Thursday, February 14, 2013

Cape to Canton: Chinese New Year at the Vineyard

Queuing for tickets at the entrance 
and picking up bowls, chopsticks and glasses
Vineyard GM Roy Davies with Pamela Cunningham
Neil Pendock
Neil Pendock and Roy Davies with Mr & Mrs Paul Cluver
The Vineyard's beautiful gardens made a stunning venue
Giant tortoises are a feature of the gardens. In the words of Noel Coward, one of these had a puncture and the other was pushing him home
We paid a visit to our Sauvignon Blanc grape vine in the vineyard and it has one lovely bunch of grapes on it. Harvest will take place this Friday morning, the first in many years. We will write about it next week
observed and cautioned by the neighbour's dogs
Roy Davies and Lynne with James and Pamela Cunningham.
Thank heavens for the Chinese parasol

Special fried rice was served with a Thai green herb and spinach steamed dumpling. 
These are the side dishes. The chilli was absolutely wicked.
We started the tasting with Plaisir de Merle MCC bubbly
Empty steaming baskets waiting to be refilled
The tortoises finally made the fountain for a drink
Rows of beautifully made dumplings waiting to be cooked
Leopards Leap is excellent with dim sum
Pork and Prawn sui mai open dumplings
Post sticker dumplings and our favourite dish of the day, sweet potato and carrot cakes with the chef/owner who made them: Ed Hung from the South China Dim Sum Bar in Long Street
What a way to spend a Sunday afternoon
Neil with Jonathan Steyn, Lize-Marie Gradwell of Distell's Cape Legends and her husband, Geoff Gradwell of KWV
Talented artist Luan Nel with Neil
Other food writers Jan Loubser and Anel Grobler, enjoying a cold beer
Traditional drumming and the Chinese dragon dance
Steamed prawn dumplings with Anthonij Ruperts Optima
Roland Peens had some very interesting wines and bubbly on offer inthe Bisquit Brandy area and some customers dressed for the occasion
A different dumpling served by a helpful staff member
The Bisquit crew
Dax (Relax with Dax) Villanueva, definitely relaxing with Roy and David Wibberley, the Vineyard's food and beverage manager of The Square restaurant
Beautiful costumes and beautiful food and wine
Jonathan Steyn, David Wibberley and Lynne having a chat about the afternoon and the future
A great fan of the day
John managed to get into the Bisquit area to take some photographs
The working day over, the Chinese could celebrate
Our taxi home awaits.
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013

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