THE SPICE ROUTE RETURNS: A MORNING IN FORDSBURG WITH CHEF ISHVARA
Some Circuits get requested back before we've even finished writing the recap. The Spice Route is one of them — so due to popular demand, we're doing it again on Sunday 23 August.
Fordsburg is one of those Johannesburg neighbourhoods that everyone half-knows. You've driven through it, maybe stopped for a quick shawarma, promised yourself you'd come back properly one day. This Circuit is that "properly." It's a slow, deliberate walk through the streets shaped by the immigrant communities of the Middle East and South Asia — communities who didn't just bring their food to Johannesburg, but their trades, their medicine, their tailoring, their entire way of building a neighbourhood from scratch.
Leading the way is Chef Ishvara, who has spent years travelling through India and the Middle East, lectured World Cuisine at Prue Leith Academy, and still regularly teaches cooking in people's homes across the city. He's not reading off a script. He knows these shopkeepers, these recipes, and the histories behind both — and he'll stop as often to talk about a dish's migration story as he will to let you taste it.
And there's a lot to taste. Over the course of the morning, expect stops at a Pakistani sweet shop, a Syrian baklava counter, a Lahore milk shop, a Palestinian shawarma spot, a Turkish kebab café, an Ayurvedic medicine shop, an Egyptian clothing store, Bengali tailors, Gujarati spice traders, Arabic fresh juice bars, and a few of Fordsburg's quieter historical sites along the way. Complimentary tastings happen throughout — this isn't a tour where you watch from a distance.
We'll close the morning with lunch at a traditional Arabic, Indian, or Turkish restaurant, depending on the group's mood on the day. Lunch is optional and at your own expense, but we'd recommend clearing your afternoon — you'll likely still be full from everything that came before it anyway.
The details:
Sunday 23 August 2026, 10:00, meeting outside H K Spice World at 52 Central Rd, Fordsburg. R350 per person, R175 for children under 12. Street parking is available along Central and Mint Roads, or you're welcome to Uber in directly. The route covers paved streets and shop interiors on foot — if you have specific accessibility needs, let us know ahead of time and we'll make sure the day works for you.
Tickets are available now via Webtickets: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1599895400
Ag shem, come hungry.