Cape Lekker are a bit of a fixture these days at Wolf Down Pop-up Street Food market on Station Street. They seem to be here at least two days of the week serving up their “South African Cuisine done in street food style”
They were the only people there this week on Wednesday ‘sheltering’ under the Tram Bridge in the rain, but then the sun came out and there was a big line of people waiting patiently for some lunchtime sustenance.
Cape Lekker Menu
The Cape Lekker Menu Board was a bit of a mixed bag, the Boerewors Sausage seemed to be representing the cuisine of South Africa. There was an offer of a Boerewors Sausage with Fried Onion in a roll or a wrap for £4 which sounded tempting but a bit too simple for the mood I was in. I found myself drawn towards the Toasted Sandwich with the Sausage in it also for £4
They also had steak and venison burgers, wraps and jerk chicken, even a bacon roll! I was tempted too by the thoughts of a burger, just to see if it was worth the extra calories, and to fill me up 🙂
The Grilled Cheese Toastie with Boerewors Sausage
The Grilled Cheese Toastie with Boerewors Sausage was a decent affair. It was all simple enough, lots of molten mozzarella and lots of slices of that Pork and Beef Sausage between two slices of well toasted wholemeal bread.
It was good, the main flavour is from the sausage, which is quite coarse and meaty with a strong taste. Traditionally Boerewors is made with pork and beef and seasoned with nutmeg, all spice, coriander, black pepper and dark (malt) vinegar. So it has a very distinct earthy taste.
The cheese really just added a soft texture to the filling as it has very little flavour to counter the strongly spiced sausage. That was fine though it was a good contrast. I like the crunchy toasted wholemeal bread which made it feel much more healthy that this probably actually was.
I think that the grilled cheese sandwich is a good vehicle for the Boerewors sausage, I have had the sausage on it’s own off the Braii in South Africa and was often overwhelmed by it’s brash and pungent nature, so this pleased me a lot more.
Steak Burger
Purely in the interests of MyFoodHunt research I also ordered one of their burgers, I picked out the 6oz Steak Burger topped with Chimichurri Sauce and Molten Mature Cheddar Cheese for £4 which price wise seemed like good value.
I did forgo the offer of salad, which was probably a bad choice health wise, but a good choice texturally. This was not a pretty or gourmet burger effort in any sense of the word, but it was jolly satisfying.
The steak burger patty was a very solid and juicy effort and the soft bread and melted cheese made for a most enjoyable chomp. The vibrant green, gently spicy chimichurri sauce kind of melded into the cheese and added something sweet and tangy to the experience. It also had the task of dribbling out of the burger as I ate it down the front of my waterproof jacket. Rookie burger eating mistake, should pay more attention.
All in all a decent street cart burger, not one for the purists, but one for those who need a decent filling bite of food at a fair price
Cape Lekker can be found at the Wolf Down Pop-ups in Nottingham on Station Street between 11-3 during the week. Check out the Wolf Down schedule to see which days they are there and check out on the Cape Lekker Facebook page to see where they might be too