Two Twenty First Century Romans at the Roman Baths in Bath, Somerset
A big week in many ways, not least the dreadful economic situation outlined by the Minister of Finance. Amid the gloomy forecasts, we are hanging onto the good things, not least of these being the many wonderful wines we have tasted and the good food that has, sometimes, gone with them. And then, an event which will either bring huge celebration or total misery to many, the Rugby World Cup Final. In this, we are a divided household, with one cheering for the Bokke and the other for the English. One of us will be happy tomorrow afternoon. Go Bokke!
This year’s SASSI Awards (Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative) to chefs and others who promote the use of sustainable fish was held this year at Harbour House restaurant in the V&A Waterfront. The wine on offer was from Spier, gratefully accepted and much enjoyed. We gathered on the top deck where the venue was held and had been closed for the function. The event is sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund-SA whose spokeswoman and SASSI programme organiser is Pavitray Pillay…
It certainly is the time of year for Wine Trade shows which we are always happy to attend to taste the new wines on sale. This time it was the Trade show of a group of wine marketers and negociants who call themselves The Trade Show. They are Miranda Rieker, Kirsten Stewart, Michelle Stewart, Bev Murray, Stephen Botha, and Hein de Jager and the tasting was held at Welgemeend in Gardens, an historic Cape Dutch house which is now a museum and which can be hired for functions...
Caroline Rillema's annual wine reviews are must see events. She chooses her best suppliers who are asked to bring one wine - the wine she believes to be the best representative of their compendium. Caroline's White Wine Review was held in the Ballroom at the Table Bay Hotel in the V&A Waterfront and was well attended by wine enthusiasts and professionals...
Spier Wine Estate, on the R310 Baden Powell Drive outside Stellenbosch, has opened a new family style restaurant on the 1st of October called the Spier Farm Cafe and we were invited with other media to sample the food and the ambience this week. Had it not been raining, we would have sat outside. It will be a really popular place to be when the sun shines…
One of the problems with visiting ancient historic towns in Britain is getting parking near the action. And so we had several tries at getting close to the river and the famous Baths in eponymous Bath. They have a confusing and long one way system too, so its thirsty on petrol. Eventually we got very close and were surprised to find parking beneath Waitrose, just a few minutes away. But how long to leave the car? You have to decide as you go in, not when you come out, and this has caught us out a couple of times. We will just need an hour as we are so close, we thought. We were wrong...
Clyst St George is in the countryside just outside Exeter. Next morning we left Clyst St George and headed to the Devon coast at Budleigh Salterton to visit Lynne's other cousins who live in London and have a holiday home there because their son is a GP in the area...
Risotto is not that difficult to make, it just takes a bit of time standing stirring and watching while it cooks. Lynne had some crayfish stock in our freezer that she had made with the shells when we last had crayfish and it needed using. We always have risotto rice in the house and prawns in the freezer, so this turned out to be a stock cupboard dish. It is delicious and very rewarding. If you don’t make your own stock from shells – prawns or crayfish, you can buy good fish stock at Woolworths. We do not add cheese to a seafood risotto but there are no hard and fast rules. If you want to, you may...
This impressive wine won the Chardonnay Trophy and the Top Scoring Wine Grand Prix Award – in other words the best wine on show at the 2019 Michelangelo Awards. We tasted it at the public tasting at the Cullinan hotel this week and were so impressed. The 2015 Groot Constantia Chardonnay was judged as the Best in the World at the Chardonnay Du Monde Competition...
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MENU has appeared nearly every week since March 2003, initially as a free newsletter from our shop, Main Ingredient, and is sent to our subscribers by email. Many of our subscribing readers have followed us from our earliest days and we appreciate your support
It is also published on our website, as a blog, on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram and gives our personal view of events relating to food, wine, accommodation and travel in photo stories, as well as weekly recipes and wine reviews
We have never charged a subscription fee, and MENU has never made us any money. But our expenses are putting pressure on our pensions, so we are taking a bold step and asking our readers for a voluntary subscription to help us to cover our expenses. MENU is produced, on average, 45 weeks per year. We leave it to you to decide the amount of your subscription. We suggest a voluntary annual subscription of R100 (roughly the price of a mid range bottle of wine), which is less than R2.50 per week. In International currencies R100 is approximately £5.80/€6.30/$7.10. Links to our PayFast and PayPal accounts are on our website
We'd love it if you'd follow us on Twitter, Facebook and check out our photographs on Instagram and Pinterest
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