A hooded crow
takes a bath at Topkapı Palace, Istanbul
In
this week’s MENU:
Aegean
Odyssey. Part One: Istanbul Learn about wine and cooking
We write about
our experiences in MENU, not only to entertain you, but to encourage you to
visit the places and events that we do. We know you will enjoy them and we try
to make each write up as graphic as we can, so you get a good picture of what
is on offer at each place, restaurant, wine farm, festival we visit. To get the whole story with photographs, please click on “Read
on.....” at the end of each paragraph, which will lead you to the
related blog, with pictures and more words. At the end of each blog, click on RETURN TO MENU
to come back to the blog version of MENU.
Our Odyssey in Turkey and Greece We
are back from our Odyssey, slightly fitter (we did a LOT of walking) and well
rested and tanned. We had a wonderful holiday, although Lynne says that John
didn't relax as much as he should have, as he took so many photographs which he
had to edit each day or you would not have seen anything for weeks. He says
that photography is what he wants most to do, so it is his relaxation!
This week, we have attached the five days of our
Turkish exploration in Istanbul. We stayed in a small self-catering apartment
in the old Armenian section of Istanbul. We saw as many historic monuments and
places as we could get to, explored parts of the city on foot, perhaps more
than we wanted to. It has a very good network of transport, but all the maps
are worthless as they don't connect the different transport systems on one map.
The trip on the Bosporus was superb and is a must if you are in the city. It is
a very beautiful city at a distance, the history is all around one, but we did
find it rather dirty and untidy and not a little financially depressed, which
we expected to see in Greece, but didn’t.
The food was not as good or a varied as Lynne had
experienced in the past in other places in Turkey, but was consistent and not
too expensive, except in the high end restaurants, where it was stratospheric.
We had one fine dining experience at Asitane, which serves Ottoman Palace
cuisine "fit for a Sultan" from the 15th Century, which we absolutely
loved and where we did manage to taste some fine Turkish wines. It scores 4½
stars in all the travel sites, so if you go to Istanbul you must try to visit.
Read on by clicking these blog titles:
Karoo Lamb and Venison
Experience at Muratie Estate in Stellenbosch We managed
to squeeze in an event at Muratie on Saturday after our return and so want you
to see the photos of this amazing day learning how to butcher, prepare and cook
a whole sheep and a haunch of Venison. We then had a delicious lunch of the
resulting dishes.
This day costs R500 a person and, if you are
interested in doing this, contact Muratie, they are planning another of these
excellent hands-on demonstrations, preparation and cooking experience, which is
followed by lunch with Muratie wine and all the food prepared. We were also
able to take home some of the other meats prepared by us but not needed for
lunch. Read On, but be aware that some of
the photographs may upset sensitive viewers, especially vegetarians.
This week's Recipe No
recipe this week but, next week, we promise to publish the recipe for a dish we
ate on our travels.
COMING EVENTS:
Thursday, 11th June Taste the Helderberg 2015. Limited tickets for Taste the Helderberg
2015 are available at the cost of R80 per person. The ticket includes an
elegantly branded wine glass and access to tasting some of the best wines in the
country. Numerous restaurants will tempt the taste buds with mouth-watering
portions of their signature delights which will be on sale throughout the
evening. Tickets will also be available at the door. For more information visit
www.wineroute.co.za
or call 021 886 4310
Thursday, 11th June, 18h15 for 18h30 French & SA Chenin
tasting at Caroline’s. Sebastian Beaumont from Beaumont Wines, the home
of the Hope Marguerite Chenin, will present this week’s
tasting. Taste the legendary Chenins of Huet and Moulin
Touchais. Standing proud in this company are four local wines which
will be selected by Sebastian. COST:
R300 p/p. Please email carowine@mweb.co.za for
a booking form or call Lyzette on 021 419 8984 to make a
booking.
Friday, 12th June, 18h00 to 21h00 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show Public
Tasting - Cape Town at CTICC –
Exhibition Hall 1B, Convention Square, 1 Lower Long Street, Cape Town. Secure
underground parking available in CTICC Parkade. Ticket sales via Computicket.com
or call 0861 915 8000. Tickets cost R175 each and limited tickets will be
available at the door. Ticket includes tasting glass and unlimited tastings. No entry allowed for
under 18s, babies or prams. Enquiries: 011
482 5936. www.trophywineshow.co.za;
www.outsorceress.co.za.
Wines can be ordered at show prices
at the Makro desk at the show or online. Light meals are for sale at the
tastings.
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. Karen Glanfield has taken
over the UnWined
wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here
The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become
professional chefs, has a variety of courses. See the details here
In addition to his
Sense
of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a
four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details
here
Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek
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
Nicolette van
Niekerk runs baking courses at La Petite Patisserie in Montague
Gardens
George Jardine
will be running a series of winter cooking courses and other activities at
Jordan. Details here
10th June 2015
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.
If you like the photographs you see in our publications,
please look at our Adamastor
Photo website for our
rate card and samples from our portfolio
We apologise if MENU caused
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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
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