Rocking the
taste buds at Jordan
Great food is the most important thing you want from a
good restaurant. Throw in friendly and efficient staff, a warm welcome and
views to charm and relax and you are getting close to perfection. Sunday saw us
at our favourite restaurant Jordan for a birthday lunch of one of our visitors.
He requested Jordan as it has also become one of their favourite places when
visiting. We had a table right at the front of the deck with those superb views
and the lunch did not disappoint. One of the qualifiers for a great restaurant is that the standard remains excellent even when the boss isn't there. George and Louise were at a birthday celebration elsewhere - the food and service were wonderful
Lunch out on
the deck is the favourite spot in summer
This is where
Banting takes a back seat. Who can resist those freshly made vetkoek, ciabatta
rolls and seed loaf with parsley pesto, garlic aioli and olive tapenade? Not
us. Vetkoek (trans. Fat cake) is a traditional South African bread made from a
plain yeast dough rolled into balls, deep fried and served hot. The origin is
probably the Dutch oliebollen, but the early settlers used to deep fry them in
fat rendered from the fat tails of sheep. They are often served in the Cape
filled with spiced mince, mixing another of our cultures with another - the
Cape Malay foods
A feast for
the eyes. A starter of salt and sugar cured springbok ‘tartar’ compressed into
a block served with nectarines, a prune and a parsnip cream, Chantilly cream
quenelles, sunflower seeds, and topped with crisp shavings of parsnip and
sunflower sprouts. The tartar was roughly chopped and therefore had good
texture. The contrasts between the savoury and sweet, the soft , the crisp and
crunch were perfect
Local mackerel
is in season in the Cape, so pan fried as a starter was irresistible to some of
us. Served on a base of roasted garlic puree, topped with tomatoes and a
“cosmopolitan” sauce, with watercress and fried onion, all these textures and
flavours enhanced the rich oily fresh fish
Waiting for
the main courses to arrive. We drank the Jordan Inspector Peringuey Chenin blanc and glasses
of the Prospector Shiraz
Perfectly
cooked aged Chalmar beef rump in a salsa verde, with confit tomatoes served
with bone marrow dumplings and topped with thin charred aubergine crisps. The
beef was meltingly tender. Oh, and a side order of their hand cut crisp chips.
Well you can't have steak without chips
Beautifully, symmetrically plated line caught Yellowtail on a charred tomato velouté, with
basil aioli and some crisp salt and pepper squid and roasted olives
Lynne chose
the lightly salted East coast hake with a herb crust, in an artichoke velouté,
topped with very light, fried potato gnocchi and deep fried cauliflower. The
fish was beautifully fresh and delicious, but the herb topping was a little too
salty
Dessert for
the Birthday celebrant was envied by us all, even those who could not manage a
dessert. It is a set vanilla panna cotta topped with strawberry compote,
sprinkled with summer berries and topped with vanilla ice cream. So pretty too!
The
chocoholics could not resist the Valrhona dark chocolate mousse with poached
mango, buffalo labneh cheese, honeycomb pieces and a honey and walnut ice
cream. The plates were scraped till clean, as usual. Coffee ended a very
successful meal
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015
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