Afternoon snack - Chocolate cake

I have been in a serious baking mood these days and it started with the Baklava, which you can see here. After leafing through the Elle (the South African one) I came across Sam Linsell's (of Drizzle and Dip) ultimate chocolate cake, you can see it here.

So I succumbed to the craving and decided to bake the ultimate chocolate cake. It's seriously chocolatey, rich and oh so moist. What I learnt is that it needs patience, make sure the cake is all the way cooled before icing it. I couldn't wait and the result was a slightly lopsided cake. It still tasted amazing!

If you start right now the cake will be ready by tea time, afternoon tea, evening tea or midnight tea. If the kettle is on the boil it's tea time in my house.

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Have you heard of Zomato?

Zomato is the newest entrant in the Jozi, well South African, online restaurant guide sphere. Zomato is an online restaurant guide with a presence in India, the UK, Sri Lanka, Qatar and now South Africa. It offers menus, ratings, reviews, maps and contact details.

It launched last week and I'm acquainting myself with it as I write. I have set up a Jozi Foodie Fix profile which you can go ahead and follow here.

It's Johannesburg database has approximately 2000 restaurants, it covers take away spots along with restaurants from cheap and cheerful to high end fine dining.

The feature I like in particular is that it is super interactive, I can follow specific Foodies & Super Foodies. Basically you can create your own go to guide within Zomato by following specific Foodies and Super foodies and make restaurant choices based on their reviews.

Zomato also has a top "foodies" tab which is a leader board made up of Zomato users that have the most followers and have contributed the most reviews. We are all ranked as foodies and work towards the ultimate, which is a Connoissuer, described as "The Ultimate snob. Knows his/her food. Widely respected in the Zomato community." Onward with the pursuit of ultimate snobbery lol!

Just when you thought this was it, theres an App! The App detects your city and your current location and offers suggestions in your proximity. You can of course explore restaurants by location and cuisine or search for something specific you're craving.

Add Zomato to your online restaurant go to guides. I have because I like to have as much information as I can at my disposal.

For updates on blog posts go ahead like the FB page and follow on twitter JoziFoodieFix.

Afternoon snack - Homemade Baklava

Baklava is the perfect afternoon snack pick me up, it's sticky sweet jam packed with pistachio nuts. Bite sized crispy, crunchy, sweet and protein filled what more can we ask for. I made these myself, I was channelling my inner Greek self.

I had phyllo pastry, Mediterranean Delicacies, in the freezer and decided it was time to put it to good use. For these baklava I used a Nigella Lawson recipe, which you can see here. Honestly, the recipe is straight forward but working with phyllo pastry requires planning, being organised and having nimble hands. I have to admit that I consulted twitter to find out whether I pour hot syrup or cold syrup over the Baklava. I was told col, cold, COLD! This is the end result! 

Next time I plan to try Baklava with a South African twist and I think Alida's Baklava with Pistachios & Fynbos Honey recipe would be perfect.