Friday, July 27, 2012

19 July 2012 Main Ingredient's MENU - Bastille & Franschhoek, Whisky tasting, organic chicken,Taj Expressions, products, Events, Restaurant specials, Wine courses , cooking classes, etc

MENU

Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines
Eat In Guide’s Outstanding Outlet Award Winner from 2006 to 2010
+27 21 439 3169 / +27 83 656 4169
A GlenWood farm worker walking through the vineyards


In this week’s MENU:
*     Products
*     Our market activities
*     Bastille festivities and Franschhoek farms
*     The Common Room at Le Quartier Français
*     Liquidity whisky tasting at French Toast
*     Expressions of… at the Taj
*     Free range Red Barn chicken
*     Events and Restaurant specials
*     Wine courses & cooking classes
To tell the whole story here would take too much space, so click on underlined and Bold words in the text to open links to pictures, blogs, websites or more information
This week’s Product menu Last week’s cold, wet weather kept most Capetonians tucked up in front of their fires, so there was not much exposure for the brilliant new range of French sauces in jars: béarnaise, burgundy, tartare and mayonnaise, all very attractively priced, which join our range of French mustards (green peppercorn, tarragon, basil, wholegrain, Dijon & mild brown). There has been a surge of interest in risotto (warming comfort food), so we have boosted our stock of Carnaroli and Violone Nano creamy risotto rices. Don’t forget that we also have authentic Spanish paella rice. If you’ve only used run-of-the-mill supermarket rice to make paella, you need to try this and join the satisfied customers who have used the real thing. We have stock of the Mayor hazelnut and walnut oils in 500ml cans and 125ml bottles of Moroccan Argan oil. Many of you have been using it for cosmetic purposes (we believe it is very good for skin and hair), but we like it for its amazing, complex, nutty-fruity flavour. To see what else we have available for you, you can access our product list and see pictures in our website. If you can’t find what you need, let us know and we will try to find it for you. Until our online shop is ready, drop us an email and we will help you. We are very happy to see that traffic on our website is increasing and more orders are coming from it.
We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.
Our market activities Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s wonderfully exciting, atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip: Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking. It’s quite easy if you know how. Click here for a map which shows where we park. We will be back at Long Beach Mall tomorrow, Friday 20th July from 09h00 to 16h00We look forward to seeing you there.
Bastille weekend in Franschhoek – and afterwards...     We had an opportunity to visit the Bastille celebrations again this year and stay in the lovely Cape Dutch Basse Provence manor house on Sunday and Monday nights. The weather was absolutely atrocious on Sunday – we measured 15 mm of rainfall in Sea Point between 8 and 11 am – and we departed a little later than expected, dressed for the Arctic in all our warmest winter wear, with a little French accent, and with the car full of extra clothing for our stay. Snow was reported to be falling in the middle of the Karoo and blocking our main N1 motorway. Usually the road is full of traffic heading to Franschhoek; this time driving rain preceded us, so it was a relief to get to the festival.
They had moved the marquee to the side of the Main Road and there was parking in the churchyard for R30 a car. We had tickets for the VIP tent, where there was a group of French winemakers from the Rhône valley offering their wines for tasting, along with representation from some local farms. Food was part of the VIP entrance ticket and we had a lovely time - despite the fact that Lynne was getting bronchitis - tasting interesting and intriguing wines, chatting to old friends and making new ones. If you want to see what we tasted and ate, click here. We both wandered through to the main tent to soak up the atmosphere and chat to friends on some of the tables. On Saturday, apparently, they were very, very full but on Sunday it was a bit more spacious. Lynne also went into the Town Hall to see what was on offer there and succumbed to some of the wonderful French cheese from Fromages de France, owned by Lodine and Ludwig Maske. By 5, we had had enough and retreated to our very comfortable accommodation to enjoy a rare early evening in.
