a week of thanks

There's no doubt in my mind what I'm thankful for this year. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to live halfway around the world and meet awesome people that I never would have otherwise. Also, I'm blessed to have an irreplaceable family and beautiful friends who have supported my (sometimes crazy) dreams all along and are always there to welcome me back. The holiday season is always humbling for me, as I get a chance to step away from my otherwise scattered life into the calm of my midwestern home and truly see all that has been given to me. What more could a girl want?

Our Thanksgiving was much the same as it always is this year. Mom exercised her amazing cooking skills and for the second year in a row made sure that everything on the table was vegetarian-friendly, besides the turkey, of course. She is awesome. Ryan came up from Lamoni and a couple of ladies from church joined us around our table. We ate and laughed and ate some more, thankful for the chance to share together.

The highlight of the day would have to be the pie though. We had French silk, pumpkin, berry, and (my absolute favorite) apple cranberry. You really haven't lived until you've tried my mom's recipe  It's not mine to give out though, so talk to her. We sat around and watched football all day, occasionally making trips back to the kitchen for more sweets. Boy, were all those calories worth it. 

Ryan and I made a trip to Logan on Friday to see his family, and then we continued down to Omaha for some Black Friday shopping. Although some stores didn't have enough room for me to breathe, I still got some good deals and enjoyed the general feeling of excitement about the upcoming season. 

On our way back up I-29 we saw this beautiful sunset. Oh, there's nothing better than a sunset in the midwest is there? If you haven't you should really come here and try it out. You just might wonder why you ever left. I speak from experience.

What a way to end a week full of joy and blessings. 

Pegged

It's Monday. The thought of facing a whole week of work or school might be cause for dismay, but never fear, an entire post about food is here to cheer you up! (So many rhyming words!) If you've been following my posts for a while, you'll know that I and my abroad mates have a definite, yet unexplainable attraction to a little place called Peg. So for this week's installment of Durban food, we will head on over to the shop in Musgrave.

First, a word on the name. Clothespins are called "pegs" here, so that's where the moniker derives from. How this has anything to do with a surf shop / skate shop / furniture store / sidewalk café is not entirely clear, but they have a cool logo that you can occasionally see plastered on various objects around the city (the sign below at Moses Mabhida Stadium, light posts, walls at other restaurants, etc.). I guess I'm a sucker for successful, creative branding. 

We arrived just before noon on a Sunday, since we had been busy Saturday morning jumping off of cliffs and doing other normal South African things. Peg is where I had initially discovered my love of mango juice, so of course I was dismayed to hear that they were out of that particular fruit. I ordered what I thought would be a boring orange juice, but I was pleasantly surprised to find pulp floating in my glass. If that stuff wasn't fresh squeezed, then the guys at Peg sure fooled me. (We're talking way better than Tropicana here, folks.)

I haven't really branched out much on the menu at Peg, having only tried the Cajun chicken wrap and the chicken burger. The chicken wrap is good, but doesn't really live up to it's name. One should be able to safely assume that "Cajun" alludes to some kind of spice. It's good, but the wrap doesn't seem to be more than your average lettuce, carrots, and non-spiced chicken. Also, I wouldn't recommend this particular dish if you are dining with someone you want to impress, as it can be unavoidably messy. Well, I guess it can be avoidable if you use a fork and knife, but that defeats the purpose of the wrap!

This time, I selected my favorite dish, a simple chicken burger. Ironically, I think this chicken actually has more flavor, but it's still nothing too fancy, topped with just lettuce and mayo. Nonetheless, it never fails to be delicious. Plus, those fries! ... I mean, chips! I think they actually get the most added spice out of everything, and they're delicious! Maybe next Saturday I'll just get a large bowl of those guys.

It was another successful morning at Peg eating and watching kids pick out new skateboards. Seriously,  I could do that all day. So much joy. I'm secretly awaiting the day they decide to just give me a free board for being such a loyal customer. (Surely they owe me something for all this publicity!) Never going to happen, but a girl can always dream. They also have some pretty sweet clothes, but I haven't gotten around to buying anything. There's always next Saturday! 

If you'd like to visit Peg, you can find them here:
210 Essenwood Road
Musgrave
Durban, KZN, South Africa
4001
http://www.pegworld.com/
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Have a great week & eat something good!

a dangerous endeavor

One thing I've noticed about Durban is the plethora of unique (not to mention delicious) cafés and eateries. I'm always drawn to little places like those instead of the regular chain restaurants because I tend to like for my view to be constantly changing. When there's always something new to look at I never get bored! 

