Chicken thighs in a light tempura with sweet chilli mayo.
Image: Frank Chemaly
Where: 12 Mackeurtan Ave, Durban North
Open: Monday to Saturday 11.30am to 3pm and 5pm to 8.30pm
Call: 031 564 2939
On a bitterly cold Wednesday night when it was bucketing with rain, I felt like something warming, and as none of the usual cast of colourful characters was prepared to join me, it needed to be doubly so. And so I hankered after a big tasty bowl of Ramen noodles.
The Green Parrot and neighbouring Wok Box were surprisingly busy, and are much improved by the new deck that has been added. You no longer feel like you’re sitting in a car park, and the big glass windows could block out most of the chill.
Under the same ownership, the Green Parrot concentrates more on the Japanese side of Asian cooking, while the wok box is distinctly Thai. I realise that most are past visits here we have eaten off the Wok Box menu. I remember a good dish of crispy duck in a honey and sesame sauce, and some excellent barbecued pork. We even ordered a second plate of it on my last visit with The Poet.
Ramen noodles with pork belly.
Image: Frank Chemaly
They offer a full range of Thai style curries and stir fries, along with specials like seared tuna and whole crispy fish.
The Green Parrot offers small plates of panfried dumplings with house pickles and dipping sauces, or panko pork skewers with Katsu barbecue sauce and cabbage, or crispy tofu with sweet chilli and pickled kelp strips. Carrot and onion tempura fries sounded interesting. There’s also a selection of bao buns.
I opted for Karaage (R90), chicken thigh bites with burnt lemon and sweet chilli mayo. These were delicious, the chicken in a lovely light and super crisp tempura batter, the mayo having a real chilli rather than just a sweet chilli bite. I was definitely starting to warm up.
Mains could have included a steamed rice bowl with stir fried cabbage and house pickles, either panko chicken, beef with egg, charred pork belly or tofu and crispy onion. Udon noodles could be stir fried with chicken, or pork belly or mixed veg or even served with a japanese curry.
But I went straight for a ramen bowl. The Tonkotsu (R169) with 10-hour pork broth, pork belly, chashu and shichimi oil was spot on. The broth was deeply umami with the shichimi oil adding a nice spike of heat, the boiled egg cooked with a perfect jammy yolk was not only there to look pretty. I slurped it all up hungrily - how else do you eat ramen noodles? - with splatter all over the table and my shirt. But it was the perfect meal for the night.
The Green Parrot offers dessert of fruit on a bed of lemon agar jelly with salted vanilla ice-cream, or coffee panna cotta with soy syrup, and sesame brittle or Okinawan doughnuts drizzled with miso caramel. The doughnuts tempted, but I couldn't find my second stomach.
I thought let me get home while I was still all warm and fuzzy from the excellent noodle bowl.
Food: 4
Service: 3
Ambience: 3
The Bill: R293 for one
A table with an array of food and condiments for a Korean barbeque.
Image: Ana Chemaly
Where: 1 Dean Street, Newlands, Cape Town
While in Cape Town last week I invited The Niece and The Boyfriend to dinner, and asked them to choose one of their favourite spots. “Did I like Korean,” The Nice asked.
Of course.
And so we visited the Gogi Korean Barbecue in Newlands (there’s a second shop in Observatory) which was packed. We got the last table with a dedicated barbecue station. Upstairs is a bar - outside and it was also bitterly cold and raining, people are sitting under a wooden lean-to off the main building. And unlike Umhlanga’s more sophisticated Wandering Seoul, this has a decidedly student vibe. Large tables of young people enjoying themselves. A number of birthday wishes sung etc.
They usually come for their beef rice bowls but had never tried their hand at the barbecue and so I insisted we go for it.
We started with some good crispy pork dumplings with a spicy dipping sauce, and a plate of enjoyable spicy chicken wings. Before the mountain of little plates arrives for the barbecue. And our waitress lit the barbecue and pulled down a copper hose type thing which removed the smoke.
We ordered the beef and pork belly. The super thinly sliced beef worked better than the thicker pork belly. There was fresh cucumber and carrots - and by the way you can forget trying to barbecue a carrot. A lovely cucumber pickle worked better. There were good thinly sliced pickled onions, and onion rings and mushrooms we put on the braai. The Boyfriend tackled the kimchi, The Niece and I both not being fans. There were also thin slices of a good sharp pickled radish, and little cubes of something that turned out to be a surprisingly tasty potato dish. Plus gochujang sauce and a really good sesame dipping sauce. None of us were fans of raw broccoli so we put that on the braai too. You sort of spooned some rice into a lettuce leaf, topped it with your barbecue items and some pickles, wrapped it all up and dipped it in the sesame. We had fun.
I also ordered a seafood pancake, which I enjoyed with its very chive-heavy batter, but I think with all the spicy stuff around the young ones found it a little dull. It worked well with some of the braaied vegetables.
By the time it came to desserts the kitchen had closed, but we’d had more than enough. In fact we cooked the last few pieces of meat so the young ones could have sandwiches the next day.
Food: 3 ½
Service: 3
Ambience: 3 ½
The Bill: R1258 for three