Friday, October 25, 2019

This Week's MENU. Delheim at 80, Chardonnay Report, Blaauwklippen Blending Competition, UK Adventure, Lake District to Bath, Blueberry Crumble, Kanonkop Kadette

Beached hire boats on the rainy shore of Lake Windermere

Simple pleasures. The feel of soft rain on one’s skin and the smell of the damp earth after a long, dry spell. Simple and delicious food, enjoyed with a good wine. The company of good friends. Remembering some wonderful experiences. We’ve had them all this week and know that we are blessed. Amid the political turmoil here and in other countries, we are especially blessed to have all these things to remind us that life goes on and is beautiful. It is a privilege to share some of them with you

A joyous celebration at Delheim this week to help them celebrate the 80th year since the Hoheisen family bought the farm in 1939. Michael Hans “Spatz” Sperling came to the Cape from Germany in 1951. He joined his uncle Hans Hoheisen and his aunt Del on the Delheim farm, where he started to experiment with wine making, eventually adding to his knowledge by consulting with established winemakers. His first wine Spatzendreck, a natural sweet, was tasted by a friend who pronounced it “dreck”. He bottled it with a picture of a sparrow relieving itself on the label and it has been a favourite dessert wine for many aficionados ever since. Sperling is the German word for Sparrow and Spatz is the colloquial equivalent…

This year's Chardonnay Report from Winemag.co.za, in concert with sponsor Prescient Financial Services, was held in the Watershed at the V&A Waterfront this week. There were 93 entries from 65 producers and these were tasted blind (labels out of sight) by a three-person panel. Scoring is done using the 100-point quality scale. An outstanding 52 of the 90 entries (56% of the line up) rated 90-plus. South African Chardonnay is definitely coming to the fore after a while in the doldrums…

To the terrace at Blaauwklippen to meet the four teams who have made it to the final of the Annual Blaauwklippen Blending Awards. We were offered either a glass of Blaauwklippen’s new Garden gin served with a Chinchona Pink tonic made with ruby grapefruit and natural quinine, (not a hint of Angostura in sight) which tempted Lynne and was very refreshing. John opted for the MCC made from Zinfandel...

It was time to head south, leaving Bonnie Scotland and heading for the Lake District in Cumberland. Lynne spent some great times there when she worked for Heinemann Educational Publishing as they took a group of staff up once a year to do some hill walking on hills like Helvellyn and Great Gable. We followed the paths of the beautiful hand written Wainwright guides and of course it was team building. We are well past fell walking nowadays and all we could do was gaze in wonder and amazement at the beautiful hills that now look so unachievable. Even Cat Bells looks steep. Our first stop was in Keswick and it was a slightly damp Sunday… 

We had discovered that a friend from Knysna, Karen Shuttleworth Dames, known for her business The Little Herb Garden, had recently moved to the north of England and we wanted to get together, if only briefly. She suggested that we should meet at The Brewery in Kirkby Lonsdale, which was on our way between Windermere and our friends, who live at Horseshoe Cottage farm in Cropston, near Leicester. We had to meet at 10 in the morning as it's quite a distance to Leicester…

A quick Blueberry Crumble for those evenings when you need a dessert but haven’t got one. You can make this from the store cupboard and the freezer. Frozen blueberries are cheap but, to be honest, defrosted they are not up to much, as they become soggy without much flavour. But if you cook them, they melt and become full of lovely flavours. Which inspired Lynne to use some that we have in our freezer…

What do you drink with a simple supper? Something to go with Spaghetti Bolognese on a cold wet evening. Pinotage always goes well with tomato based dishes, so does any Italian grape grown here, so we dug in our cellar to see what might work. It had to be a red; we have had rather a lot of white wines over the last week or two… 



PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information

Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169
Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005

If you are not already a subscriber, and wish to subscribe to this email reminder which we send out each week, please go to the "Contact us" page and send us the request. If you have a problem with the link, please mail us at Please subscribe me to MENU

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

Recommendations of products and outside events are not solicited or charged for, and are made at the authors’ pleasure. All photographs, recipes and text used in our website and ancillary works are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are often unsolicited. We prefer to pay for our meals and not be paid in any way by anyone. Whether we are invited or go independently, we don’t feel bad if we say we didn’t like it. Honesty is indeed our best policy. While every effort is made to avoid mistakes, we are human and they do creep in occasionally, for which we apologise
Posted by MENU at 2:26 pm 0 comments

