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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
Three seagulls playing in stormy waves
off Sea Point
In this week’s
MENU:
Products Our market activities Chenin Blanc conference Gold Restaurant Cape Wine exposition Conference Centre food Saltimbocca Anchovy & lemon butter for
asparagus Events and Restaurant specials Wine courses & cooking
classes
To take a look at our Main Ingredient blog, follow the
link: http://adamastorbacchus.blogspot.com/
because to tell the whole story here would take too much space.
You can also click on underlined and Bold words in the text to open links to
pictures, blogs, pertinent websites or more information
This week’s Product menu Exciting news! We
have obtained a small supply of the wonderful, complex West African spice Grains of Paradise – just the thing for lovers
of pepper and chilli. It hits you with really pungent heat and then runs
through layers of flavour, almost like allspice with serious attitude. If you
like chilli and pepper, you’ll love this! 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 14th September from 09h00 to 16h00. We look forward to seeing you there.
Chenin Blanc
Association Conference This
country produces the most wonderful range of Chenin Blanc wines. It is our most
widely planted cultivar, being about 20% of the wines grown in South Africa
(this percentage has dropped from 30% in 1997) . It is a wine that can be drunk
young when its style is fresh and fruity and vibrant, it can be drunk after
several years where it can show wonderful rich ripe and generous mouthfeel
characteristics. If some gentle wood is added, it shows much aging potential
and maturity and even more richness. And it can make some of the best Noble
Late harvest dessert wines. All of these styles go very, very well with food.
South African Chenin gets good
attention overseas, but our local industry seems to be a little confused as to
the direction to take in marketing it. This was our impression at the Chenin
Conference on Monday at the One&Only Hotel. Just market it as “Glorious
Chenin, the versatile grape” is our opinion. And stop selling it in bulk
overseas to people who have no respect for it, who have no idea how to make it
and who are ruining our reputation by marketing it as “South African wine”.
The first session : Do wines from
Chenin Blanc in the various growing regions, express their unique regionality covered
terroir, soil and climate and the speakers compared our very varied conditions
and soils with other places where Chenin is grown, like the Loire, where the
growing conditions and soils do not vary much. We think the differences are a
positive not a negative and we love the way one region or ward can produce
something so different and interesting from another. While Sauvignon blanc can
show badly in hot areas, Chenin does not have this problem, it just uses what
it is given to produce something drinkable - if the winemaker has the skill to
turn it into a good wine. Some of the rules do need to be changed to aid
farmers in producing better Chenin.
Chenin is also used in
outstanding award winning blends. We have to protect our old vines before they
are pulled up as they can produce some of the very best wines. Different clones
also need to be brought in to improve our wines.
But the most important thing
to emerge was research to find how to change the Public’s perception of Chenin,
from a cheap, easy drinking wine to a classic varietal capable of producing superb
quality. This was highlighted in the second session: Feedback from the 3 year research project
on Chenin by Dr Hélène Nieuwoudt of Stellenbosch University. This
was interesting but incomplete because the research had just received more
funds, so the investigation into the chemistry, taste profiles, consumer
perceptions and choices, associations and psychology of this interesting wine
continues.
Jeff Grier CWM, of Villiera,
led us through an interesting and quite varied tasting of 12 superior Chenins
of different styles and regions. Flight 1, classified as Fresh and Fruity: Perdeberg
2012; Slanghoek 2012; Simonsig 2012; Lutzville Diamond Collection 2011; Radford
Dale Renaissance 2010; Mulderbosch Small Change 2009.
Flight 2 classified as Rich
and Ripe: Spier 21 Gables 2010; Rudera Robusto 2009; Rijks Reserve 2009;
Remhoogte Honeybunch 2011; Graham Beck Bowed Head 2010; Ken Forrester FMC
Some of these wines were then
served with lunch at Nobu and showed beautifully with the different courses. It
is apparent that not all Chenins show well when tasting, but they come alive
when put together with food. Click here to see the people, the wines and some of what
we ate ... it was memorable.
Gold in Africa Gold restaurant is no longer in the
Martin Melck house in Strand Street.
It has moved to 15 Bennett Street in Green Point, just off Prestwich Street. This
restaurant highlights food from the whole African continent and the experience
also includes drumming sessions and traditional African entertainment by its
staff and Mali puppeteers.
We were invited to see the new
restaurant on Tuesday night and were very impressed. It is now on four floors
and has access to a huge entertainment and function venue in the next building.
