Food world fan-fare in Durban
Durban Street Food Festival
Where: Westville Pavilion
When: September 6 from 5pm to 10pm; September 7 from 11am to 10pm and September 8 from 11am to 8pm.
Time to get one’s hands dirty this week ‒ and for something completely different. I’ve been invited to tuck into a variety of street food from vendors who are going to be serving up delicious wares at the Durban Street Food Festival next weekend.
With today being International Eat Outside Day, we decided to have a picnic at Durban’s Botanic Beautiful Gardens. What a pleasure it was to meet some of the stars behind the food we enjoy at markets around the city.
Salma Ibrahim from Rockin Moroccan has been in the catering industry for more than 30 years. She presents us with her fully loaded spit-roasted lamb in a pretty Moroccan tagine.
It’s sensational. Succulent roasted lamb on a lovely pillowy lemon-scented rice. It’s fresh and it’s lively. Rockin’ it certainly is.
Ibrahim lived in the US for many years and worked in the Bank of America. “But I love food and I love preparing food. It’s my passion. I can cook any cuisine but Moroccan is my favourite. I have made it my own, added my own touches. We start with Moroccan lamb on a spit and create dishes using the lamb,” she says.
“Everything is made from scratch. I make my own tabbouleh, I make my own tahini sauce. My basting sauce I make from scratch. All the spices are freshly ground and roasted. Our most popular dish is lamb on flatbread and we make the flatbreads ourselves on site. Everything is served fresh.”
Ibrahim’s favourite dish is the fully loaded lamb she is offering us. “My savoury rice has lemon, cashews, vegetables and saffron. I call it my jewel rice,” she says.
Based in Westville, Rockin Moroccan trades at the Ballito Farmer’s Market on weekends, and the Westville Night Market and does events. Ibrahim has traded at the Durban Street Food Festival for many years and is one of its draw cards.
For accountant and burger lover Ahmed Dhooma, his business Food Wagon started during lockdown. “I missed Smokin’ Joe’s,” he tells me. “I said I’m going to make it myself. I practised and it has been a side hustle ever since.”
He hopes to open a store on the Berea in October.
His smashburger is a complete package. “I use the best ingredients. Everything is made with love and passion. I flavour the mince. My sauce is unique and made from home. Only two people in the world know how to make it ‒ my mom and myself. I love taking a meatball and just smashing it,” he says.
His burger is a good one. I love the crispy edges a smash burger produces and his “secret” sauce is an intensely savoury mayo-based relish.
Asogan and Suvasha Valaidum are the Detroit Smokehouse. It is based on a concept he saw on YouTube ‒ the chicken wings, the dino ribs, the smoked brisket. He built his own smokers at home and now does pop up events.
When I meet him, Asogan is busy slicing up a whole side of brisket. It’s meltingly tender. The dino ribs (beef short rib) fall from the bone and have a lovely depth of flavour
The chicken wings are juicy and spicy and are sold in buckets at markets. You can buy them in fives, tens or 24s. They can be mild, medium or hot. And it’s all washed down with garlic rolls and home made slaw.
Asogan tells how a late friend “gave him a push” to start the business after his Detroit Cabs and Tours “took a nosedive because of Uber”. Today, he has customers who follow him from far and wide, including clientele from California in the States. “This is my livelihood. My two daughters help. It provides some work for an unemployed neighbour.”
Salvatore and Ria Vecchio are the Pasta Shop. “I’ve been a pasta chef almost all my life. Pasta is my passion,” Salvatore says. “I worked almost 40 years in America and in Europe, in Italy, and now in South Africa.”
He’s brought a good tasty Margherita pizza, apologising because it was cooked in his oven at home and not his normal gas-fired pizza oven. I still enjoy it. It’s good to have a real tomato sauce. And then there’s a lovely rich and creamy chicken Alfredo, the pasta perfectly al dente.
“Alfredo Di Lelio is one Roma chef from the beginning of last century. Under the war there was not too much food, so he made pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese and tossed it at the table. The same dish goes to America. People then added ham and chicken. In South Africa people like chicken, so I make a chicken pasta. I call it Alfredo because the base is Alfredo.”
The Pasta Shop trades at food events and the Westville Night Market and Park Square.
As we sip a cup of Ibrahim’s cardamom tea, Georgios Kretsos, the founder of the Durban Street Food Market, tells how the festival celebrates the heritage of Durban. “I like to bring the city together. There’s a large range of food from classic bunny chows to smoked meats, Italian food, Greek food, and also a focus on desserts from ice-creams, pancakes, croissants. In a first for Durban there is freeze-dried candy which is trending in TikTok. For kids there’s build your own milkshakes, and some awesome Instagram walls, sip and paint for adults and a silent disco. Entertainment features a lot of local music.”
He is proud of the fact that the city is in the world’s top 20 for different street foods and tells how food is his passion.
Visit the Durban Street Food Festival at the Westville Pavilion from September 6-8. Tickets from Quicket.