Colourful fishing boats on the beach at Struisbaai, near Cape Agulhas
Wine and fun are our main focus this week. We had a great time at Grand on the Beach with the Chenin Blanc Association’s Beach party. In previous years, this was a trade event but, this year, it was opened to the public; a great idea – making it open to the customers! Then a launch of their new Merlot at Grande Provence in Franschhoek, with excellent wines and food in a beautiful place. Kirstenbosch, our National Botanical Garden, is another beautiful place and we took a day off from household maintenance to revel in its beauty. We hope you’ll enjoy sharing them with us
Chenin & Pizza Party 2020 at The Grand on the Beach
Invited to the annual Chenin Pizza Party at the Grand on the Beach in the Waterfront, we were delighted to see that they had opened up the great tasting of South Africa's best Chenin Blancs to the public. It was on a sizzling summer Wednesday from 4 till 8 pm. Flip flops and beach wear were obligatory and essential. This event is so ably organised by Ina Smith and Jan Sleet and the team of the Chenin Blanc Association. Read on…
An invitation to the Grand Provence Merlot launch on the estate in Franschhoek gave us an insight in to the growth and confidence of two talented young men, the winemaker Thys Smit and Head Chef Marvin Robyn. We were picked up by minibus at 8.30 and, after rather a long trip to pick up other members of the media, arrived at the farm at 10.45. Thankfully, it was great weather, nice and cool. Rain had been promised, but it didn't look likely, so Lynne took a raincoat and a sun hat. As we were early, it gave us a chance to have a look at the art gallery which has some superb paintings, sculptures and photographs. Whoever does the curating has a superb eye. Read on…
We who live in the Cape sometimes find that people from the rest of the country tell us that we are a bit insular, aloof. We always respond that it’s not true, Capetonians are just always busy, there is too much to do here. Just ask if you can join us! But being busy means that we often do not get to some of our favourite places and Kirstenbosch is definitely one of them. While we were on holiday, we made a list of places we wanted to visit and this was at the top. So, on a warm Tuesday, we headed there to take advantage of the Pensioners free entry, free for local pensioners every Tuesday. Read on…
After the long power cut we had at the weekend, caused by the fierce gales which hit us on Saturday night, when we dared not open our freezer, Lynne went in to see what she could make for supper and found a small piece of beef fillet - and a sheet of Woolworths Puff pastry. And some chicken liver pâté she’d made at Christmas. So combine those three pantry ingredients and you get a classic Beef en Croute for 2. We made it to celebrate the end of the wind. It is not difficult to make and actually doesn’t take that long but getting the timing right is crucial if you need your steak perfectly cooked, medium rare, à la Gordon Ramsay. She used his times and hope that they will work for you. She made a large crêpe pancake to enclose the beef in, so that the pastry would not get soggy from the pâté. Read on…
Our Wine of the Week is the newly released and just launched 2018 Grande Provence Merlot. The grapes come from the golden triangle in Stellenbosch and would usually have gone into the Grand Provence red, but they were just so good, that winemaker Thys Smit felt that they needed to be showcased alone. Read on…
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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 YouPic
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
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