And there is a stunning roof terrace. The decor is so impressive because it is
filled with beautiful arts and crafts, traditional masks and other artefacts
from the African continent. While you eat the R250 set menu of at least 9
courses, you are entertained by music, dancing, drumming and puppets and there
is huge energy and life in the spaces. Definitely a place to take all your
visitors to, but do book as they are one of the busiest places in Cape Town,
with lots of tours enjoying the drumming and the dinner. See the photos by clicking here
Cape Wine This very large, normally biennial, trade
exhibition is South Africa’s most important wine export showcase, organised by
Wines of South Africa. It started on Tuesday morning and ran through to this
afternoon. Because of all the activity surrounding the 2010 football World Cup,
it was not held that year, so it had not been held for four years. It was extremely well organised and, it seems,
was visited by many overseas buyers and media, which is just what our wine
industry needs. Our first day’s visit started with a seminar on Pinots Noir
from the Hemel and Aarde Valley, presented by Peter Finlayson of Bouchard
Finlayson. Click here to see pictures from our visits over the three
days. We visited many stands and tasted new and older
wines on offer. On Wednesday, we rushed to join the Pinotage Seminar. The 1964
Lanzerac had not lasted as well as the 1959 we tasted 4 years ago, but from the
1974 Zonnebloem, they showed great maturity and elegance and the newer vintages
show lots of promise. This afternoon, John rushed in to collect a newly
released wine he needed to photograph for a client, but was lucky enough to
have the time to visit a few more stands and to enjoy a half hour presentation
of Robertson chardonnays by Graham Beck cellarmaster Pieter “Bubbles” Ferreira.
The food at
CTICC The catering offered to exhibitors and
their guests in the conference centre is absolutely abysmal – a disgrace. And,
because of this, the restaurant seemed to be constantly empty, while the small
coffee bar near the entrance could not cope with the queues of hungry people, including
exhibitors trying to do business, who wanted to grab a bite and get back to the
show. All through Cape Wine we heard complaints about the quality of the food
and the staff. The food on offer was not inexpensive, but most people would
have been prepared to pay a bit more for something palatable.
How can we showcase our best
wines and produce our worst food? Cape Town has a reputation for the best food
in the country and we offer our visitors this tasteless, soggy rubbish at one
of our most important exhibition centres. Plastic, blotting paper sandwiches,
cold and clammy wraps with minimal filling and long queues. Inarticulate staff
who cannot tell you what is inside the food. And there is not much content for the
money. No wonder the restaurant is empty. People are walking up to Woolworths
to get salads. And there is not much else in the area. It is embarrassing. What
must the foreign trade and media think? Lynne posted a comment on her
Facebook page and has received many negative comments
from people who have had the same experience at this and other conferences. Why
can’t we have a Taste of Cape Town tasting with our top chefs alongside the
next Cape Wine?
Classic
Saltimbocca On Saturday nights, we are usually tired after
working at the Biscuit Mill, so Lynne cooks something quite simple for supper.
This week she was still Italian inspired, so she decided to treat John to Saltimbocca
(“jumps in the mouth” is the translation). It is not at all difficult to make
and we happened to have all the right ingredients. You are meant to use
(please, ethically raised) veal or baby beef, but it is quite acceptable to use
pork fillet. You need about two pieces for each person.
8 Veal escalopes or
Pork fillet slices – 8 slices of prosciutto ham – 8 sage leaves – seasoned
flour – 1T butter – 250ml white wine or Marsala – juice of ½ a lemon
You need small slices about 3
cm thick, which you cover in cling film and then bash the living daylights out
of till they are tender and no more than 1 cm thick. Think of your worst enemy
and get rid of some frustration. Place one fresh sage leaf on each escalope,
then wrap with the ham. Secure with a toothpick if the ham does not fully wrap
the meat. Dip the meat on both sides
into the seasoned flour and fry each side gently for a minute or two, until the
ham is crisp and golden. Remove from the pan and keep warm. Deglaze the pan
with the wine and a squeeze of lemon juice, pour over the Saltimbocca and
serve. Wonderful with thin steamed green beans that are sautéed briefly in
butter and garlic slices. The traditional starch would be a pasta like linguine
or creamy polenta to soak up the juices.
On Sunday we had another
dinner party and this recipe was what we served with our amazing fresh
asparagus:
Anchovy
and lemon butter for Asparagus
40g of soft butter
– 6 anchovies – juice of half a lemon.
Mash the anchovies with the
lemon juice, then add to the butter. Melt and pour over cold or warm asparagus.
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 Calendar.
You 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 wine. Cathy 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 offers. Click 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.
20th August 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
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