August 15, 2005
By Lucille Davie
THIS RESTAURANT IS NOW CLOSED
THE menu is in Afrikaans, the meals are all traditional Afrikaans recipes, the music is Afrikaans folk, and the waitress, Cheri Ngomani, is fluent in Afrikaans.
The place is Ulla-la ... die Kuierplek, in Boskruin, in Randburg, where everything on the menu is tuisgemaak. Delicious it is, too.
Co-owner Ulla Pakendorf-Loubser tells the story of one of her customers who started crying after eating her meal. When asked, she said she was crying because, for the first time in 50 years, she could taste her late mother's cooking.
"Tastes bring people together," says Pakendorf-Loubser.
People trek from Bloemfontein, Witbank, Krugersdorp and the East Rand to get a taste of that tuisgemaakte cooking. Pakendorf-Loubser says that some of the recipes have been handed down from her ouma (and slightly adjusted); others have come from friends and recipe books.
In partnership with her father Harald, the freelance journalist and political analyst, Pakendorf-Loubser says they wanted to open a restaurant that "we would want to go to".
She is also a sometime journalist and artist, but is now armed with a Chef School qualification.
What they would frequent is a down-to-earth, honest place, serving good food in a friendly environment.
"This is like my home. It's not like going to work, it's like going to visit somebody," she says.
Customers feel sufficiently relaxed at Ulla-la that they go into the kitchen to fetch their own beers, adding the detail to their bills, or they bring their own music. Or they'll phone up on a weekend and request a meal not on the menu, like tripe, which is made and added to the specials list.
Don't be put off by the Afrikaans music - it's not sakkie-sakkie but good folk sounds, like Koos du Plessis, Johannes Kerkorrel, P Smith and Jan Blohm.
Pakendorf-Loubser says 40 percent of her regulars are English speakers, but after a glass of wine and a plate of good food, they are speaking Afrikaans. Anyway, the waitress is fluent in English too, and Shangaan.
People have met at Ulla-la and become friends, and often arrange to meet over another meal at Ulla-la.
Everything is made fresh every day - "I don't like to keep food in the fridge."
There are only four items on the main menu - three meat dishes and one vegetarian. There is the bord boerekos - delicious leg of lamb with equally delicious vegetables and roast potatoes; or leg of lamb pieces on homemade bread, with salad and chutney; or vetkoek with bobotie, coconut and chutney - very good.
Vegetarians can enjoy the Hensopper (literally meaning "hands up". From the South African War, it refers to Afrikaners who surrendered and joined the other side). It consists of pumpkin fritters, almond beans, roast potatoes and baked black mushrooms in a lemon sauce.
There are two choices of sweet - peanut butter ice cream with syrup or cinnamon dumplings with caramel syrup. Both have a subtle sweetness and are simply scrumptious.
A selection of nibbles includes mosbolletjies (undried rusks) with butter and jam, roast potatoes with sweet mustard, or a plate of biltong, droëwors and peanuts, or fish of the day with jam and a warm mosbolletjie.
According to Pakendorf-Loubser, several people are interested in opening franchises of Ulla-la in other places in the city, and she is surprised there are not more restaurants in Joburg that serve traditional Afrikaans food.
Go, make the trek.
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