The Bull Run @ Johannesburg

The plan in the evening was to go to The Grand at Rivonia, Johannesburg, which is reputed to be the best strip tease club in the world. (Review : The Grand). However, it was closed. Closed on Sunday? Strange! So, we ended up in a restaurant called The Bull Run, a short walk from our hotel.

The Bull Run is located in the Balalaika Hotel in Sandton.

The restaurant seems to be endoresed by many members of the Security Exchange of South Africa with their signatures in the front and back cover of its menu. The menu itself looks like share price table.

Well, you must have seen a group of westerners coming to our Asian restaurant and ordered a plate of fried rice and found out that one of them have the entire plate of fried rice to himself. That is eating in the western manner. To show them our Asian value, we ate in the Asian manner in The Bull Run. We ordered all the main dishes and put them in the centre of the table for sharing among all of us.

Beef

The oysters were wonderful. It was soaked in brine to the perfect taste. Too bad, Each of us could only have two.

Escargot, of course, in garlic butter. We couldn't find the shell though.

Lobster. Well, I think it tasted the same like those I always eat in Sungai Renggit whenever I go to Desaru.

Prawn. Nothing impressive.

Grilled vegetable. Wow! This one was good.

The beer was the pleasant surprise in the evening. It is the best beer I have tasted till now! Now, I can forget about all those Japanese beer. How do I get this Carling Black Label in Singapore? Anybody knows?

It was a good evening eating and chit chat. We walked our way home at 11pm. None of us were drunk.

Lekgotla @ Johannesburg

I wanted to try something African on my first day in Johannesburg. There are many restaurants in the Sandton area in downtown Johannesburg that I stayed. However, most of them are European restaurants. Strangely, It is not easy to find African restaurant in Johannesburg. There is only one in the Nelson Mandela Square nearby  called Lekgotla.

There is a huge statue of Nelsie (as South African called him) in Nelson Mandela Square. Of course, most businesses in South Africa are owned by the whites who are very good in protecting their business interests and exploiting everything from Nelson Mandela, high crime rate,etc to their business advantage. Perhaps, South Africa should consider more Asian immigrants to challenge the monopoly of the whites. Asian will undercut their high price for everything.

Char grilled vegetable. A bit disappointing though.

Zanzibar kingklip. Zanzibar archipelago is known as spice islands of East Africa. It is part of Tanzania. Kingklip is an ugly looking Southern Hemisphere fish, found in waters of South Africa, Wester Australia, New Zealands and South America. The dish is served with couscous, not rice. Couscous granules are made by rolling and shaping moistened semolina wheat and then coating them with finely ground wheat flour. The finished granules are roughly spherical shape and about one millimetre in diameter before cooking. Different cereals may be used regionally to produce the granules.

Zanzibar chicken. All the two dishes of Zanzibar kinglip and Zanzibar chicken are spicy but sweet. Sweet! Interesting.

The bill came up to R315, which is about RM150 or S$70. The interesting thing about settling bill in South Africa is you have to write down the tips (gratuity) you want to give. If you are settling the bill using credit card, the waiter will bring the credit card machine to your table and swipe your card in front of you. Perhaps to prevent unscrupulous worker from stealing the information of your credit card.