#South Africa

I’m taking a quick break from my Western Cape road trip series to tell you about Syrian Rose, my new favorite restaurant in Fordsburg. Syrian Rose is unquestionably the best place in the entire city to chow down on spicy grilled chicken, shawarmas, and fresh fruit juice.

Thorsten and I spent two days in Arniston, a tiny seaside town about three hours southeast of Cape Town, as part of a mini Western Cape road trip to celebrate our anniversary. Our stay in Arniston was courtesy of the Arniston Spa Hotel and Cape Country Routes.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I really enjoy wine tasting in South Africa. I’ve done a few media visits to various South African wine regions over the years, and recently I’ve made an effort to actually learn something about wine so I can figure out which wines I like best and not sound like a neophyte when talking/writing about them.

Eighth in my “Roadhouses of Gauteng” series. Browse all of my roadhouse posts or view a map of the roadhouses I’ve visited.

I am not easily convinced to drive to Fourways, an outer suburb about 30 minutes north of central Joburg. And when I first started my roadhouse series, it was my intention to focus solely on “old” roadhouses that opened in the 20th century and stood the test of time.

On Saturday morning, I hosted a jacaranda walk through Rosebank with Johannesburg In your Pocket and the Radisson RED Johannesburg.

The jacaranda blossoms aren’t peaking yet in most of Joburg’s inner suburbs. There’s some speculation this could be an off-year or, more worryingly, that Joburg’s jacarandas might finally be reaching the end of their life spans. But my unfounded panic last year – which turned out to be a great jacaranda year despite a late-ish start – taught me not to count the jacarandas out too soon.

As an American blogger in Joburg, it is my moral obligation to inform the public about the appearance of authentic bagels in this city. Although there are many imposters floating around, real, boiled bagels – crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside, served with real cream cheese – are few and far between. So I’m popping in here quickly to let you know about Bird’s Bagels, a semi-secret weekend bagel pop-up in Blairgowrie.