Best Kept Secrets: Installment 1

I am not a native Natalian. I arrived in Durban on a January morning of my seventeenth year. The moist air carried the scent of frangipani and promise. I still feel the thrill of expectation on those still ,clear Durban mornings that dawn with such shimmering intensity.

I am compiling a list of favourite places in and around Durban that capture that feeling of won der that I  experienced when I first moved to , and started to explore , my adoptive town.

The Prawn Shack

Once upon Amatikulu Beach one of my favourite restauranteurs, the personable and delightfully mad Bill Bud (he of Gringo's and Legends fame), had a prawn braai with a prawn farm owner, the local  leader of a community fishing camp and a farmer. After numerous bottles of wine and rather alot of prawns someone suggested that what Nkwazi fishing camp needed was a restaurant. One hundred percent  local material and effort have resulted in a unique all-day-lazy-lunch venue where a mid-lunch stroll to the lagoon is compulsory and where a  sign telling you just how much to bribe the barman (in order to let you linger longer) hangs right next to the bar.

The set menu concists of six to eight courses of simple fresh food with a fusion twist : think personal prawn bunnies in a brioche roll,  baguette dipped in balsamic vinegar topped with caprese salad and beetroot pesto and Zulu sushi(rare fillet with wasabi butter).

The dress code is casual and the atmosphere warm and relaxed.

Please don't keep this to yourself, this is an ideal place to bring visitors, both local and foreign, for a truly South African experience as the venue is community built from local materials .

Booking is essential so call ahead:
0847376493  

You can visit The Prawn Shack for more information or browse the comments

and photo's of happy dinners at The Prawn Shack's Fan Page

 (Many thanks to Nadia of Cupcake Couture  for sharing some helpful blogging resources, notably Pugly Pixel and Fuzzimo )