Of course, in the U.S. you usually have to pay some additional moolah to eat at these more unique restaurants. Thus the beauty of Durban! The most expensive meal I've eaten so far (at a fairly upscale place) cost me R115, including dessert and tip. That's approximately $16.43! Wowza. 

So, in celebration of this fantastic opportunity to try lots of different food without breaking the bank, I've decided I just have to do some food blogging. Good idea, right? Let's hope I don't start breaking the scale instead!

Up first is eatwise, a funky place I stumbled into during my Women's Day jaunt across the city. There was hardly anyone there when I walked in, but this was likely due to the holiday and the odd time that I chose to eat at.

They had a pretty extensive menu with breakfasts, salads, sandwiches, wraps, pasta, asian noodles, plus other chicken, beef, and seafood dishes. Since I hadn't had any Asian food for a while, I chose the vegetarian Thai noodles. Oh! So good. From what I could tell, there were chickpeas, cabbage, sprouts, peas, red/yellow/green peppers, carrots, and zucchini mixed with some very thin egg noodles (almost like angel hair pasta) and some slightly spicy soy sauce.

It looked great when I got it, but let me tell ya, I devoured the contents of that bowl quickly!

And did I mention they had a smoothie list a mile long? It was impossible to choose! I finally opted for the Mango Blast, which was comprised of mango, banana, pineapple, apple juice & low fat frozen yogurt. You can't go wrong with anything that has "mango" in the title, and I must say it was one of my better choices in life.

Upon taking a look at the eatwise site, I learned that they also do customized eating plans similar to Nutrisystem (only certainly way fewer preservatives). That's kind of rad if you're into that!

This place was a little more pricey than normal for the amount of food that I got, but I could tell it really was quality food with fresh ingredients. Overall it was a nice place with funky decor (lime green - my favorite!) and a good meal, but it wasn't especially unique. If you're in the area I'd say eatwise is worth a try, but it's probably not somewhere I'll feel compelled to make a special trip to visit again. 

... unless I'm craving a smoothie, which could actually happen. 

You can find eatwise at:

41 Marriot Road / Gladys Mazibuko Road

Morningside

Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

4001

http://www.eatwise.co.za/

https://www.facebook.com/EatwiseFoods

P.S. If you're wondering if I felt incredibly awkward taking pictures of my food, the answer is yes. I overcame that uncomfortable feeling with the knowledge that I was doing a justice to society. (That's what I'll keep telling myself.)

lessons learned

I've just about made it through my first week of classes at UKZN and my second week in South Africa. I really can't believe it's been just that short amount of time. It seems I've done and learned so much already. 

A list of eleven (mostly not so serious) things I've learned from South Africa thus far:

1. Patience is not a virtue, it is an absolute necessity if you wish to avoid going clinically insane. You need something done quickly? Time to talk for a few hours. It's lunch time? Nothing is going to get done for the next hour so you might as well sit down and eat something yourself. It's almost two-thirty? It's still probably lunch time. It's four? Everything is closed. Try again tomorrow. 
2. A good conversation trumps everything. See item 1.
3. Pedestrians do not have the right-of-way. There are no designated crosswalks. You're on your own. Also, if you happen to be American, remember the cars are coming from the opposite direction you would expect. Real live Frogger! 
4. Cabs are taxis and taxis are minibuses and minibuses are... well, nothing. If you're feeling lucky or like the rush of gambling, take a taxi. If you enjoy a level of certainty in your life (me), take a cab.
5. Copyright laws are fuzzy. I actually do not know the details of this, but I just received a bound book full of photocopied texts for each of my classes. As a poor college student, I am all for copyright anarchy. As a (possible) future starving writer, I am a bit concerned.
6. Ketchup is not a universal concept. Here, they have tomato sauce. Essentially the same thing, but sometimes it tastes like grape jelly. (You think I'm kidding.)
7. South African soda cans have heavier bottoms. This observation might sound ridiculous, but you would notice the same thing if you had your head tipped all the way back almost falling out of your seat trying to get to the illusory remainder of your drink. 
8. KFC=McDonald's. Colonel Sanders is creepin' everywhere. 
9. Granola bars are not available in packs, but are sold individually like candy bars. This hypothesis has not been thoroughly tested, but I found this to be true in two separate and unique grocery stores. Also, granola goes incognito under the name muesli.
10. Ordering lemonade will result in drinking Sprite. Upon preliminary questioning, it seems that real lemonade does not actually exist here under any alternative name. Further investigations will follow. 
11. Mango juice is readily available and unbelievably delicious. Forget lemonade. 

(I'm beginning to realize that my posts tend to digress towards food + drink. That's just a realization, not an apology.)

Here's to many more adventures and lessons to come! I'm ready!