Monday, February 18, 2013

Pappas on the Square...A highly recommended evening of culinary delight


Salamu

My Niggas!


It’s not often that I write about restaurants as up until now I have never really been to one that has been stand out enough in every department to warrant free publicity. However, this weekend Pappas on the Square really hit the mark in every department.

The restaurant is situated in Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton and if one was to procure a table by the window you would be able to sit out and overlook the hustle and bustle of what has become one of Johannesburg’s best meeting places and culinary locales.

It was here that I decided to take my girlfriend for a belated Valentine’s Day dinner.

A well prepared Lamb Shank should fall off the bone
Pappas offers Greek cuisine of the finest quality. I have a real soft spot for Greek cuisine as it is strikingly similar to cuisine from my people… the Lebanese.  

A good evening has to start with a good waiter. This is non-negotiable as nothing is more annoying than terrible service. A good waiter needs to greet you with a smile, a good knowledge of his menu and common sense enough to not be over bearing. He needs to take your order and crack suitable jokes throughout the evening at appropriate times. We were served by a gentleman named Blackie who was perfect in every sense of the word.

The next important aspect is the food. There has to be a wide selection of food to choose from which is of the finest quality and prepared to perfection. Greek cuisine is known for its rich flavors which engulfs your senses and encourages your anticipation with every bite. A highly recommended meal at Papas is the kleftiko. I am known to be a fan of the lamb, and a well prepared lamb shank is a sure way to put you in my good books. The portion looked like it came from a sheep rather than a lamb but the taste was far from it. The meat was falling off the bone and was dripping with the flavorsome goodness that only the Greeks can capture. My girlfriend had a trout which was also fresh and well prepared.

Adding beauty to a classy joint
What rounds off the evening well at Papas is that the décor inside the restaurant is minimalistic in that it doesn’t distract you. The managers are attentive to your every need and one of the biggest features of the restaurant is that the music is soft and ambient rather than loud and abrasive. Let’s be honest…you would prefer to talk to your date in a dulcet tone rather than scream at her. Yes the music does get turned up when the belly dancers come on and the Greeks lose their shit enough to break plates. But I never said I was a prude and didn’t appreciate a good plate throwing session.

Pappas on the Square comes highly recommended in my books. It is a good evening out with freshly prepared food, good service and an awesome atmosphere, a place truly worthy of this post. If you are at a loose end of where to go this weekend… go to the square… A little bit of Greece is waiting to enchant you.

Till next time my Niggas!

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Talking about stereotypes


Salamu

My Niggas!

The topic of the day is stereotypes.

Uncle Ruckus. One of the worst offenders of stereotypical labeling behavior


For those who have been living under a rock their whole lives and are not aware of what a stereotype is…this is how the urban dictionary (the only trustworthy dictionary in the world in my opinion) defines it: A stereotype is used to catergorize a group of people. People don't understand that type of person, so they put them into classifications, thinking that everyone who is that needs to be like that, or anyone who acts like their classifications is one.

This can be based on:
Race
Gender
Religion
Tribal
Societal
Macroeconomic
Residential Areas

But why are we talking about this today? Because it amazes me how we unconsciously revert to stereotypical behavior. I was brought up in South Africa which is historically one of the most stereotypical nations in the world. Now I was born in the generation after apartheid. So I never oppressed no one. And I am generally not a racist person. But I am guilty of being stereotypical.

I was talking to a friend over Facebook and he told me about this study done by Stats SA about people living in Fourways and their love for Mixed Martial Arts. I immediately jumped in and said that they must be Lebanese (of the South African variety) that love watching Rocky movies and are developing Sylvester Stallone speech impediments. He then said that they probably wear Tapout shirts as well.

Now this paints the picture of any Lebanese person found walking around Booysens on any given day. But does that mean that all South African Lebanese people are like this? Hell No.

It’s the same with the Portuguese. If I had R5 for every time a Portuguese person (who’s decedents came from mainland Portugal) insulted a Portuguese person (Who’s descendants came from Madeira), I’d be a very rich person with own yacht and a R180-million mansion in Umhlanga.

Probably fought so well because his ancestors had to fight
off lions and elephants? Probably Not. 
Back to this friend I had the talk about the Lebanese with. We went to university together and we used to keep in touch with the current happenings in US Sport (Basketball, Baseball and American Football…not so much Ice Hockey) and every week it was the same people in the news. LeBron James, Barry Bonds, Michael Johnson. And I one day asked him why he thought it was that the main people grabbing the headlines were black. The heavyweight division in Boxing was owned by good black boxers from Joe Louis till Lennox Lewis. A time span stretching 40 years.

