Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Lunch at De Vrije Burger, Stellenbosch

We did go and visit one new restaurant before Christmas, Bertus Basson's burger house in Plein Street in central Stellenbosch. Die Vrije Burger - it's a play on words, it’s named after the original Free Burgers in the Cape in the 17th Century and fits nicely into Bertus' concept! (And no, these burgers are not free). It is already popular with the students and locals and tourists, offering just one thing, a very good burger, with accompaniments, chips and a soft serve ice cream cone to finish. We do like his witty logo
The seating is minimal, some outside in good weather, under shelter and some inside. All are on high chairs which were not the most comfortable we have ever sat on, but perhaps that is to encourage you to move along quickly? Trade and service are brisk
The open and on-view kitchen is shiningly clean and well organised by the fully trained staff
The 200g pure beef burgers on the grill with the buns toasting alongside. We saw a delivery of buns while we were there and if the numbers delivered at lunch time are anything to go by, they sell a lot of burgers
A message from the chef
The simple menu is on a board, you choose, place your order and take your seat while they cook them for you. It did not take long to get our order and we got a good seat in the window. Notice that the ice cream comes free with the order of every burger. There is a small but good wine list and two craft beers
Lots of take away orders too
Your order comes packed in one paper bag, so you can pack up the detritus in the bag when you have finished and put it into their recycling bin. Saves on mess. We like this very much
The burgers are huge, very juicy. The meat is of excellent quality and you can order them cooked medium rare, medium or well done according to your taste. We didn't do any extras this time, we just wanted to taste the standard burger. We shared one portion of the Potato Tjips, which had been double fried and were nice and crisp, and one portion (6) of the spiced onion fritters, which are gram flour Indian badjis; light, spicy and delicious. And with this large and very satisfying meal, we both had the Windpomp lager. Our bill came to R310 with service. We were done in less than an hour and the parking - almost outside, but then the students were on vacation - cost us about R6.50 It can be tricky to find but there are public parking garages a short walk away
When you order burgers, you are issued with these tokens
Which you then exchange for your free soft serve ice cream
Which can be topped with crunchy hundreds and thousands. (Bertus, can we possibly suggest some chocolate sprinkles as a less crunchy substitute?) Do go and try it for yourself
Or if you really want to go big, have another of Bertus' famous burgers, his Wagyu Cheese Burger at The Deck on the dam at Hidden Valley Wine farm. No reservations required, but it is weather dependent. You will need reservations at Overture, Bertus Basson's fine dining restaurant at Hidden Valley, see our recent review
Posted by MENU at 5:12 pm 0 comments

Relaxing on the West Coast

After New Year, it was time to get away from the house, tidying, fixing and bemoaning the death of the garden and escape to one of our favourite places to chill out, the West Coast, a couple of hours’ drive north of Cape Town. We hired a simple self-catering cottage at the St Helena Bay Hotel for 9 nights and took with us piles of books, quite a lot of wine and some food that didn't need much preparation. We discovered two new West Coast restaurants - see the reviews below - and came back really relaxed and ready to dive right in to the 2018 media season. Harvest has begun
The hotel was old and tired until its recent outside facelift. They are still working on the inside
We were in one of the humble cabins at the side which had a basic open plan kitchen diner lounge, a fairly comfortable bedroom and a bathroom with shower. Reasonably modern, but with quite a few plumbing and electrical problems which need to be sorted out. The South Easter wind blew almost every day usually rising to hell pitch in the late afternoon so sitting outside was not an option. But we had DSTV provided - most of its time devoted to the Test series against India - our books, our laptops and we went for beach walks and local trips. Doing nothing is sometimes rather good for one, no stress or deadlines. We braaied once on the last day, in the wind
A heron caught in flight on the coast
A Sacred Ibis pair on the beach rocks
Fishing boats in the local harbour where we found the fish and chip shop and took home hake and chips for supper. It was average, the fish was fresh, we think. Chips despite being fried twice for us, were not great and still 'slap'.
The organisation in the fish shop was hysterical. There seems to be a hierarchy of "Now you do this next" among the four pleasant, experienced local ladies serving. There is a lot of standing about talking by everyone concerned, You do get served eventually, somehow, but you can't stress about it.
In case you want to view the comic opera ....
And we opened this to celebrate ... well, just not having to cook and being on holiday. It was given to Lynne by owner/winemaker Jackie Coetzee on the day he sold the farm a seven years ago! It was magnificent, still fresh and zesty with a lovely full palate. The Bloemendal Sauvignon Blancs are recognised by many in the industry as some of the best in South Africa, especially the wines made with grapes from the Suider Terras vineyard. Proof that our best wines can age very well
We took a trip up the coast one day and stopped at Soverby where we found these fisherman having a lesson
A dead sand shark
And we found this small farm stall, Die Skooltjie Padstal on the road between Velddrif and Elandsbaai
Packed to the gunnels with home made jams, pickles and preserves. We bought some good boerewors for our braai. We were tempted by the well cured springbok pelts but could not think of anywhere to put one in our house
Shaun with his mates, gathering together by the road to Elandsbaai in the 37.5⁰C heat. They carry a heavy load, serving all the local ewes
And spotted some pale pink flamingos on the salt pans near Velddrif
This is the Berg River where it meets the sea at Velddrif. The fishermen were not having a good day
One of our favourite beaches, Golden Mile at Britannia Bay. We toyed with buying a plot, but only briefly when we learned that the monthly rates would surely outstrip any possible growth. Properly is booming there, our friends who are estate agents told us, as it seems as if most of the people of the rest of South Africa want to come and live here by the coast. Plots go from R220 000 to several million Houses like these are a bit more!
A carpet of shells after one of the recent fierce solstice tides
A relaxing kelp gull near a mussel covered rock. Gulls don’t need a permit to harvest the mussels. We do
Our braai fire in the wind
We saw many raptors and a few owls. It is very, very dry up the coast; some of the land is completely parched by the drought. We feel for the farmers, the grazing is disappearing and if we don’t get much winter rain they will not be able to plant wheat this year
Posted by MENU at 4:52 pm 1 comments
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