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Gourmet
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In
this week’s MENU:
Mondiall Riesling
Rocks Festival on Hartenberg Tour and lunch on the Queen Mary 2 Gourmet Boerie Light summer lunch
We
have been edging toward a change in the way we present MENU to you and it will be very evident to you
this week. Using our blogs enable us to give you a much better idea of our
activities than just giving you the words in here and then showing you the
pictures separately in the blog. So we are only giving you the introduction
here and we ask you to click on the links to see the whole story in
words and pictures.
We will
be very grateful if you click on some of the interesting advertisements in the
blog – the payments we get from the advertisers are the only payment we receive
for producing MENU
This week’s Product menu Genuine Amaretti
biscuits come from Italy. These crisp little biscuits are made from slightly
bitter ground apricot kernels. They are perfect for desserts, trifles and for
serving with coffee or Amaretto liqueur.
Dip them in dark chocolate for that ultimate friandise. And they make a
really good dipping ingredient when making a chocolate fondant. The packet says
they are cholesterol free, and they cost only R40 a packet. Check our online shop to see more details and prices.
Mondiall We were able to choose a nice restaurant
this week, as our friend visiting from Greece wanted to take us out somewhere
good and, as we have not eaten at this Waterfront restaurant yet, it was our
pick. Click here to see the pictures and read the review
Riesling Rocks Festival on Hartenberg Some festivals really work and this was
just so much fun. The wines on offer were really good, interesting and
different. Who drinks Riesling nowadays? Well a lot more people than you would
expect and many of them were there on Saturday to sample some of the best
available in the Cape. Click here to learn about the festival and Riesling
Tour of the Queen Mary 2 We were absolutely delighted to be invited
to do a media tour of this magnificent ship while she was in port and even more
thrilled to hear that lunch was included. We have both done a few intercontinental
trips on large liners but this ship is really something else. Read all about it here, with lots of photographs
Gourmet Boerie Do you like Boerewors, our iconic South
African sausage made with beef and pork and lots of coriander and other spices?
This week we were invited to review this restaurant, which is at the bottom of
Kloof Street. See what we ate and read all about it here.
Light summer
lunch We had two old friends join us for lunch
yesterday and as we are both conscious of expanding waistlines, Lynne decided
it was time for some old favourites. We started with humus made with lots of
lemon, served with warm olive rolls and lots of vegetable crudités for those of
us abstaining from bread. Then a classic Salad Niçoise followed by an Italian
dessert we make at least once every summer, baked peaches stuffed with amaretti
biscuits and amaretto liqueur. We have given these recipes in the past and if
you want one of them, please send us an email.
Wines we
enjoyed this week One of the benefits of
writing about food and wine is that we are asked to evaluate wines and tell you
about them. This week, we enjoyed a 2009 Ormonde Shiraz from Darling with
chicken which Lynne prepared with her own barbecue sauce, which contains
allspice – the predominant flavour. The wine has rich black cherries, plums and
a spiciness which was a perfect match for the dish. The Salad Niçoise mentioned
above cried out for a rosé and we tried it with two. The Meerendal Pinotage
Rosé is a delicious summer wine whose ripe fruit flavours matched our starter
of crudités and humus very well, but Zandvliet’s My Best Friend Shiraz Rosé,
which has a leaner character and is bone dry was perfect with the Salade
Niçoise.
Buying from us On Line 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 on line shop. We can send your requirements
to you anywhere in South Africa. Please do not pay until we have confirmed availability and
invoiced you, then you pay and then we deliver or post. When you make an eft payment,
make sure that it says who you are. Use the form on the website to email us
your order. Click here to see our OnLine Shop.
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 see what’s happening in our world of
food and wine (and a few other cultural events), visit
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. Events outside the Western Cape are listed here.
Learn about wine and cooking We receive 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 of Cathy’s WSET and other courses here
and here and the CWA courses here.
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who made 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. Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has cooking
classes in Fish Hoek and conducts cooking tours to Normandy. You can see more details here. Emma Freddi runs the Enrica Rocca cooking courses at her
home in Constantia. Brett Nussey’s Stir
Crazy courses are now being run from Dish Food and
Social’s premises in Main Road Observatory (opposite Groote Schuur hospital).
Lynn Angel runs the Kitchen Angel
cooking school and does private dinners at her home. She holds hands-on cooking
classes for small groups on Monday and Wednesday evenings. She trained with
Raymond Blanc, and has been a professional chef for 25 years. More info here
23rd January 2014
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 online shop 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 and standard 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 and our
blogs 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! ®
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