Dining
with Friends. old and new
We
were invited last week to dinner at Suzette and Peter James's wonderful
Japanese House in Claremont. Peter James, who was the Director of
Communications, was Lynne's boss when she worked in Safmarine’s PR department
and Suzette is a renowned cook. They regularly entertain travellers from aboard
at their house and this time it was four interesting Americans
This is Suzette at her beautifully laid dining
table. The house is filled with magnificent Japanese furniture, art, pottery
and other objets d'art that they collected during their years in Japan when
Peter was Safmarine’s Head of Operations there. As Suzette announced to the
guests, her task in life is shopping
Lynne and Peter in the comfortable lounge discussing
our mutually disappearing Koi ponds and a solution as to what we do when they
run out of water. We are not allowed to fill them up in the drought. We have
both already lost about 5 large fish
Suzette is famous for her Japanese food, but
tonight she did a South African menu and the food was a deliciously authentic
representation of how good it can be. This was the starter of superb quality
smoked Kudu carpaccio with avocado, peaches and tomato salad with leaves
We meet the other guests over a glass of bubbly.
They were from New Jersey and Boston, with vacation homes in Miami, where they
go to escape the harsh Northern winters
Homemade bread, moist with a good crust, made by
our hostess as a smaller loaf; Suzette says everyone wants “just a little bread”.
Of course it all disappeared
The next course was a Waterblommetjie soup made
with good stock and no dairy, as one of the guests had an allergy. A new take on
this edible water lily for us, one to copy definitely when they are in season
All served in beautiful Japanese chawanmushi egg
custard cups
The main course was braised lamb with Cape Malay
spices, but no chilli; wonderfully flavourful and tender, it was served with
small pumpkin fritters
Dessert was a Malva pudding and, in the cup, a panna
cotta topped with a loganberry and coulis. It was a really great evening and
really good way to introduce affluent tourists to our country to some authentic cooking in a real home. And interesting personalities. Thank you both so
much
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2018
2 comments:
Hi! My mom is an old friend of Suzette from Japan and we were trying to track her down to reconnect- and I came across your blog post! If you feel comfortable, could you pass my email over to her so I can put them in touch? (if you don’t want to share her info with me!). My mother is Anna Maria Collins (her husband was James Collins, he recently passed). Thank you so much if you can help! Christine Collins
By the way - my email is christinecollins424@gmail.com
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