Saturday, March 07, 2020

This Week's MENU. Plaisir de Merle, Ken Forrester 321 Harvest Stomp, RMB Starlight Concert, Blue cheese figs, PdM Pinot Noir

A red Sea Point sunset after the DuToitskloof fire

A week of big stories. So big that editing and writing have taken longer than usual, so we are a bit late publishing. We thank all of you who have opted to continue receiving the email version of MENU. It will come to you weekly, but in a different format, one which we actually prefer. After consulting with a PR person, we have decided that the old version will still be sent to the big list, but it will be once a month, at month-end, as a digest of all our stories for that month. We have had some very generous subscription deposits this month. They are most appreciated, thank you to all who have contributed

An invitation to visit Plaisir de Merle in Simondium for a media function was very welcome. It is an estate which we had never visited before but meant to; there are so many wine farms that we still have to visit, new and old and some like this that we often drive past and say, “we must come soon”. Prompting had the desired effect and we do seriously regret not having visited sooner. Read On…


On a beautiful summer Saturday, we were off to Stellenbosch. We were invited by Ken Forrester to attend the 321st anniversary celebration of his farm, Scholtzenberg, and to enjoy a Harvest grape stomp competition with some lunch. Our host was the man himself, Ken Forrester. Ken is recovering well from some necessary leg surgery and has this innovative Kneecycle (he calls it a Hardly Davidson) to get around on for a few weeks until he heals. Read On…


It is always a complete delight and a reason for huge thankfulness when we receive an invitation to attend the RMB Starlight Concert at Vergelegen. It is one of our favourite annual events and we take nothing for granted. After checking in, you walk through the beautiful gardens and then walk through the Manor House to get to the concert venue. Vergelegen was settled in 1700 by Willem Adriaan van der Stel. After Sir Lionel Phillips bought the neglected Vergelegen Estate in 1917, Lady Florence Phillips transformed it into a floral and cultural treasure trove. Read On…

This week’s recipe is very quick and very delicious

Fresh figs, 3 per person – a creamy blue cheese (Gorgonzola, blue Brie or Danish blue) – prosciutto ham – rocket or other fresh salad leaves
We suggest three figs per person as a starter. Cut the stalks off the figs and then cut a cross two thirds of the way down in each fig. Open out the fig, put in about a teaspoon of crumbled blue cheese, put into the microwave for 1 or 2 minutes until the cheese has melted. Put in a pretty serving dish or individual dishes, make curls of prosciutto and arrange them around the figs, decorate with rocket or other salad leaves and serve. Perfect with a good chilled rosé wine. The figs without the ham do work well if you can’t eat ham


has incense wood from the expensive new French oak barrels used; it has quite a dark nose which leads one to expect wine with dark fruit but no, it is full of ripe plums and mulberries on the nose. Silky soft and delicious with cherry fruit in abundance, with long elegant flavours. So hard to put down! One of the best Pinot Noirs we have tasted in a while. And so different from the others. R350 on the Estate


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

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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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