The Troyeville Hotel Book Club

Daisy with award-winning cookbook writer Anna Trapido

The Troyeville Hotel, first licensed in 1939, is a Johannesburg original. Serving unfussy, award-winning Portuguese cuisine, it’s been the hangout for artists, musicians, political activists and sports fans for generations. The Troyeville Hotel's restaurant features consistently in lists of the best places to eat in Johannesburg.

The Troyeville Hotel dining room

And the Troyeville Hotel hosts regular book evenings that have become a fixture of the city's cultural life. The category of books varies from evening to evening. Fiction. Non-fiction. Biography.

Last night, a cookbook. Star Fish by Daisy Jones. The book identifies the top ten most sustainable fish in South Africa and provides recipes for each one. Locally farmed oysters, anchovies, squid, locally farmed rainbow trout, snoek, hake, locally farmed mussels, yellowtail, sardines and other oily fish, and locally farmed kabeljou.

menu

Daisy, a journalist who lives in Kalk Bay, has written a very personal and atypical cookbook. Yes it has recipes, but it is also filled with the results of extensive research on the fishery industry, first hand interviews with fishermen, conservationists and farmers, personal anecdotes and gorgeous pictures and illustrations by Craig Fisher.

books for signing

And the best part of going to a cookbook book talk at the Troyeville Hotel is that the talk was accompanied by a specially prepared menu featuring many of the sustainable fish documented by Daisy. Yum!

We started off with snoek fishcakes with a delicious spicy mayo dipping sauce. Next, a calamari and mussel salad with roasted peppers and chick peas.

Then we had a choice of main course. I chose the prawn curry (not on the list but I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist!) and Vince picked a Portuguese specialty of the house, the Beef Trinchado (not seafood, but he couldn't resist.)

magnificent views

Questions and answers provided the audience with some good recommendations for fresh fish in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Of course in Joburg, it is La Marina. And Daisy gave us her picks in the Cape Town area. The Little Fisherman in Lakeside and in Newlands.

Here's an interesting tip about the anchovies too. Practically all of the anchovies farmed in South Africa are ground up for fish food or exported for feed for poultry and pigs or used for bait. All of it. So if you want to put fresh South African anchovies on your pizza, buy some at the nearest bait shop!

Thursdays are Brazilian at The Troyeville Hotel

Another fun fact. The ubiquitous cans of Lucky Star pilchards are just sardines. Same fish. Sardines are the teenagers, pilchards are the adults. And ironically, none of the sardines who make their run up the coast of KZN to lay their eggs are caught for food. The only ones fishing for sardines during the sardine run are the trailing sharks, whales and gannets.

We will be back to The Troyeville Hotel for more interesting and informative book club evenings and for the authentic Portuguese fare. Both are very appetizing!