Where to go to celebrate Lynne's birthday this
year was easy. Foxcroft has been on our To Do list for a while. We met the
restaurant manager Aaron Farquhar at a media lunch at La Colombe earlier this
year and we had heard very good reports of the food and the ambience. In a cold
and rainy week, the weather played fair and the clouds parted, so we had a
chance to eat outside on the terrace. Foxcroft is in the High Constantia
centre, just before you make the turn for Groot Constantia on Constantia Main Road.
https://www.foxcroft.co.za
It is a spacious restaurant
with lots of outside space, we think it is should be very popular in summer
We had taken along this rather
special bottle of wine, a gift from Danie Steytler at Kaapzicht; the vineyard
and Lynne are the same age. They do charge R60 corkage which we were very happy
to pay for this CWG Auction Wine, a delicious Chenin Blanc, full of peaches and
mango
We were delighted to find that
there was a Winter Special Lunch menu at a very reasonable price. You need to
book quickly, as it runs out at the end of August. There is something for
everyone on this compact menu
Two warm breads from the oven,
with a butter topped with roasted garlic and a snoek paté
One of us went for the cured
Franschhoek trout - like good Gravadlax, with fresh radish (the menu said
fermented but we didn't notice they had been pickled or changed) and two green
purées, one of avocado, the other wasabi horseradish with a kick. This was
topped with wet mustard seeds (of course, this could have been the fermented
radish?) and very nice salmon caviar, adorned with chickweed and sorrel,
perhaps foraged locally. A really good pairing with the Chenin
and the other had the Crisp
Pork Cheeks with sharp pickled octopus, tamarind, pineapple coriander. We each
ate half then swopped plates. The pig cheek has a lovely gelatinous texture,
with soft meat, sweet fat and collagen, things Lynne loves but John does not. The
brown dots are the fruity marmitey tamarind, the yellow flower is a slice of
grilled pineapple dusted with Japanese style chilli, which added a nice buzz, and
the green streaks are a coriander purée which, thankfully, was not too
overwhelming. The dish was topped with finely crisp bits of what must have been
pork crackling. Another nice dish, all in concert
Lynne opted for the Lamb dish
as her main, which also had some rare pieces on the plate. The slow cooked lamb
was tender, not dry and had a very good flavour. The shiny wine jus was rich
and delicious. A clever touch, especially for someone who does not take mint
sauce with her lamb was the deep fried mint leaves. Some young baby turnips,
some baby kale and broccoli topped off the dish and an interesting nettle purée
was added with a rocher
of whisky mustard. It looks small; it wasn't and the richness nearly defeated Lynne
John had the Seven Day dry
aged, very tender duck with a salty skin. His jus gras was flavoured with five
spice, which added a good Asian note. Some pecans had been added to the duck
confit duck liver and we think gésiers? Parsnip
purée, some Brussels sprout and chicory leaves accompanied the dish
Time for dessert. We would have
shared them but they are rather small.
John chose the rather pink Foxy
banana cake - very banana he says. It is made with Valrhona's 46% Bahibe
chocolate from the Caribbean (the pink squares), tiny vanilla meringues,
squares of lemon lime jelly, dark banana purée and incorporated coffee, rum and
banana crisps. In the mouth, a Banoffee pie!
Lynne went for the pan fried
caramelised Quince slices, with light as air, soft and moist Parsnip microwave
cake, a very sweet parsnip ganache, nice rich vanilla ice cream and good crunchy
oatmeal granola
We ended with two good strong
double espressos and the bill came to R764 for lunch. We will be back in the
summer with visitors, if not before
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017
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