Melville Koppies” is a pretty green space close to Melville. It is also a World Heritage Site and of major historical significance, given that people have lived here since the Stone Age(!), and the ridges are estimated to be 2.9 billion years old.

Map: http://www.mk.org.za

Bicycle Tour in Alexandra

The lady and I have been on a bicycle tour in Alexandra last weekend. It was at the same time a fascinating and sobering experience. Check out some of our pictures below:

We found this tour in the highly recommendable book about Joburg called Joburg-Places 2.0 by Gerald Garner. We booked the tour (2hrs) for R300 via email and were picked up at the Marlboro Gautrain Station. This parking lot is quite expensive (R85) so next time we might ask them to pick us up somewhere else.

Jeffrey, our tour guide was born in Alex and started this successful business on his own three years ago. He currently has five employees. Jeff shared a lot of his experiences with us. The funny stuff (like how to greet someone properly) and the rest as well. He gave us a quick overview of the history of Alexandra, we stopped at Mandelas house and the heritage centre but we were interested in the day to day living as well. He tried to answer every question and invited us to his and his mothers home to see how they live.

Before the tour I was a bit excited because of the crime and all the stories that we had heard about Alex but after a while that went away. Everyone we met was very friendly and even though a lot of people stared at us, most of them smiled and waved. We had a beer at one of the informal pubs after the tour and even though I would not want to go to Alex without a guide or at night, we actually felt quite safe the whole time.

Overall it was an experience for us that we will probably never forget. Here are the links to Jeffs webpage and his facebook profile.
http://www.alexandratours.co.za/
http://www.facebook.com/AlexandraBicycleTour

Cube Tasting Kitchen

Last week we have been to an amazing restaurant in Joburg. I would say it is a great find but it seems everybody but us was already aware of his place. The restaurant is called Cube Tasting Kitchen. Here is a link to their website and the address:

CUBE TASTING KITCHEN SHOP 5, PARK NORTH HEIGHTS,
17 4TH AVENUE, PARKTOWN NORTH.
GPS X:28.024933 – Y: -26.145487
www.cubekitchen.co.za

It is a very small place with only a couple of tables. There is no sign outside so you have to know where you are going. We have been in this area a few times but never noticed the restaurant until we read about it. As you can see there is a set menu which changes roughly every 6 weeks and no a la carte.
 

Menu Cube

You will have to book in advance and they will send you the menu. Since they have no license you will have to bring your own booze. But you can call them and ask form some advice concering the right wine - we will definetely do so next time we go.

The food is really exceptional. It took about 3-4 hours for all eleven courses and we enjoyed every minute. It is a fine dining experience but in a very relaxed and laid back atmosphere.The staff is really obliging and very friendly. The three chefs took turns in serving their courses and explaing them to us. The outstanding course for me was the 'Salmon with garnishes' -so many different possible combinations of flavour on one plate. That was really outstanding.