One Incredible Day in Johannesburg, South Africa

South Africa is known as a rainbow nation and here you can find almost any kind of cuisine and some very unique experiences. Here we eat at one of Johannesburg's most popular Portuguese restaurants, visit a Zulu medicine market, try a rooftop bar for sunset drinks and visit an elegant African restaurant and an incredible live jazz bar. This is all in 1 day in Johannesburg!

The Troyeville Restaurant

"Every menu has a shooter menu," says South African born Pam. She points to a list of lurid sounding shooter names at The Troyeville restaurant, a long standing Portuguese restaurant serving Afro-Lusitanian food (piri piri sauce is an example of this). The large Portuguese population in South Africa hails from Mozambique, Madeira and Angola. In 1975 when former Portuguese colonies gained independence, both black and white Angola and Mozambique refugees headed to South Africa, making it home to the largest Portuguese African population. The Southern suburbs of Johannesburg is where the majority of Portuguese-speaking residents live.

"I need to introduce you to Joburg Portuguese style prawns," says food writer Ed. They set down some bread, butter and piri piri sauce on the table while we decide what to order. I leave ordering to Pam and Ed as they've been here before and we go for a seafood feast of split queen prawns drizzled in a lemon butter sauce and veg and a double helping of chips.

The prawns are perfect: succulent and sweet with a perfectly seasoned lemon butter sauce on top. Pam tells me that all meals in South Africa come with a classic combination of "veg" that is creamed spinach, roasted carrots and mashed pumpkin. And although not what you'd see in Portugal it's nice to eat some vegetables (the creamed spinach is my favourite).

And for dessert, it's a sleeve of half a dozen pasteis. These are darkly caramelised, with a beautiful flaky pastry and creamy, silky custard centre.

The Troyeville: 1403 Albertina Sisulu Rd, Troyeville, Johannesburg, 2139, South Africa. Monday to Thursday 7 am–8:30 pm, Friday & Saturday 7 am–9 pm, Sunday 7 am–5 pm. Phone: +27 79 612 0125

Faraday Muthi Market

"Are you interested in some more interesting shopping?" asks Ed. The Faraday Muthi Market in the Old City of Johannesburg. Muthi is Zulu word for tree but these Muthi markets are witch doctor markets and you will find patrons that believe in witchcraft and its divine healing powers or love potions.

Located opposite the yellow and blue old Rolls Royce building it is a fascinating palce. The first thing I see is a stork stripped of its flesh with feathers remaining, its skull's hollow eyes are haunting. There are all sorts of feathers, porcupine quills, animal skins, pelts, hides, crocodile osteoderms, starfish, powders, elephant skins, and bones. Ed picks up and inspects a couple of beautifully carved sticks, one with a snake. This is a knobkerrie, a zulu weapon. These are R3000/$246AUD/$164USD each.

Faraday Market: Salisbury Claims, Johannesburg, 2001, South Africa. Open 7 days 6am-5pm (7am Sundays).

Marble

"Do you know what a slay queen is?" asks Ed. He and Pam explain that a slay queen is a confident, stylish woman with a strong social media presence who dates high net worth individuals (named blessers). Just before sunset we head to Marble in the area of Rosebank. This is a rooftop bar with an expansive view of Johannesburg. I walk into Marble and there's a slay queen in the flesh. She's stunning and showing enough side boob to reveal enough of a hint without showing the whole prize. You can see how a blesser and their money could be easily parted.

We take a seat at the illuminated marble bar and order drinks and watch as the sunset lights up the sky with blues and oranges while sipping mocktails. My cocktail The Iconic is Iconic botanical spirit, citrus, grapefruit juice, rose syrup and simple syrup and egg white. It's exactly what I love and need.

Marble: Trumpet on Keyes Corner 19 Keyes, Jellicoe Ave, Rosebank, Johannesburg, 2196, South Africa. Open 7 days 12pm-10pm. Phone: +27 10 594 5550

Artivist and UntitledBasement

Located in the Braamfontein area of Johannesburg sits an elegant African restaurant Artivist and live jazz bar UntitledBasement. At Artivist restaurant they create beautiful and thoughtful dishes using indigenous African and South African ingredients.

Start the meal with tomato curry with rehydrated biltong soup and triangles of naan. This has a wonderful flavour and texture thanks to the strands of South African biltong or dried beef. There are tiny little deep fried Morogo (spinach) and mushroom dumplings on the side that you can either eat as is or dunk into the soup.

Mains are where things really shine though. My seabass sits on a bed of forbidden black rice. The local South Africans that I am dining with find the black rice intriguing. Starches in South Africa are usually white (think and Samp and dumplings or Dumbolo) and nutty textured black rice is not commonly seen but it’s texture somewhere between white rice and brown rice add a lot to the dish. They also use naartjie (tangerine) and isithombo (the zulu word for radish).

Dessert is a doughnut called gwinya. This one is paired with banana crumbs, biscuit crumbs and caramel with a berry coulis and Madagascan vanilla ice cream.

I’d suggest planning for an early dinner to give you maximum time to go down to the basement. There the band plays live jazz that will put any other live jazz to bed. Granted I’m a jazz novice but the effect of their music is absolutely hypnotic. The keyboard artist drags his feet slowly and this has the effect of putting the audience in a trance he points of finger at them they point a finger back at him. They always talk about Freddie Mercury's effect on the crowds and how he always had them in the palm of his hands and this man is exactly the same.

Artivist: 7 Reserve St, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017, South Africa. Open Thursday to Saturday 4pm-11pm. Closed Sunday to Wednesday.

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever been to Johannesburg? Would you enjoy a day like this?

All food in this post was independently paid for. NQN travelled to South Africa as a guest of South African Tourism but all opinions remain her own.

If you would like to book transport or a tour (which I recommend), we used Tshuku Tours (mpho@tshuku.co.za). If you want a specific food tour, you can also contact Anna Trapido @trapidoterritory or email her here