Mayfair Menu: Fusion with a mongrel edge

22 July 2015 - 02:01 By Andrea Burgener

For years I drove past Samir's Fruit and Veg just off Mayfair's main drag, Church Street, and never paid it an actual visit. I'm not sure why; the signs are of an electric kool-aid intensity. When a Pakistani shop-owner down the drag told me of the owner's Egyptian origins, I knew I must visit immediately.Undoubtedly, the finest thing that immigrant communities give their new home is their cuisine. And the way this morphs into a new hybrid is endlessly fascinating. I love how this occurs in the most natural way, dictated by circumstance rather than fashion, which is so often the driving force behind fusion food. Rather than fusion, Johannesburg has what I think of as mongrel food. So much more personality.Samir Moussa's superette (much more than the sign indicates) is large for a Mayfair joint, and entirely fantastic. It's been here since his arrival more than 10 years ago, and tells the stories of the communities in the area in gastro form. It's the sort of shop that makes me fall in love with my city again, on a day when I'm feeling more than a bit worn down by litter, electric fences and bad-news stories. A long parade of fresh vegetables runs down the middle of the space: baskets piled with bhindi, ginger, brinjal, snake-beans, madumbe, limes and much more. Fruit sits to the side. Great plums and "pumpkin peaches" - flattish and intensely flavourful - which I've only seen in very posh greengrocers uptown, are the best of the crop. Most exciting, there fresh is turmeric root (as opposed to ground, dried turmeric). The flavour is head and shoulders above the dried-up version.On the other side of the vegetable parade there is Turkish and Egyptian coffee, mulberry cordial, the ubiquitous Rose syrup, tamarind, za'atar, saffron and beyond. There are frozen packets of chopped up bhindi and pata (rolled up taro leaves with masala paste filling). There are many cheeses. Most are in the white-curd style family, but there is one hard pale-yellow cheese which Samir tells me is known as Roman cheese back home, because the Romans brought this recipe to Egypt during their occupation.As Pecorino was a staple food of the more fortunate soldiers, it's probably derived from this cheese, but the recipe has been morphed into an entirely un-Roman entity. I strongly suspect that the chunk I bought may have been from the original piece accompanying the Roman soldiers, so pungent was it. I can kindly describe it as an acquired taste. But then, I would be disappointed if everything was familiar enough to fall in love with immediately.There are, of course, tins of Ful Medames (glorious fat soft Fava beans), as well as pickled "wild" cucumbers, loads of tahini and halva options, Pakistani-style atchars, and even made-in-Egypt Lays chips. The list goes on and on. I try to imagine what dish will be conjured from these ingredients by a Johannesburg cook. Malawian store assistant Yassin Maussen shows me around and translates with aplomb where necessary. Locals drift in and out, some running in at lunchtime for just one buxom bunch of coriander to finish a curry being cooked across the road. I leave with a heaping box of goods. Samir advises that my next stop should be one of the Egyptian-owned coffee shops in the Fordsburg/Mayfair area. I like the sound of the upstairs room with hookah-pipes, coffee and sofas. I head out, eating peaches as I go.Samir Fruit and Vegetables, Fatima Court. Corner of Church Street and 4th Avenue, Mayfair, 011-830-1243..

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