On the MENU this week. Blueberry Crumble

A quick Blueberry Crumble for those evenings when you need a dessert but haven’t got one. You can make this from the store cupboard and the freezer. Frozen blueberries are cheap but, to be honest, defrosted they are not up to much, as they become soggy without much flavour. But if you cook them, they melt and become full of lovely flavours. Which inspired Lynne to use some that we have in our freezer

2 or 3 cups of Frozen blueberries – ½ cup mixed roughly chopped nuts – ½ a cup plain flour – ½ a cup rolled oats – ½ a cup melted butter - ½ a cup of brown sugar - 1 teaspoon of cinnamon – a pinch of salt

Turn your oven to 180 °C. Take a reasonably deep oven proof dish (Lynne used a soufflé dish) and put the frozen blueberries in it. Mix up the nuts and the oats, flour, sugar, salt, and butter and spread on top. Put into the oven and bake until the top is golden brown and crunchy. Takes about half an hour; you might see evidence of blueberry juice rising around the edges. Serve with good custard or thick cream. You might like to add some honey or a little sugar to the blueberries if you find them too sour. Serves 4. Double up for a larger group
Posted by MENU at 12:38 pm 1 comments

MENU’s Wine of the Week is Kanonkop Kadette Cape Blend 2016

What do you drink with a simple supper? Something to go with Spaghetti Bolognese on a cold wet evening. Pinotage always goes well with tomato based dishes, so does any Italian grape grown here, so we dug in our cellar to see what might work. It had to be a red; we have had rather a lot of white wines over the last week or two

John found a bottle of Kanonkop Kadette Cape Blend 2016 in the cellar and Lynne was a bit aghast at putting what she considers to be a quality wine with humble spaghetti. But it went so well with the pasta, it made it shine. A blend of 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Pinotage, 23% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc from Stellenbosch. They describe it on the bottle as “A dry red wine with concentrated berry, cherry and plum flavours with soft silky tannins and a hint of spice on the finish. Enjoy with meat, pasta or spicy dishes”. And we completely concur. We think it might also be good with lamb chops or a rump steak. It also went very well with the crumble. Very pleased that we still have some for tomorrow. The current vintage in the shops is 2017 and sells for around R110
Posted by MENU at 12:33 pm 0 comments

The 36th Blaauwklippen Blending Competition winners' lunch

To the terrace at Blaauwklippen to meet the four teams who have made it to the final
of the Annual Blaauwklippen Blending Competitions. Canapés were served, this was lavash flat bread
Very good small crisp tempura battered fish bites dressed with a lemon mayonnaise
More canapés of nut crumbed goat's cheese in half a strawberry
We were offered either a glass of Blaauwklippen’s new Garden gin ...
served with a Chinchona Pink tonic made with ruby grapefruit and natural quinine (not a hint of Angostura in sight)
which tempted Lynne and was very refreshing. John opted for the MCC made from Zinfandel
Bronwen and Guy MacDonald with winemaker Narina Cloete and Landbou Weekblad journalist Lucille Botha
That 'pink' gin
Time to go inside for the awards and lunch
On the table were bottles of this year's winning blend, which we were to drink with lunch
Always a long table
The lunch menu
Guy MacDonald was our lively MC for the day
The awards were under cover
Narina welcomed us and talked about this year’s wine. What they were looking for was accessibility, fruit, purity, not a one dimensional wine; good now, but with a possibility of aging. She headed the judges who were Clive Torr CWM, Karen Glanfield Pawley and Guy MacDonald. This year the wines sent to clubs were Shiraz, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Zinfandel. They judged the 77 blends entered. the tasting was audited and they used the 100 point system. They chose a top 8 and then whittled it down to just 4. She then introduced the four finalist wine club members
They were to tell us about themselves. First to speak were the Lydenburg Wynproewersgilde (Mpumalanga). Gerda, who is the secretary of the club, gave a very amusing and detailed account of how the club was formed, how it runs and how they approach the competition. They have four wine fundis, the rest are wine lovers. It is about ambience and fellowship. This is their 24th entry into the competition and the third time they have been in the top four
SLVWG (Serious Lovers of Vines, Wines and Grapes) (Western Cape) Their speaker was Paul Laenmle
It is a their pinnacle of achievement to reach the top 4. It was arduous and rewarding
John Mark spoke for the Thursday Club (Gauteng) They began in 2001 and have had 2 divorces and 20 children in that time
Only invited members. It goes back to UCT when members joined the wine culture society there
The club has won this competition two years running, then they came stone last. Good to be here for a third time
Wingerd Vista (Western Cape) has just two members, Chef Janine van Zyl and her partner Eckart Potgieter and it has been in existence for just one year. Janine, who is also a trained chef and sommelier, has her own restaurant at Del Vera wine estate and is currently studying to be a Cape Wine Master. Eckart says Janine has a fantastic palate; he just likes tasting wine
The wine is opened and violets show first on the nose from the Petit Verdot, incense oak, dark black cherry and cassis berry fruit with some spice. Smooth at first on the palate, then rhubarb and mulberry fruit acid shows; dark wood, tight tannins all make aging this wine a proposition. Black and red pepper on the end
Then it was time for lunch with the awards to follow afterwards. Keeping up the suspense! Lunch was served family style and Narina was being mother here. We had whole roasted fillet of beef, ready sliced, a chimmichurri sauce, a farmers salad of cooked and raw vegetables. Beef fat fries topped with roasted hazelnuts and parmesan cheese
Then time for Guy to announce the winners
The newcomer Club of the year was SLVWG (Serious Lovers of Vines, Wines and Grapes) (Western Cape)
They get a decanter, some glasses (sponsored by Vitria Glass) and a box of the winning wine
The winners of the Blaauwklippen Blending Competition of 2019 are the Lydenburg Wynproewersgilde (Mpumalanga) Their winning blend is 48% Zinfandel, 22% Merlot, 10% Shiraz and 10% Petit Verdot
The four club members who flew down for the award, all delighted at winning
Blaauwklippen Gin popsicles were the dessert. Oops, none for the driver please
Posted by MENU at 11:55 am 2 comments

