My Favourite Jhb Restaurant

Yesterday was good. I got to see one of my oldest friends, Nix. Back in high school, we started out absolutely hating each other, but in Std 9 (Grade 11 on the new system) we became friends (Thanks Pat & the 40yr committee ;) ) and have been ever since. Nix lived up here in Jhb for a while after she finished varsity and moved to the UK just before I moved up here. It's her bed I'm sleeping on ;)

So anyway, she & her man, Rich, were out in SA visiting family & friends for Christmas and we got together for drinks last night. It was good to catch up, it happens so rarely these days. It's a strange thing these cross-continent friendships and they're hard to maintain, especially when you're used to more regular contact with a person. Keeping in touch via email is not as easy as it sounds and it's a lesson I've been taught repeatedly by people I once considered really close friends but now speak to twice in a year if I'm lucky. And often it's just as much my fault as theirs ... it's easy to get wrapped up in your own life.

It takes effort, and most people can't be bothered to find the time to fill you in on all the minor details of their life, or even the major ones. And sometimes, with certain friendships that doesn't matter. You are occasionally lucky enough to find a person who you can not see or speak to for years at a time and when you do, you can pick up right where you left off as if you saw them yesterday. When you find someone like that, treasure them, it's a special thing. Nix and I aren't quite like that, but it that's okay because it still doesn't take us long to get back to norm :)

After that, I introduced Varen to my all-time best-ever Jhb restaurant, Cranks. It's this fantastic little Thai Vietnamese place in Rosebank (between the Mall & The Zone).

Cranks @ The Mall, Cradock Avenue, Rosebank 011 880 3442. Cranks cooks up a storm with its Bangkok go-go bar theme; the menu extends to Vietnamese and Indonesian dishes. Excellent location, cosmo, authentic thai cuisine, colourful in every way.

I love this place, with it's zany decor and it's tasty curries. The service isn't great, but it's usually packed. The owners are fabulous, the crazy German guy with his Thai-Vietnamese wife who are there every day getting stuck in with the all the menial restauranty-type things.

It used to be a regular haunt of Bean & I. It was weird to be there with someone else. It's just something I'll have to get used to. But, Varen seemed to enjoy it ... I think he was a little skeptical to begin with, I imagine all Cranks first-timers are ;) I suppose one doesn't expect such yummy food from such a crazy, off-beat sort of place. And if you do go, try to read their crazy menu, otherwise stick to the old favourites like Massaman, Peanut Chicken, Green Curry or Red Duck (those are some of my standard orders!) and definitely do not skip the starters, Spring Rolls or Chicken Satay - they make their own fabulous sweet chili and peanut sauces for them :)

So yes, it was a good evening :) And today it's Friday so, here's to a good weekend. Next week will be my first 5-day week since the last week of November! Yikes.