On Monday, the weather was a little brighter and, after a hearty breakfast, we drove across to neighbouring Rickety Bridge (which owns Basse Provence) to see the changes they have made to the tasting room and the restaurant. After a chat with Jan van Huyssteen, the MD, and a look at all the improvements they have made, we drove down the Robertsvlei road to Glenwood where ‘DP’ Burger, the cellarmaster/farm manager for the last 23 years, spoilt us rotten with a superb tasting and, generously, lots and lots of his time. We bought some of his delicious Merlot and will probably buy some of the other wines when our cellar is a little less full. They will be opening Franschhoek’s first Japanese restaurant on the farm in the next few months and there is lots of construction taking place at the moment, but the tasting room is still functioning well. We must confess that we had never driven down the Robertsvlei Road before and discovered that it is really beautiful, quiet and peaceful countryside. Click here to see the photos
Then we were off to La Motte, which we hadn’t visited since they made all the changes. Werner Briedenhann, the facility manager, took us on a tour of the restaurant (closed on Mondays) and the excellent shop where they sell food products and lovely household items – not the things you see everywhere else.
The new tasting room is comfortable and welcoming, even in cold weather and we did a tasting through the many La Motte wines.
No time for lunch, so we settled for a late pie and chips from Pick n Pay – a HUGE mistake, but it did fill in the holes. Making chips look as if they are cooked by sprinkling on paprika is just not on. They were soggy and half-cooked and the pie was full of gristle. Uuuuugggghhhh!
We had booked for dinner at The Common Room, the casual tapas-style restaurant at Le Quartier Français, so didn’t want to do anything huge. The village on Monday was not as empty as last year and the restaurant was nicely full at 7 pm, when we arrived. Very hospitable and friendly staff served us quickly and our food arrived soon afterwards. We ordered a bottle of Iona’s Sophie Terblanche Sauvignon blanc and it went well with the five dishes we shared. Click here to see what we ate. Margo is relaunching the Tasting Room this week and was at the restaurant kitchen testing out desserts for her new menu, so we were lucky enough to be able to chat briefly to her. Her concept is to only use local ingredients in a way that showcases them all and to use as much of each of them as possible. As she explained the fine cuts of a bird or beast are used in the Tasting room and the rest is used in the Common Room, which has a very tapas style menu. We loved it. The food was simply delicious, full of different textures and looks amazing.
Tuesday dawned bright and sunny, the temperature went up to 20°C during the day and it was lovely to be outside at last. Irene Waller had invited us to visit her at La Bri and we so admired the small but perfectly formed winery, all built for gravity feed winemaking, spotlessly clean and very innovative in design. The tasting room has just had a folding class door fitted so the balcony is more accessible and it lets more light into the room. Despite Lynne coughing horribly, we had a really good informative tasting of the La Bri wines and bought some of her Winemakers Blend, currently on special at R50 a bottle, and a magnum of the flagship Affinity red blend for putting down in our cellar. This is an elegant and beautifully made blend of Cabernet, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec.
We shared a quick Mediterranean pizza at Col’caccio in the village (excellent) and then it was time to get on the road home as we had some town appointments. Sad to leave, we know we will return again soon as the valley still has lots more places for us to visit and discover.
Liquidity Whisky tasting at French Toast     After our “French” experience in Franschhoek, we went straight into the highlands of Scotland. Liquidity had invited us to taste their range of Springbank and Compass Box whiskies at French Toast in Bree St. Springbank has four single malts: 10, 12, 15 and 18 years old. Whereas most ranges of fine whiskies show a consistency in the blend across the various ages, Springbank has a different blend for each of these malts. John’s favourite was the 10 year old, which was delightfully rich and mellow, with a light dusting of salt. The distillery is, apparently, close to the shore. The Compass Box range of blended whiskies has some interesting blends, including the Peat Monster, a blended malt which has a high proportion of Islay whisky. It will appeal to lovers of island whiskies like Lagavulin and, especially, Laphroig.  John’s favourite was the Great King Street, a smooth, richly-textured blend with fruity notes.
