Things change faster and faster. It's not my imagination: it took billions of years for a single cell to change into a multi-celled blob, only millions of years for this to morph into a human, and then just a relatively brief moment to move from tilling the Fertile Crescent, to jeggings, dentistry with anaesthesia, and Hostess Twinkies.Children's pyjamas exemplify the speed-up effect most: just a generation or two ago, they were embellished with pictures of Mickey Mouse. Then they began to sport images of puce, steroid-enraged wrestlers, and more recently girl characters dressed like under-age hookers. What will the next generation's pyjamas boast? Stills from snuff movies?Food doesn't benefit much from the speed-up effect. Fast accelerating food fashion usually means that more mistakes are made along the way (criminal offences such as kiwi and feta sushi rolls, for example), and favourite haunts and dishes are always disappearing from our grasp. It brings out the nostalgic in me, I must confess. Here are three of my favourite Johannesburg food hide-outs in which - for better or worse - time seems to have stood still.GOLDEN PEACOCKThe waistcoated waiters still move at snail's pace, the plastic blomme on the metal trellis work and the metal teapots that drip, never change. Of course neither does the menu. Since the Plaza in Fordsburg opened its doors, this tea-house/restaurant/take-away at the north entrance has been going strong, offering a distinctly Joburg-Pakistani cuisine. The vegetable curries and rotis are the best thing here: green bean, butter-bean, potato, brinjal - whatever is on that day. Very spicy, cheap, delicious. Forget the samosas. Shop N28, 011-836-4986.TRATTORIA RENATOI remember that this tiny Italian restaurant in Emmarentia felt as if it had been there for eternity, from the first week it opened its doors. I've been there countless times over the last three decades, to take comfort in their home-style minestrone (not great looking but supremely delicious), the deeply unfashionable iceberg lettuce salad always served in the same patchwork-wood-veneer bowls, the rich al forno pastas, and the satisfying pizzas. The place is heaving most nights, with decades-long customers who would rise up in anger if a single thing changed. 39 Greenhill Road, 011-646-9203.SWALLOWS INNAnyone over a certain age, for whom old Chinatown in Commissioner Street was a regular haunt, will know Swallows well. Going since 1940, it's probably the oldest extant Chinese restaurant in the country. If you never frequented it in its heyday, it's worth going now to experience a sort of Jo'burg culinary museum piece, which I reckon might not be around for long. The decor is (and I'm being kind) seedy, and the food isn't going to win awards, but it's a piece of our city's history that I foolishly love. 6 Commissioner Street, 011-838-2946...