Hoekwil Country Cafe, Wilderness area

26 September 2019

HOEKWIL COUNTRY CAFÉ                   

Hoekwil (near Wilderness)

It’s a feisty 32˚ C and we’re sitting at a bench table in the alleged shade of the roof of the side stoep of the Hoekwil Country Café, where we’ve come for brunch because our guesthouse serves breakfast only until 09h30, which is way too early for lazybones like us, and we’re actually drinking coffee in this heat.  How else do you start your day?

In a different world we’d be sipping ice cold mint juleps.

We’ve often driven past the Hoekwil turnoff from the N2 just outside Wilderness, where we were staying, but I’d never been there and the wife perhaps once. It’s not a large town, it’s not even a large hamlet. Call it a disparate collection of houses haphazardly dotted around the countryside. It seems that the section of street with the Country Café, some other shop, the church behind them and the Primary School, represents what would pass for a CBD around here.

The Country Café, one of those typical old, well-worn, non-descript country stores that John Kramer would paint if it were more appealing, is also part deli and there is a sizable kids’ play area on the lawn. One foolish boy, neither a mad dog nor (ostensibly) an Englishman, messed about on the swing while his parents fanned themselves in the shade.

Allegedly, the cheesecake here is a prize winner. They display a certificate to prove it. We didn’t have any though the wife took a slice of the quite decent carrot cake with her when we left.

The breakfast menu is not too daunting. No shakshuka, Turkish eggs, huevos Rancheros or Arnold Bennett here, mate. Just the basic jive. Each of us chose a tramezzini: mine came with roasted vegetables and the wife’s was the traditional chicken mayo.

These tramezzini’s(sic) were damn good. The bread was fresh and light, toasted to a delicate crispness, and the fillings generous and well cooked, though my veggies could’ve done with more seasoning.

This meal confirmed my dictum (with which I bore all and sundry yet always holds true) that even in the deep platteland very simple food can taste really good if prepared with basic care and attention.

The wife finished her meal with a chocolate milkshake, and I drank a lime (“the green one” as the waitress referred to it; I immediately knew what she meant) milkshake. Hoekwil Country Café deserves bonus points just for serving this sublime cold drink. The wife mockingly wanted to know whether any limes had been harmed in the making of my soothing, green beverage, with only a most subtle hint of lime.  Some people will just never get it.

One hopes that all the food here is this good and I’d say, if you’re in the area, and feel like a casual brunch bite and aren’t looking for the exotic or a chic bistro, head to the Hoekwil Country Café. If all else fails, eat the certified cheesecake.