Melville Pizza: Think Thin
South Africa is not known for pizza, and you certainly won’t find authentic New York- or Chicago-style pies here. (I recently saw a Facebook photo of someone eating Ray’s Pizza in New York. It [...]
Sweet Indian Valentines
Five years ago I visited Chennai, India, and fell in love with Indian sweets. Indian sweets are difficult to describe — there are hundreds of different kinds and they vary by region. The ones [...]
Joburg’s Wacky Victorian Time Warp
On a recent visit to the Melville Visitors Center, I noticed a small brochure for a place called Lindfield House and was immediately captivated. It’s a Victorian home in Auckland Park, a suburb adjacent [...]
What’s a Litchi and How Do I Eat One?
Shopping for produce (called “fruit and veg” in South Africa) is a tourist activity in itself. You can buy produce at the grocery story here, just as you can in America. But it’s much [...]
Zoo Lake: Where the Locals Go
Zoo Lake is one of Joburg’s most popular city parks. It has what you’d expect from a city park with a lake in it: ducks, row boats, picnickers, barking dogs, trees, park benches. But [...]
Christmas Under the African Sun
We had a quiet Christmas Day at the Lucky 5 Star. The most notable thing about it, for me at least, was the weather — it was about 30 degrees Celsius (that’s upper 80s for you [...]
Christmas Eve-Eve at Ratz
Melville is known for its musty book shops, vintage clothing stores, and a lively bar scene. It’s also known for its rats. Rats are a common sight in Melville and the most popular bar [...]
Beans for Breakfast
In the United States, baked beans are for barbeques -- to be eaten in the back yard with hot dogs and hamburgers and potato salad. In South Africa, baked beans are for breakfast. Joe loves baked beans on toast in the morning, but I have to say I wasn't super excited about the idea. First off, I'm kind of a health nut and I figured that baked beans can't possibly be healthy. Plus...beans in the morning? But I decided to give it a go. According to Joe, All Gold baked beans are the only beans worth eating.
Melville Pass-throughs
One of the cool things about living in Joburg is that people are always passing through. It’s difficult to travel from one place to another in Southern Africa without stopping here along the way. [...]
Two Posts for the Price of One: Apartheid Photography and Corn
Part 1 The weather shifted while Joe and I were away. Instead of the endless string of sunny, dry days we had before, we’re yo-yo-ing erratically between cold/rainy and sunny/warm. It’s more humid. The [...]
A Birthday Celebration with Hats and Rats
Sunday was Joe’s birthday. We spent the afternoon at the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens (not to be confused with the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens), a couple of miles from Melville. It’s a big park [...]
A Week on the Commune
Sandwiched between a week in Durban and a week in Lesotho, Joe and I are wrapping up one hectic (but fun) week at home. We’re leaving again tomorrow morning and I have no time [...]