Hello, Weekend.
This week I had a sneak preview of the laidback ramen joint, Ramenhead, which is opening in Cape Town soon. I predict a new local hotspot is in the making. The city has finally awakened from its two-year slumber and is ready to host holidaymakers again. Like flowers in a summer garden, new eateries bloom just in time for the holiday season. News24’s Bashiera Parker also visited a new fine dining restaurant by celebrity chef Siba Mtongana. The two met over dinner to talk about food, love, and family. Talking about food, check out the delicious mushroom lasagne recipe in this weekend’s edition.
Happy reading. Herman.
Dinner with Siba
By Bashiera Parker
Siba – The Restaurant overlooks the harbour and arriving for dinner means you get to see the sun set and ripple warm shades across the water as you enjoy your four- or eight-course meal, courtesy of the celebrity chef turned restaurateur. The first taster – the amuse bouche – is three of “Siba’s special bites” with flavours of the Cape Malay culture, hints of chakalaka and more. “Can I water the garden?” my waiter asked of the first course they refer to as “Tata’s garden'”, before a cloud of smoke engulfed the dish.
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‘Chef’s Bites and Gifts’ also described as ‘Tata’s Garden’.
How Sam Mathe’s love of jazz inspired his ‘group portraits’ of great SA musicians
By Shaun de Waal
Award-winning journalist Sam Mathe had an interest in music, especially jazz, from childhood. He recently produced and self-published an encyclopaedic tome on South African music, From Kippie to Kippies and Beyond: Group Portraits of SA Jazz, Folk and Pop Artists (Themba Books), which had just gone into a second, updated and expanded edition when we met to talk about this work, the origins of which stretch back a long way. Professor Njabulo Ndebele praised the book’s “authoritative range”, seeing it as an “affirming addition to the evolving contemporary archive of a people on the rise after a history of great pain”.
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From Kippie to Kippies and Beyond: Group Portraits of SA Jazz, Folk and Pop Artists by Sam Mathe. (Themba Books)
What happens to your skin when you use expired products? An expert weighs in
By Nikita Coetzee
You do know your make-up, and skincare products expire, right? But let’s be honest, how many of us actually adhere to those expiration dates? I’m pretty sure I’m still using a face mask I bought two years ago (please don’t judge me). But that got me thinking – what actually happens to our skin when we use expired products? Obviously, those expiration dates are there for a reason, but is it unsafe to disregard them? I asked Dr Alek Nikolic, a renowned specialist in aesthetic medicine and owner of SkinMiles, to weigh in.
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Skincare and expired products. (Getty Images)
Reaching for the sky: Traversing rugged mountain passes in Kia’s Sorento
By Stuart Johnston
The latest Kia Sorento, introduced here at the beginning of 2022, is not a vehicle that immediately springs to mind when it comes to tackling some of the highest gravel-road mountain passes in South Africa. This, of course, was the whole point of the Sorento Adventure from Kia’s perspective; to demonstrate that this rather Americanesque-looking SUV is not just a pretty face when it comes to getting down and dirty.
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2022 Kia Sorento. (Photo: Supplied)
Kelly Rowland on her love for South African women: ‘They’ve given me heart and soul’
By Bonolo Sekudu
My Friday morning started with me humming Destiny’s Child songs from the early 2000s, when my love for the group was quite obsessive. I was in the zone, and I even thought I was belting some tunes while getting ready to leave the house to meet one-third of the iconic girl group. Kelly Rowland is back in the country for the second time this year, and we sat down with her for a chat.
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Kelly Rowland
YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THESE STORIES THIS WEEK:
Picoult joins forces with trans writer to enrich her new novel, Mad Honey: Mad Honey gives Jodi Picoult fans the complex family drama they’ve come to expect from the blockbuster author. But the book was written in partnership with bestselling trans writer Jennifer Finney Boylan, which was not only strategic on Picoult’s part but necessary for the depth and nuance required by the complex subject matter.
Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult with Jennifer Finney Boylan.
A fabulous five-course feast of conversation with the delectable Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen: Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen’s fridge is empty. Like an ever-moving, ever-onward swallow, now returning to soak up the sun of the warm South African summer of 2022, the country’s most sought-after celebrity chef literally just jetted back to the country and landed. He has yet to have time to stock the fridge.
Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen. (Photo: Supplied/VIA)
MAKE IT: Portobello mushroom lasagne: Nourishing, delicious and comforting – that’s what is at the heart of these mouth-watering recipes from Estelle Sacharowitz’s new cookbook.
Portello mushroom lasagne. (Photo: Supplied)
LISTEN TO IT: Bingeing Without Borders: South Korea: A limited podcast series hosted by Caryn-Welby Solomon for News24 in which she explores TV from around the world. In episode one, Welby-Solomon discusses the growing popularity of South Korean dramas.
TRY IT: FACE for Him: This skincare range for men fills a huge gap in the market, and no guy can say that he’s clueless about how to look after his skin – it’s as easy as paint-by-numbers. This is about as simple as it gets, and it is fantastic quality.
FACE for Him products. (Photo: Herman Eloff/News24)
(Cover photo: Supplied/Cover design: Herman Eloff)
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