After breakfast at L’Avenir’s Lodge we did some cheese
shopping at Parmalat’s Simonsberg cheese factory shop in Stellenbosch and then
drove through to Joostenberg, where Susan and Chef Christophe Dehosse had invited
us to join them for lunch to try out their new menu in their recently
refurbished restaurant. It was lovely to discover that Hartenberg cellarmaster
Carl Schultz and his wife Karen had also been invited, as well as co-owner/winemaker
Tyrrel Myburgh’s wife Anette. Tyrell was in the USA, marketing their wines. We
had a very gemütlich lunch with lovely food, good wine and wonderful company –
all the ingredients of a wonderful meal
Enjoying a
glass of Joostenberg wine with Christophe and Susan Dehosse
A view of the
restaurant before it filled up
Our lunch menu
Banting seed
biscuits with Pork Rillons, chick pea and feta dip, aubergine paté and smoked
salmon trout tartare were our appetisers.
The rillons
were crisp, sticky and moist and superbly flavoured
Carl Schultz, cellarmaster
at Hartenberg
The chef, Christophe Dehosse who, like us, is following
the Banting regime and is finding it a great success
A seafood nage
(broth) with very fresh silverfish and tiny pearl pickled onions. So enjoyable
and so redolent of the sea. This is one dish that needs a nice piece of bread
to mop up all those juices and sauce, but we resisted.
Long and slow-braised lamb – Christophe cooked this overnight for more than 12 hours - on a
herby minty tabbouleh topped with a red pepper compote and a meaty thyme jus
Susan and Carl
chatting about the industry
The perfect
Dehosse dessert: Properly made vanilla ice cream with no shortcuts, with fresh
seasonal strawberries topped with a crisp caramel almond tuille. Might just
become a Ford family favourite. “Simple well made food using perfect
ingredients is the way to go” says Christophe. Enjoyed with the deliciously golden Joostenberg Noble Late Harvest
Chatting over
a bottle of Joostenberg’s wonderful Noble Late Harvest dessert wine, made from
Chenin Blanc, after a lovely relaxed lunch. A place to meet your friends and
family, eat a good meal and ‘kuier’ (visit)
Christophe’s Chef Garth Bedford,
who cooked our meal so that Christophe could be with us
What we drank
with our meal: Joostenberg Family Blend, Joostenberg Fairhead 2011, Joostenberg
Syrah 2013 and the Noble Late Harvest. All match the food so well and all are
available to drink in the restaurant or to buy in the Deli next door, which has
a lovely selection of foods made by Christophe and his team. We really recommend his classic
pork pies and his Pork Rillette, amongst many other good things
and, while were having fun, the restaurant had filled up with hungry, happy customers
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014
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