It’s always good to have a lunch spot just around the corner from the workplace. I have been watching in anticipation and wondering what was happening behind the brown paper-clad windows of a shop nearby, which has had a few owners since I started to walk past it daily.
 
I have been hoping that eventually we would have an everyday casual lunch spot to pick up fresh salads and sandwiches and good nibble stuff nearby.
 
After bumping into the owner, the talented Bernice van de Merwe, who until recently was the assistant food editor at You and Huisgenoot, I heard that it was her baby, My Basaar.
 
Last week through the window we had a sign language conversation saying ‘chat next week', so on Monday I was there picking up a gorgeous venison pie, caramelised slices of roasted sweet potato, a spoonful of beetroot and feta salad, and a salad of freshly grated baby marrow and tomato. On the harvest-style table were lovely little lemon meringue pies piled with frothy meringue, the most delicious looking pear tart, a large dish of gooey lasagne and rolled beef smothered with gravy.
 
It’s exactly what we need in our neck of the woods.
 
I quite like a buffet – especially with a carvery – and the one offered at Twist at The Mount Grace Hotel is worth the lovely drive to Magaliesburg, with joints of roasted meats and potatoes, gravy, good old-fashioned veggies, traditional bobotie and curries, salads,cheeses, breads and desserts.
 
And a new surprise – well, for me, anyway – is the breakfast feast at The Atlantic Grill at The Table Bay. The view is magnificent and the selection is too. Bowls and bowls of fresh granadilla pulp, berries, mango, bircher muesli, home-cured gravalax, a whole Jamon, churros, brandy-soaked raisin Chelsea buns, home-made baked beans and and and… It all makes a very happy start to the day.
 
Happy eating!
Abigail

Photograph: Chloe Lim