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Don and Joni Wilkinson at Mundo Vida at Umdloti.\tPicture: Peter Duffy<\/p>\n
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Don Wilkinson is one of the most experienced and able restaurateurs this province has ever seen. <\/p>\n
It is, invariably, a pleasure to eat at his MUNDO VIDA<\/strong> in Umdloti and, given the excuse of a looming restaurant guide and a sunny day, we leapt at the chance. <\/p>\n This is, after all, not a special occasion venue, with prices within the standard range and a relaxed vibe when sitting on the terrace, looking at the sea. <\/p>\n Of particular interest to the budget-conscious (which means most people) is a lunch menu at R110 for two courses, R135 for three. <\/p>\n Two of us went that route, with starters of Vietnamese-style chicken and beef satay served with chicken wontons and a dipping sauce, and peri-peri chicken livers in a creamy tomato sauce. Both were good, the livers cooked very gently, as requested. <\/p>\n Options would have been a Greek salad or focaccia, with mains including grilled calamari or prawns, which were flying out the door. <\/p>\n We picked sirloin steak with herb butter and peri-peri chicken. Don\u2019s steak are always good, and this was no exception. He is equally known for the Mozambican-style chicken, but on this occasion it was a touch dry. <\/p>\n No fault though with the only dessert of the day, a textbook cr\u00e8me br\u00fbl\u00e9e from the R135 menu. <\/p>\n On the main menu, starters include Cajun prawns on matchstick fries, mussels with white wine, garlic and parsley, prawns baked with either a roquefort, mushroom or creamy tomato sauce, and spinach and feta panzerotti. <\/p>\n A local says she always goes there for the carpaccio, and I find it difficult to get away from the salt and pepper calamari, which is crisp and well-seasoned, perfectly teamed with a crunchy Asian salad and \u201ctom yum aioli\u201d. It works. <\/p>\n But this time we tried vegetable tempura and a Caesar salad. <\/p>\n The vegetables were encased in a perfectly insubstantial batter which should be a benchmark for most restaurants attempting the genre. And the crisply fried spinach on the plate was so addictive we ordered another plate as a side dish. <\/p>\n The salad was topped with a poached egg, strips of Grana Padano and, a little oddly, crispy bacon. It went down well with the person who ordered it, but I think I\u2019d rather head for the Thai-style Beach Garden salad, which is based on the crispy spinach and topped with beef, prawns and calamari. <\/p>\n I have really enjoyed that in the past. <\/p>\n In recent years Don has moved emphasis away from the seafood and game dishes that made him famous \u2013 although they are still well-represented on the menu \u2013 and turned to the east for inspiration. <\/p>\n And he has done so deftly, not venturing into (con)fusion, but staying true to eastern flavours. <\/p>\n Apart from the Beach Garden salad, dishes include Thai green curry mussels with egg noodles, chilli beef with basil, Pad Thai (prawn noodles) and stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts. <\/p>\n We tried the last, and it was enjoyable, with well-balanced flavours and textures, but didn\u2019t really feature compared with our fourth order. <\/p>\n Don is one of the few local restaurateurs to source fresh fish, and three varieties were on offer the day we lunched. <\/p>\n Liking soft, white fish, I went for filleted red roman in a crumb casing, with jalapeno aioli, and it was memorable. <\/p>\n With hindsight, though, Mundo Vida\u2019s great matchstick fries would have been a better accompaniment than noodles with courgettes, and that might be something to remember. <\/p>\n Don\u2019s spell owning Gina\u2019s in Sunningdale saw his expertise with pizza and pasta extended, and he still serves wood-fired focaccia, pizzas with a touch of class and pasta. <\/p>\n His famous steamed langoustines with a soy beurre blanc are good sellers, even at R350 a portion, as is calamari in a creamy sauce with lemon and chilli. <\/p>\n Among steaks, rib eye with port and truffle jus and Caf\u00e9 de Paris butter would most excite me, and the slow-roast pork neck with mustard mash is ideal food for a cool day. <\/p>\n Which might constitute reason to get back to Mundo Vida soon. <\/p>\n Prices: <\/strong>Starters R42 to R75; main courses R59 to R350. <\/p>\n Opening hours: <\/strong>Monday to Sunday lunch, Monday to Saturday dinner. <\/p>\n Telephone: <\/strong>031 568 2286. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n It was sad to hear of the death this week of legendary restaurateur Enrico Ferrari of Villa d\u2019Este fame. <\/p>\n Enrico had been sick for a while, but still spent much of the week cooking at Al Firenze in Glenashley \u2013 and passing on some of his expertise to another generation. <\/p>\n He was a larger than life character, mercurial, passionate and talented, a cook of the old school. <\/p>\n His death \u2013 after that of another legend, Christina Martin, earlier this year \u2013 leaves the restaurant world that much poorer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" . Don and Joni Wilkinson at Mundo Vida at Umdloti. Picture: Peter Duffy Don Wilkinson is one of the most experienced and able restaurateurs this province has ever seen. It is, invariably, a pleasure to eat at his MUNDO VIDA in Umdloti and, given the excuse of a looming restaurant guide and a sunny day, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-11285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}