Expressions of... at the Taj Hotel      We promised to remind you in good time this month of this event. Next Thursday evening, 26th July, there will be a stunning tasting in the Expressions of...series at the Taj Hotel. The areas they are covering this month are Walker Bay, Elim and Bot Rivier and some of the most exciting farms will be showcasing their wines in the reception area from 6 till 7.30. These tastings are FREE.
If you want to stay for the four course dinner paired with the wines, which follows, it will cost R350 per person - very good value indeed and they throw in free mineral water at the table and parking in Mandela Rhodes place. The chef cooking this month is Duane Lewis of Grootbos Private Nature Reserve.
If you don’t feel you want to drive home after this you can have the whole evening plus a night in the hotel with breakfast for only R1750 per room. If there are two of you this works out at R875 for a wine tasting, dinner, bed, breakfast and parking per person. Why not come through from the country for a night out in time to spoil yourselves? Booking is essential. Click here to book
Free Range Red Barn chicken
This week’s recipe is more a process for you to copy and adapt. Have fun with different herbs and spice combinations and vegetables beneath the bird to soak up the lovely juices.
After we wrote about eating one of these chickens at the Taj at the beginning of the month we were very kindly sent a very large one to try. Sadly it came frozen but after defrosting yesterday, Lynne decided to cook it the old fashioned way in her Romertopf clay chicken brick. She cut up some fennel bulbs, red peppers, and celery, added a drained tin of chick peas, about whole 8 cloves of garlic and a glass each of white wine and chicken stock in the bottom of the brick. The chicken was stuffed with half a lemon, and copious amounts of chopped fresh herbs: parsley, thyme, rosemary, bay and sage from our garden were rubbed inside and out. Then the other half of the lemon was squeezed over it. sliced and tucked with the vegetables and a few more herbs in the pot. A drizzle of olive oil and then a generous sprinkling of Za’atar to the outside and under the skin of the breast and legs and the pot went into the oven. Usually cooking a chicken this way takes just under the hour but, sadly, last night it took over an hour and three quarters before the chicken was falling apart. The juices had all gone into the vegetables underneath and we had a lovely supper with crisp duck fat potatoes and some fresh steamed broccoli. It was a very good match for a Thokozani Shiraz Mourvedre 2006 (from Diemersfontein – newer vintages add viognier). We love cooking chicken this way, and try a different variation on the theme whenever we do. Just don’t forget to soak both parts of your chicken brick in water for at least an hour before you use it, this allows the chicken to steam gently and the brick can’t crack. Tonight some of the meat is going into a Tom Yum soup.
Erratum: Spellchecker’s revenge. We used Tabasco in last week’s recipe, but the spell checker changed it to tobacco. It keeps trying to do it here. As we are both avid non-smokers, we hope you realised that we would never tell you to use tobacco in a food recipe. (Alice B Toklas excepted).
There is a huge and rapidly growing variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. There are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have made separate list for each month for which we have information. To help you choose an event to visit, click on our Events Calendar. All the events are listed in date order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Click here to access the CalendarYou will need to be connected to the internet.
Learn about wine and cooking We have had a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wineCathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details here.
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs evening cooking classes at Sense of Taste, his catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme here.
Restaurant Special offers. Some more restaurants have responded to our request for an update of their special offers and we have, therefore, updated our list of restaurant special offersClick here to access it. These Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. If they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.