“You see Jon. The black man is a naturally athletic person. Historically they spent all their years running away from lions and elephants and shit. And then there were civil wars so they had to be physically strong to survive. Then slave traders came and shipped these people off to America. But the athletic gene stayed true,” was his reply.

How much of this is true? It is true that historically...first nation people of Africa had to hunt and fend off wild beasts and this continued long into our history because industrialization only came to Africa much later than the rest of the world. But can we use this as a reasoning behind the new generations athletic exploits?

Surely there must be a better reason behind this. But will we bother to look for it? i bet you there are millions of people in the world that use the same rationale as my friend above. 

And it happens with everyone. I challenge you to watch the news or a movie….when you see behavior that you think is typical of a specific racial/religious/residential area person, insult them like you usually would and then think back to this post.

Our world is FULL of stereotypes. One of my favorite shows The Boondocks is full of racial stereotypes. The movie Rush Hour is full of racial stereotypes. Bad Boys (Will Smith and Martin Lawrence) is full of Socio Economical and Class based stereotypes. One time I got stopped by the police who were doing a routine check on drivers licences. When they asked me for my licence the first thing I said was: "Why...is it because I am black?" I didn't event need to think about it.

Will the world move beyond these stereotypes? No they won’t. Because it has become unconsciously ingrained in every human being that society needs to be put into specific boxes. The ideals of the hippies that lived during the time of free love that the whole world is one nation is a bullshit ideal and will never be realized.

Ooops I did it again.

Till next time my Niggas!

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!


Saturday, February 2, 2013

From Hero to Zero. The sad demise of Lance Armstrong.


Salamu

My Niggas!

We are now well and truly into the new year and by all accounts, if 2013 ends the way it has started, some people are going to be spending the year looking over their shoulders.

Armstrong at the height of his powers
I know it’s probably a bit late to talk about this now, but the year really didn’t start well for a certain Mr Lance Armstrong. Seems like he wasn’t happy just living with the labels of being one of the biggest liars and drug cheats of all time. He had to go and do a ‘tell all’ interview with the queen of talk Oprah Whinfrey.

I say it is a ‘tell all’ interview because although Armstrong admitted to doping, there was much more that he could have spoken about and revealed to expose what has now become one of the dirtiest sports in the world. Even Whinfrey later said that she was disappointed in the interview and expected Armstrong to reveal more than he actually did.

But this is my question…how much did Whinfrey pay Armstrong to do the interview. The man is already being crucified by the public and the media, why then come out and compound the pain? No man will willingly come out and make his name shit? You see without a confession, he may be guilty…but the measure of his guilt will still be up for debate.

So Armstrong got paid; but is that such a surprise? Um...no! So why did he not tell all to Whinfrey? Why did he hold back?

There are two options, either Whinfrey didn’t pay him enough. Or, Armstrong is setting himself up nicely to push hard on a book where he really goes to town and reveals every dirty secret.

He is being either very clever or very stupid. I think it’s the latter as he will never be allowed to get on a bike ever again. Not even to ride with his kids in the park.

The most disappointing part about this whole story is the fact that Armstrong was seen as a role model and an inspiration to the world coming back from testicular cancer to win the Tour De France seven times in a row.

Armstrong facing the wolves. How the mighty have fallen.
This begs another question. If Armstrong didn’t have the Live Strong campaign and if Armstrong didn’t use every Tour victory to say what a fighter he was and how he is fortunate to have beaten the cancer…would there be such an outcry? Well lets out it this way, Armstrong was not the first to dope during the Tour. Before him there was Floyd Landis and after Armstrong there was Alberto Contador. Yes there was a lot of publicity around these guys, but not to the extent of Armstrong. Some may say that the fact that Armstrong won the tour seven times in a row contributed to the crusade against him, and I agree that it probably had a major role to play. But one can’t ignore how much of effect the whole hero façade had to play as well.

As a Christian I am expected to forgive Armstrong, and I do. To me cycling is the most boring sport in the world anyway. But not everyone will share my view, and it is the liar factor that will promote this. Because a lot of kids, teenagers and other impressionable people looked up to him as a role model.

Till next time my Niggas!

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!