Do not say I didn’t say soy

18 September 2014 - 02:03 By Andrea Burgener
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Andrea Burgener
Andrea Burgener
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The number of times I eat out in my city and leave the place disappointed or seething with rage far outweighs the times I leave blissfully — or even fairly content.

Highly recommended

I am particularly mistrustful of hip-looking places in posh suburbs, having had most of my worst experiences at these (and conversely, my best in dives squatting in lowly surrounds).

Eatery JHB has made me rethink my prejudices. Located in a reclaimed car workshop (the deconstructed look), this place needs no introduction to many, but if you haven’t been yet, make this your next meal reservation. Global food with a short and often-changing menu is something that a number of places in the fashionable bistro bracket do, but the big difference here is that these guys can cook. I mean really cook.

They use perfect, super-fresh, ethically produced ingredients, and the stuff isn’t plated with stupid commas and skid-marks and foams. The flavourings are subtle and every ingredient sings. Of the six dishes we tried, all delivered in spades. How often does that happen?  Most fantastic were the lamb flatbread with sweet caramelised onion and tzatziki, the Kabeljou fillet (Sassi-approved) with an Asian broth of great depth, and a clever, posh sort of macaroni cheese, with pear, walnuts, gorgonzola and radicchio.

Puddings were served on slasto, a current trend which always disturbs me — the sound and feel of cutlery on stone is like nails down a chalkboard — but by this stage I was too charmed and impressed to mind greatly. 11th Street, Parkmore. Phone 011-783-1570 or e-mail  matt@eateryjhb.co.za          

Step away from the soy

In five or 10 years, I’ll wager we’ll remember with horror and disbelief the volumes of soy that  were consumed in the name of health.

Are Western eaters being fed soy because it is healthy? No. The West’s gargantuan intake of soy started, quite simply, because it proved such a profitable crop to grow for cattle-feed that farmers and food processors started looking for places to use the glut. In the East, soy has been eaten for many centuries in fermented form only (soy sauce, miso, proper tofu). In unfermented form — soy sausages, soy bread, soy milk, soy burgers, soy baby formula, for goodness sake  — the stuff is more toxic than nutritious (affecting hormones and enzymes in serious and scary ways).

It is also  one of the crops most contaminated by pesticides. And a foodstuff with an Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of almost seven to one is not something you want to go near. Why a sports group like Cricket SA has Soya Life as a sponsor  is a mystery. People: put down that soy latte and do some research on the topic.      

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