19th July 2012

Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our product list for details and prices.
PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information
Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169
Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005
Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups (up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in English, German, Norwegian or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans.
Recommendations of products and outside events are not solicited or charged for, and are made at the authors’ pleasure. All photographs, recipes and text used in these newsletters are ©John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are usually unsolicited. We prefer to pay for our meals and not be paid in any way by anyone. Whether we are invited or go independently, we don’t feel bad if we say we didn’t like it. Honesty is indeed our best policy. While every effort is made to avoid mistakes, we are human and they do creep in occasionally, for which we apologise. Our Avast! ® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.
This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Mexican supper at El Burro, Green Point

This week, we finally made it to El Burro in Somerset Road, Green Point. The restaurant has been so busy that it has been hard, even in winter, to get a reservation. 

There are two restaurants below it and neither of them had any custom at 7 (or 9, when we left) but upstairs was already lively and getting full, so they obviously have a formula that works. 

And the age mix was huge, so it is not just a young vibe. We had a lovely, friendly and enthusiastic waitress who took pains to explain the menu to the four of us. 
She emphasised that we would be eating soft tortillas, not crisp tacos, with our meal, she said that was what most locals were expecting and they don’t do them. We do know the difference.We decided to try three of the starters and share them, and then do our own things with the mains. The starter of roasted & smoked fresh (not bottled) Jalapeno chilli ‘Rillenos’ stuffed with cheese was warmly spicy and delicious, 
the baby squid were quite superb and will make sure of another visit for all of us. Tender, gently spiced, with a lime juice kick, they melted in the mouth. 
Some of us found the ‘Taquitos’ stodgy, (corn tortillas wrapped around refried beans and queso fresco, lightly fried and topped with sour cream and fresh tomato salsa)
Others enjoyed them. Our main courses were all enjoyable. Three of us found them all unexpectedly bland and had to call for more chilli sauce to enliven them, which certainly helped. It led us to conclude that perhaps that is what Cape Town is demanding? John ordered the twice cooked pork shoulder in a garlic & chilli paste, flavoured with oregano, paprika & arbol chilli (hot) ‘do it yourself kit’ with tortillas (you get three and you can have a mix of corn or flour). 
Lynne had the pulled short ribs of beef braised with adobo chilli, paprika & fresh oregano to do the same. 
We found both meats almost entirely without flavour and the beef was very stringy and tough. The pork was a little fatty for Lynne but their flavours were both helped enormously by the good selection of additions provided, which you can add to your tortilla: a tomato salsa, a roasted aubergine dish, cream cheese, guacamole, thinly sliced and vinegared red onion, plus chopped fresh hot chilli in a light sauce. 
Both plates also come with a yellow fried rice, refried beans and salad. 
Loraine had the mushroom quesadilla which is a grilled flour tortilla filled with sautéed field mushrooms & queso fresco, served with a sun-dried tomato & black bean salsa. 
Ronnie had a red spinach and feta enchilada covered in melted cheese.

We were mystified as to what the unfortunately named La Muerte Blanco which appeared our bill was (its translation is a white ghost). Then we remembered that Loraine had a tequila cocktail! Corkage is steep at R45 a bottle, but the wine list is not memorable, so we were happy to pay it. 
All in all, an enjoyable meal, but with some compromises. We see they have a half price lunch special running at the moment, so we might go and try some of the other things on the menu, including a repeat of the squid.

Caroline's Red Wine Review

Last night we enjoyed a marathon tasting of red wines, chosen by Caroline Rillema, at Caroline’s Red Wine Review at the Westin Grand Hotel. She only chooses wines with 4 star ratings and above.
Danie Steytler (Kaapzicht), Caroline Rillema, Francois van Zyl (Laibach) and Abrie Beeslaar (Kanonkop)

Michael Langenhoven (La Motte), Caroline Rillema, Christo le Riche (le Riche), Niels Verburg (Luddite) and Norma Ratcliffe (Warwick)



Christo le Riche discussing his 2009 Cabernet with David Brice (The Wine Cellar)



JC Martin, owner/winemaker at Creation
Hermann Kirschbaum and Brad Paton of Buitenverwachting
Lynne with Norman McFarlane
Beverley Horrell and Pieter Visser of Oak Valley
Caroline with Nico van der Merwe
Bill Ford (Protea Hospitality Corporation) with Lars Maack (MD, Buitenverwachting)
Danie Steytler (Kaapzicht) with Kara Miller (Marketing Manager at Cape Classics)
Sue Anderson, happily anticipating a vendange of her own
Sue Anderson with Louis Nel
All photographs in this blog are ©John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2012

Thursday, July 19, 2012

12 July 2012 Main Ingredient's MENU - Things to do, Chops & peppercorn mustard, boerekool, sweet potato soup, tuna biltong, products, Events, Restaurant specials, Wine courses , cooking classes, etc