MENU's UK Adventure 9. Windermere to Leicester, then Warwick and Stratford upon Avon to Bath

We had discovered that a friend from Knysna, Karen Shuttleworth Dames,
known for her business The Little Herb Garden, had recently moved to the north of England
and we wanted to get together, if only briefly
She suggested that we should meet at The Brewery in Kirkby Lonsdale,
which was on our way between Windermere and our friends Linda and Tim,
who live at Horseshoe Cottage farm in Cropston, near Leicester
We had to meet at 10 in the morning as it's quite a distance to Leicester

John was rather regretful that we couldn't taste any of the beers because of our long drive
They looked very good and the smell in the Brewery is wonderful; warm, malty, barley and hops
We had tea and coffees and good catch-up chats

Kirkby Lonsdale is a very historic old market town with narrow streets, between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales
It is a very ancient settlement; Romans, Saxons, Normans and Danes all made their mark
The town is included in the Domesday Book of 1086. It was another lovely wet day

We parked in the central square

After a rather long drive (about 5 hours) down many motorways including a short stretch on the M1,
skirting major cities like Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham,
we arrived at our friends’ award winning, Michelin starred guest house,
Horseshoe Cottage Farm, in Roecliffe Rd, Cropston, deep in the country outside Leicester

The garden with its topiary rabbit

Tim and Linda Jee have made this place very special. This is the terrace

They have a large courtyard, which was the stable yard. They have solar panels for electricity, water and heating
The house is not curved, ultra wide-angle distortion makes it appear so

The house is beautifully furnished. This is the lounge

Our bedroom was very comfortable indeed; we slept like babies. It was warm and cosy

A nice feature to have some of the old stone wall visible
Parts of the house date from the 14th Century

And the modern en suite bathroom fits in perfectly

The old barn is attached to the house. Our room was the top window shown here

You enter through this gate, through which wagons and horses used to pass

Tim took us on a lovely long walk through Bradgate Park
Horseshoe Cottage is just across the road from the historic park
which contains the ruins of the family home of Lady Jane Gray,
who was Queen of England for 9 days until she was beheaded at the behest of Mary Tudor
The park is full of both roe and fallow deer

It is much used by visitors and locals

The remains of Bradgate Hall high on the hill

Deer grazing in the late afternoon sun

and this splendid fallow deer buck with huge antlers. Soon the rut will start

We walked right up to the remains of the house

Lynne's new FitBit was getting a real workout; we did more than 10 000 steps that day

Crows peck off pests on the deer, just as the oxpeckers do in Africa

This magnificent red deer stag was right next to us on the path, eating grass
As long as you don’t get them stirred up, they ignore you. Annoy them and they can kill you

