My immediate hood is weird. I basically live in a mall. There are two Duane Reade’s and like four Starbucks all with a few block of me. That doesn’t seem right, does it? Shout out the DR right across the street from me, though. For serious, that place is run immaculately, and the register line is always manageable even during rush hours. But, like, if you grow weary of eating lean cuisine raviolis, where do you turn? There are def some inside the box choices, like getting a burg from Wrap-n-Run or Chicken from Pio Pio. But what if you have a hankering for a dangerous creature like you’re fuckin’ Tarzan? Wait, was Tarzan vegetarian? Um, scrap that.

I give you the excellent gustatory delights of South Africa, an under-appreciated food culture, but a vibrant one dedicated to incredibly bright flavor profiles like wild boar sliders with cherry compote

tilefish ceviche with kiwi and mango. Even their bread comes with an awesome interpretation of Egyptian dukkah

Each bite felt like the sun slowly burning off the morning dew of the savannah until suddenly it’s midday and dazzling in heat. It was beautiful. Their price points are also the shit. You can get this big-ass lamb shish with the usual array of onions and peppers but also the genius addition of grilled apricots that simply kicks you right in the taste nuts all for the low low price of 8 bucks. Their happy hour also goes to 7, which is rad.

But I was thinking as I was writing this, am I racist for eating South African food? I just saw the brilliant play by Athol Fugard, The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, in which the Afrikaner landowner exists on this detached plane from the two black protagonists, not plotting against them, just not cognizant of their plight. I get that these Afrikaners cooking this bomb food are real and live in a culturally diverse city where you would probably combust from hatred if you were truly racist, and maybe that’s why they are over here in the first place, because they believe in the melting pot. Maybe I’m overthinking this. RSA still has a lot of issues to work out with their race relations, but fuck it, so do we. And their food fucking rocks.