MENU

Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines
Eat In Guide’s Outstanding Outlet Award Winner from 2006 to 2010
+27 21 439 3169 / +27 83 656 4169
A chilly evening in the Alfred Dock, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
In this week’s MENU:
*     Products
*     Our market activities
*     Things to do…
*     Chops and green peppercorn mustard
*     Boerekool or curly kale
*     Sweet potato soup
*     Tuna biltong
*     Masters of the Trade Routes Culinary Challenge: Den Anker
*     Events and Restaurant specials
*     Wine courses & cooking classes
To tell the whole story here would take too much space, so click on underlined and Bold words in the text to open links to pictures, blogs, websites or more information 
New Products We have just received a new range of French sauces in jars: béarnaise, burgundy, tartare and mayonnaise, all very attractively priced. These join our new range of French mustards (green peppercorn, tarragon, basil, wholegrain, Dijon & mild brown). We have also received fresh stock of the Mayor hazelnut and walnut oils in 500ml cans and 125ml bottles of Moroccan Argan oil. Many of you have been using it for cosmetic purposes (we believe it is very good for skin and hair), but we like it for its amazing, complex, nutty-fruity flavour. To see what else we have available for you, you can access our product list and see pictures in our website. If you can’t find what you need, let us know and we will try to find it for you. Until our online shop is ready, drop us an email and we will help you. We are very happy to see that traffic on our website is increasing and more orders are coming from it.
We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.
Our market activities Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s wonderfully exciting, atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip: Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking. It’s quite easy if you know how. Click here for a map which shows where we park. We will be back at Long Beach Mall tomorrow, Friday 6th July from 09h00 to 16h00We look forward to seeing you there.
Things to do...   This is that dreary time of the year when you have to wrap up very warmly if you are the adventurous type who wants to go the beach. The storms, of course, can make it pretty exciting and we’ve had enough of those in the last couple of weeks. But, for those of us who prefer comfort, it is also a time at which you can indulge in some wonderful indoor activity. We have some great additions to our Events Calendar, like Caroline’s Red Wine Review and the Bastille Festival in Franschhoek this weekend. We will be at the latter on Sunday and are staying on for a couple of days to investigate more wine farms and restaurants in the area. We hope we will see lots of you at the Festival but don’t forget to buy your tickets before you go. This two day festival is extremely popular. Don’t forget your berets and to wear red white and blue or you will feel a little out it. There is a great atmosphere in the village during the festival; lots of partying on Saturday at night as well. Get your tickets from Computicket for Caroline’s Red Wine Review; it will be at the Western Grand Hotel, CTICC on Wednesday the 25th, from 5 to 9 pm.
Several of Cape Town’s best hotels have excellent programmes of wine pairing dinners: The Taj, The Vineyard, the Mount Nelson and the One&Only, all of which have dates through the year. They’re listed in date order through to December. There are plenty of other events, tastings and dinners to dazzle your senses, some of them in other cities including Johannesburg and Durban. Check them out here.
Chops and Green Peppercorn mustard
The new range of French mustards, mentioned above, has really been flying since we started selling them. They are different from the normal soft French mustards, because they do have a tiny bite of heat - the mustard seeds are stone ground, apparently Fallot is the last mustard maker in France to do this. They come from Beaune in Burgundy and Lynne has wanted to try them out with food. Both of us have had colds over the last week, so cooking has been minimal but, sometimes, minimal cooking with great ingredients gives you good results. She coated two generous pork loin chops on one side with the green peppercorn mustard, seasoned them, fried some onions till brown and getting crisp, then put the chops in a hot pan and browned them on both sides. The mustard not only flavours but thickens the sauce a little. She deglazed the pan with some verjuice, added the onions and some good chicken stock and put a lid on the pan to allow the chops to cook through for a few minutes. This was served with wonderful new potatoes and some curly kale found at the organic vegetable stand at the Biscuit Mill.
The next mustard we are going to try is the Tarragon with some Red Barn free range chicken which has been delivered to us today. More next week...
Boerekool or curly Kale
This rather rare and difficult-to-cook vegetable has rather stymied us. Usually, when you buy it, the leaves are hard and crisp almost like glass and you have to cook for a very long time to get anything edible. And obviously with a green vegetable, long cooking must destroy lots of the vitamins it contains. The Kale we bought this week was completely different, lovely soft leaves and very fresh but it was still like glass when cooked, as well as being stringy and fibrous after poaching in butter for a few minutes like cabbage. Does anyone have any tips for cooking this vegetable?
