There’s a Spanish phrase that goes, “hoy por tí, mañana por mi” which loosely translates to “today you, tomorrow me”.
It’s a great phrase which ‘justifies’ and promotes acts of kindness. I’ll do you this favour today because one day someone will do me a favour. I love the philosophy; acts of kindness breed more acts of kindness and I’m all for it. But, this day, this Thursday the sixth of February was my day, my birthday.
Today me.
Once a year I get older. It creeps up on me. Four days after my thirty-first birthday, next year’s milestone is three hundred and sixty one days away. But make no mistake, the thirty second is coming. It’s a rough beast and its hour will come round at last; it’s currently slouching toward me one day at a time and I’ll be ready.
Right now I’m getting to grips with officially getting older, basking in the good things that were heaped on me on Thursday. Because my most recent birthday featured all the good things every birthday should feature – the foremost among them, good food.
I gathered together a group of friends to celebrate me and we headed to Orinoco Restaurant & Deli on Bree Street. None of us had ever been to this authentic Latin American restaurant and nobody had a clue of what to expect from the venue or the food. Fortunately for our Horny Grazer readers, I’ve now done the grunt work. It’s a tough job and somebody has to do it – I volunteer as tribute.
Orinoco is the physical manifestation of Venezuelan chef, Migdalia Bellorin’s passion for South American street food. Primarily made up of Mexican and Venezuelan flavours, the menu is dominated by the usual suspects: tacos, tortillas, empanadas and arepas. So let’s have a little lesson in some South American foods.
In the interests of presenting our readers with the best possible review, I attempted to taste everything on the menu. My quest was facilitated by everyone ordering different items and then I gathered tastes by exerting birthday rights. Considering we’ve just learnt that an empanada is similar to a pie, here’s an empanada chart presenting my findings on how delicious the food at Orinoco is.
That’s right. The food is delicious. It’s tasty and fresh and a quick glance into the open kitchen reveals everything is handmade to order. Particular favourites are the warm chorizo in chimichurri sauce, the fusion ceviche, the crispy calamari and the Argentinian empanadas. My advice, go hungry and order a bit of everything to share. Many of the tastiest sauces are also available from the deli section to purchase for home-use.
As far as drinks go, you can’t go wrong with a jug of margarita! Of course this being Cape Town, there’s a great selection of wines and this being a South American restaurant, there’s plenty of tequila to go around.
The icing on the cake? I got cake.
And it was delicious.
Orinoco
17 Bree Street – cnr Prestwich & Bree streets
Foreshore
City Bowl
Cape Town
“When you have a lot to do, start with a meal.”
-anon
Speak the language?
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