Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Lunch at The Food Barn with international visitors

We are always surprised how few Capetonians know about this superb restaurant in Noordhoek. Franck Dangereux is a classically trained French chef, who helped to put La Colombe on the map in the years before he opened his own restaurant. Franck married a local girl and settled here. He has trained many of our top chefs, all of whom speak of him with great respect. Go and try his food for yourself, you will not regret it
We spent a day out with a group of friends who are visiting from Australia, The Netherlands and the UK. First, we took them to Buitenverwachting, where winemaker Hermann Kirschbaum took us on a tour of the cellar, which is in full production at the moment. He showed us the fermenting grapes, soaking on the skins
and showed us the thickness of the top layer of grapes, and the intensely purple colour of this batch of cabernet. We then had a tasting of their wines in the tasting room courtyard
The Food Barn menu. You can order the set menu for the whole table, paired with wines, but we decided just to order à la Carte
A starter of a perfect Steak tartare for a real aficionado
Crisp mild Karoo cheese beignets with a cherry sauce and salad were much enjoyed
The home smoked salmon atop fresh asparagus in a gratinated artichoke and white truffle cream blew two of us away. Lynne's plate returned to the kitchen wiped clean and she intends to go back for more soon
So crisp; flash fried baby squid on a cauliflower brandade, with a cauliflower and saffron pickle, squid ink aioli and curry oil delighted those who had it
Four of us chose the Sorbet as a palate refresher. It was watermelon with a kick of alcohol...  
and then on to the mains
The Karoo Rack of Lamb was tender and came with a small apple, nut and turmeric tart tatin, a mild curry jus and coriander yogurt raita
Tongue is not something everyone enjoys; Lynne loves it and will order it from any menu on which she sees it. This meltingly tender meat came topped with a rich crisp trotter fritter, concasse tomato, a cornichon, parsley and caper sauce as well as a white wine and mustard jus, all of which complemented each other
Steak was the order of the day for four people; fillet for two and sirloin for the other two. It came with a raclette and potato croquette, shallot and syrah jus, tarragon cream drops and wilted spinach
The bill
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus







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