Sweet potato soup
John does not like sweet potatoes. But they are extremely good for us. So Lynne decided to try a soup recipe out on him to see if he really disliked it. Strangely this does not taste like sweet potato. John identified the soup as a slightly sweet red pepper and tomato soup and there was not a tomato in sight. It is very creamy and delicious and much improved by the addition of smoked chicken.
1 celery stalk, finely chopped – 1 onion, finely chopped – half a red pepper, finely chopped – 1 carrot, finely chopped – 1 T canola oil – 1 small potato, 200g, peeled and chopped – 1 large orange sweet potato, peeled and chopped (500 to 650g) – 1 to 1.5 litre of good vegetable or chicken stock - 2 small smoked chicken breasts, cut into 2 cm pieces – 4 or 5 drops of tobacco – salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fry the celery, onion, pepper and carrot in the oil till soft and just beginning to take on colour. Add the two potatoes and cover with stock. Simmer till the potatoes are soft then blitz the soup till smooth. Put in the two chicken breasts and cook for another 20 minutes then season and serve.
If you want to keep this vegetarian, leave out the chicken and use a textured vegetable like broccoli florets or baby corn.
If you want to keep this low carbohydrate, leave out the potato. It is there for thickness, so the soup will be slightly more watery.
This is very good with some crisp garlic bread.
Tuna Biltong     Some of you might remember that we had some superb mojama (thinly sliced dried tuna) in the shop a few years ago, but the person making it decided to go and do something more lucrative and Cape Town has been without it for a while. Stephan of Delicious Fish, who works next to us at Long Beach Mall selling his excellent smoked snoek, angel fish, and smoked snoek paté, is now making really good tuna biltong and selling it at the Biscuit Mill. He uses only locally sourced tuna and puts it through a secret process with his own blend of spices to make this fat free healthy snack. He is very generous with samples, so do come and taste his wares the next time you visit the Biscuit Mill or Long Beach Mall. We are still trying to convince him that there will be a market for this at Long Beach Mall.
Masters of the Trade Routes Culinary Challenge     The Waterfront is running its special winter promotion at the moment and we decided to go and sample one restaurant’s offering. We have to say, looking at the web pages, not all of the restaurants have much to offer with their specials - some just offering one dish and others are quite expensive, but one or two really excited us - especially Den Anker, which offers Seared Canadian Scallop on a White Asparagus Risotto and a lightly curried Beurre Blanc Pear poached with Cinnamon and All Spice with a Cherry Beer Sabayon, served with a glass of Jordan Bradgate Sauvignon Blanc / Chardonnay, all for R120. Click here to see what we ate. We absolutely loved it and, if you want a great experience, do go and try this one. Check out the V&A Waterfront Masters of the Trade Routes web site to see if there are others you might enjoy. We found that we were free by 8.30, so this could be a an excellent choice for supper before a movie. 
There is a huge and rapidly growing variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. There are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have made separate list for each month for which we have information. To help you choose an event to visit, click on our Events Calendar. All the events are listed in date order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Click here to access the CalendarYou will need to be connected to the internet.
Learn about wine and cooking We have had a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wineCathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details here.
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs evening cooking classes at Sense of Taste, his catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme here.
Restaurant Special offers. Some more restaurants have responded to our request for an update of their special offers and we have, therefore, updated our list of restaurant special offersClick here to access it. These Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. If they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.







12th July 2012

Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our product list for details and prices.
PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information
Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169
Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005
Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups (up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in English, German, Norwegian or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans.
Recommendations of products and outside events are not solicited or charged for, and are made at the authors’ pleasure. All photographs, recipes and text used in these newsletters are ©John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are usually unsolicited. We prefer to pay for our meals and not be paid in any way by anyone. Whether we are invited or go independently, we don’t feel bad if we say we didn’t like it. Honesty is indeed our best policy. While every effort is made to avoid mistakes, we are human and they do creep in occasionally, for which we apologise. Our Avast! ® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.
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