A focus this week on the most important meal of the day – breakfast. And what’s breakfast without a really good cup of coffee? Nature’s wake-up call, this is imperative to shake off those sleepy cobwebs and get things moving in the morning. Well certainly for this night owl.
For me breakfast is usually a bowl of fruit and slice of toast mid morning, but on a recent visit to The Advocate on Durban’s North Coast, it took on a whole different holiday flavour as I popped into a number of the local coffee shops, and treated myself to some breakfast luxuries.
Plus I could get my morning fix. Horror of horrors, The Advocate only stocks instant coffee. I was warned, but I forgot to pack the plunger.
Zaras
Where: Ballito Lifestyle Centre, Main Road, Ballito
Open: Monday to Saturday 6am-5.30pm, Sunday 7am-5pm
Call: 087 460 0299
Zaras has always been a favourite, ever since I stumbled almost 20 years ago onto Maro Zaradoukis’s little coffee shop in Springfield. She has a wonderful larger-than-life approach to food and to customers, which reflects in the passion and flavours of her food. Everything just looks so inviting you have to try it. Since then she has moved her coffee shop first to uMhlanga and now Ballito, but the vibe hasn’t changed.
Her busy café spills out into the courtyard of the food section of the Lifestyle Centre. It’s almost a beacon for everything going on around it. There’s a central table loaded with the fresh baking of the day. Muffins, scones, cakes, brownies, turnovers, croissants ‒ you name it. All piled high and fresh. My eye spots something it shouldn’t ‒ a custard slice.
I look at the substantial breakfast menu that offers everything from healthy, like oats or smashed avo on toast, to light, like a breakfast bun or scrambled eggs with tomato, feta and olives, to substantial Benedicts with salmon or ham. There’s a Cypriot breakfast of eggs with halloumi and spinach; a shakshuka; and even an option of eggs with deboned BBQ pork ribs. Their omelettes are good, and substantial. The bacon cheese and caramelised onion option was lunch quite recently. Instead, that custard slice calls. And why can’t one have a custard slice for breakfast?
It was delicious and all the better for not being overly sweet, the pastry still nice and crisp. I know it was made that morning. I wash it all down with a good rich cup of coffee, and a second. This is breakfast bliss.
When Maro comes over to say hello, we discover we are both fans of the humble custard. It’s part of the marketing on her takeaway containers, and at the deli table that holds racks of custard slices. She insists I take home her custard-filled croissant, “for after dinner”, she says. It was another winner.
Two Shrimps Restaurant
Where: Canelands Beach Club, 2 Shrimp Lane, Salt Rock
Open: Daily 7am-9pm, breakfast served until 10.30am
Call: 032 525 2300
The Advocate and I had breakfast at Two Shrimps, part of the Canelands Beach Club, because it has to be one of the most beautiful settings on the Salt Rock coastline. You sit on a deck, looking out over a lap pool and on to the beach and the sea. You feel like you could almost be having breakfast on the beach.
The coffees were pleasant and mellow without being memorable. The menu options are fairly simple and include a traditional English and a full fry-up, or a Benedict with ham or salmon. There are options like poached eggs on peri-peri-chicken livers and mushrooms on toast to add variety. There’s also French Toast and Bombay Toast. It would seem the first option was savoury with bacon and tomatoes and mushrooms, the second sweet with berries and stuff.
The Advocate went for the full fry-up (R110) which included beans and chips (in my view neither belong on a breakfast plate) sans the eggs (which he doesn’t eat) which he substituted for onions. He enjoyed it. My breakfast was the classic (R75) with the addition of a pork sausage. It came with soft fried eggs as requested and slices of brown toast, and was enjoyable. Although, note to kitchen: breakfast in particular is always better served on a hot plate. Eggs cool very quickly.
I can’t help but think someone is missing a trick here. There is the opportunity for this to be a destination breakfast venue. Instead it feels like you’re eating in a better class hotel dining room. But the views make up for it.
Salt Café
Where: Corner Old Main Road and Ocean Drive, Shaka’s Rock
Open: Monday to Tuesday 7am-4pm, Wednesday to Sunday 7am-7.30pm
Call: 071 377 7326
Photographer Shelley Kjonstad and I popped into Salt Café on a recent photo shoot in Umhlali. It’s a corner coffee shop, bakery and pizzeria that spills out on to deck and pavement. It feels a lot like you’re in Greece, right down to someone’s Vespa parked on the pavement.
Recently winning the North Coast’s best pizza, we certainly weren’t going to try a pizza for breakfast, but that’s just so you know their rep. Pizza might include Mexican, Sicilian, tandoori, or tropical bacon (you guessed it ‒ with pineapple), or a more humble vegetarian or Margherita (spelt incorrectly as Margarita) option. I’ll certainly try one next time I’m in town.
But we were bowled over by the racks of fresh croissants on display. The almond croissants were wonderfully buttery and flaky, so full marks there. We enjoyed a mellow nutty flavoured cappuccino with good rich milk foam while we stole a few minutes sitting on the deck and watching the world go by.
The Independent on Saturday