We sat on the terrace admiring the garden and enjoyed a glass of two of Heidsieck Monopole Champagne;
so good to be here. We know that Linda is a big Champagne fan, so it’s the perfect gift

and spent a great time catching up. Lynne hasn’t seen many of her friends in the last 14 years
Tim and Linda did, however, come to visit us in South Africa a couple of years ago and plan to return one day

The forest is at the end of the garden

We then opened a bottle of Stellenbosch Manor Chenin Blanc from Stellenrust,
one of the South African wines we found on our travels to take to friends

Next day, we wanted to stop off in Warwick to see the Castle and in Stratford upon Avon, en route to Bath
Warwick is a beautiful old town, but parking was almost impossible

We arrived at the entrance to the castle

to find that it costs £26 (R480) each for a pensioner to get into the castle, with a further charge of £4 (R76)
if you wanted to do anything once inside, just a little too steep for our budget
So we just walked around the grounds and took some photos
Apparently, it is now rather like a Disney castle, perhaps more suited to children

A glimpse of the keep

They have a shop selling all manner of dress-up outfits for young Robin Hoods,
harmless bows, arrows, wooden swords and shields

The main entrance to the grounds

It is just what a romantic castle should look like
Sad that it has become so expensive, once upon a time wandering around it was memorable
These photographs were all taken though gaps in the fence!

Yew berries are so beautiful, but they are poisonous. Yew makes great hedges

On the way out of town, we passed the Lord Leycester Hospital,
one of the best-preserved examples of medieval courtyard architecture in England
It is now the home of a charity supporting ex-servicemen
The Hospital is a historic group of medieval timber-framed buildings on Warwick High Street
dating, mainly, from the late 14th Century

Then we were off to Stratford on Avon, our lunchtime stop
We managed to find parking alongside the river next to the Royal Shakespeare Company's The Other Place,
which is a smaller theatre and shows more experimental plays

Tourist boats ply the river

A float of swans, Canada geese and ducks

You can hire a boat and go for a row

The swans were gathering together on the lawn near our car, drying off in the sun, along with one grey Canada goose
Fancy collecting swans’ feathers for a duvet anyone? Atishoo!

The back of the National Theatre, which is the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company, aka RSC

We popped into a local pub for a beer. They should be taken to the Ombud for false advertising
Outside, a sign saying lunch time specials, which was what attracted us
Inside, no such thing, just the item off the normal menu at a much higher price
And it was lunch time. So we just had a beer and left, then ate our sandwiches in peace on the side of the river

Lots of out of work actors get jobs like this

A tribute to the Bard

and we spotted a framed napkin signed by none other than actor Sir Anthony Sher,
who went to Sea Point Boys High School, before becoming a very successful and famous actor in the UK
We last saw him in a superb play at the Fugard Theatre, Kunene and the King, with John Kani, who wrote it...

Outside a posh riverside hotel was this inducement to come in - or to scarper with some bubbly!

No one in sight, quite tempting. But we never would, never could

An ancient Elizabethan building? No, Victorian Revival, built in 1887

Flag of several nations flying, including both of ours

We went round the front of the theatre to the edge of the river

 One swan a swimming

The river is very soothing and makes for impressive views

It flows quite slowly so the reflections are beautiful

We set off on our way to our overnight stop at an AirBnB in Bath
We travelled though the Cotswolds and stopped for a quick photo in Tetbury which has this famous Market House
Tetbury is famous for its fine houses, built for wool merchants in the past

Everywhere in Britain, there are planters and hanging baskets with super flowers
We struggle to get more than two flowers at a time on our local geraniums, and would love to know what they feed these with

Finally at about five we arrived in Bath. The AirBnB house was one that did not look anything like as nice as it did on-line;
there was no key in the lock box, so we had to ring the host
It was very basic, and reminded us of the Bedsits we had to live in when we were in our 20s in London
The bed was on the floor and the chesterfield sofa was plastic
A huge kitchen and our front room bedroom were the only rooms on the ground floor
They had got rid of any downstairs loo
On the first floor, there was just one small shower room which also contained the only loo in the house,
which has five double rooms, all occupied
We got up at 7 and made it to the loo in time, but didn't get in to shower till gone 9
Teaches you never to stay in shared accommodation. We thought it would be fine for one night
"You learns as you goes", as they say in Zummerrzet (where the zoider apples grow)

All content ©  John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus


Posted by MENU at 11:05 am 0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)