Tuesday, May 02, 2017

A Taste of Darling

The Swartland village of Darling was Hopping on Saturday. We enjoyed the Taste of Darling Country Festival in a blast of Indian Summer heat. 36ºC at what should be the threshold of winter.....
Bales to sit on and umbrellas for shade at the end of the Main Road which had been closed off
Wine and gin and tonics for sale of the stoep of the Charles Withington's Darling Wine Shop. Wine and spirits could only be bought by the glass, no sampling
Seating and lots of enjoyment for all ages
A duo playing well known rock tunes livened up the atmosphere
Inside the Udderly Delicious cheese shop everyone wanted to taste the cheese just voted best in SA at the South African Dairy Championship 2017. It is a soft Italian style cheese called Caciotta. It resembles a tangy brie when fresh but then gets a harder skin and matures
Cakes to buy for lunch?
It was busy inside Charles’ shop
We headed for the local butcher to buy some of his good meats, farm butter and charcuterie - we recommend it
It was very hot indeed (over 36ºC), so we needed to quench our thirst and headed to the Darling Brewery
Under the tent at the entrance, enjoying the food and beer
The charcuterie platter
A line up of the beers in the kitchen area
Upstairs is the popular bar/restaurant, looking down at the brewery. Lots of tables had been reserved and some people either turned up very late or not at all, rather selfish.
What was once a micro brewery has fast grown in popularity and impressive size
It was one of many venues that also hosted an art exhibition with the money going to local charity
We loved these witty pottery sculptures
How you feel when it’s hot?!
Momma!
It was a family day
Seating at the bar
A beer tasting costs R10 per 100ml, while 500ml cost R30 to R35 and lunch looked good
We wondered if these demijohns were old or new? Good decoration
Our two cold ones. A Thunder Bird IPA for Lynne, full of citrus and granadilla flavours and a Silver Back “Black Wit”, a new black wheat beer for John
We shared one of the long tables and ordered lunch. These lads on our table said they didn’t like beer much. Well they were certainly trying to disprove that
"What haven't we tasted yet..?"
This was much better than it looks. A huge slice of ciabatta, a flash fried minute steak, slightly overcooked but with good flavour, on a bed of super caramelised onion jam and topped with a creamy mustard sauce. And those chips were glassy crisp. Didn’t eat much of the bread, no need; it was very satisfying
John had the hamburger and chips. Good grilled cheese, a bowl of the mustard sauce and the same sweet onion jam. Also a little overdone, but good
Our bill
Also on the menu were kebabs and a Greek salad, also sticky ribs
Kids having fun, so was the photographer
Whose is the 2.5 metre 8 year old?
Off back into town to Evita se Perron
A walk in the park
A stumble around the museum of Apartheid horrors
And a chance to admire the portraits of Tannie Evita in various famous artists' styles
The Perron has a Cafe and the restaurant/theatre where a performance was taking place
and who should we meet? Friendly folk from Wellington: Winemaker James McKenzie and Adele Strachan from Nabygelegen
at which point the heat got the better of us and we headed home
RETURN TO MENU
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MENU's Wine of the Week. Graham Beck Blanc de Blancs 2012

We enjoyed this sparkling Chardonnay with lunch at La Colombe. Fresh limes on the nose with a hint of bready brioche. More toasty brioche on the palate with gentle citrus fruit, a hint of apple. Good acid balance and a lively mousse and a long full flavoured finish
It was served with a seared scallop, perfectly cooked, fresh and sweet with flavours of the sea, with some sticky melt in the mouth char sui belly of pork, nice crisp pork crackling, pressed apple disk and a cauliflower, apple and black forest ham velouté, topped with pea shoots. The apple flavours in the Blanc de Blanc made this a very good pairing

 Lynne bought John a case of the 2009 (A Platter 5 Star and winner of various other accolades) for his 70th and we still have a little for another special occasion. Expect to pay about R300 per bottle
Posted by MENU at 6:11 pm 0 comments

Lunch with Graham Beck at La Colombe

In Good Company with Graham Beck at La Colombe restaurant
It is always rather special to be invited to a wine event at one of our top restaurants. This last week, Graham Beck invited us to lunch at La Colombe in Constantia. Pairing the food with Graham Beck Mèthode Cap Classique bubblies is an exploration of textures and flavours and aromas. We really enjoyed the wines and the food together. Graham Beck now only make MCC sparkling wines and their range went very well with the food
Welcome drink was the Graham Beck Brut Non Vintage
A good mix of people in the wine industry. Lydia Nobrega of Chapman’s Peak Hotel and Bottle Store, Mark Norrish, buyer for Ultra, Pierre de Klerk, winemaker at Graham Beck, Ndaba Dube, sommelier of The Vineyard Hotel and Mandy Giddey of Makro Liquor stores
Graham Beck Wine Ambassador Kerry Kirby, who organised the lunch, with Pierre de Klerk
We begin, a little late because one guest was - very
lose
Pierre explains that this is to Saamsyn - get together over lunch with their wine. He also explained why Graham Beck are not using flutes anymore and what glasses they are using for the different bubblies. Flutes restrict the aromas, flavours and bubbles.
The menu is explained to us by Morné the restaurant manager. Next to him is Aaron Farquhar, who was the manager here and is now the manager of Foxcroft, Chef Scot Kirton’s other restaurant in Constantia. Chef Kirton will also be the chef at Le Quartier Français in Franschhoek when it reopens after renovations
The Menu. There were several other 'courses' served, like the bread, the amuse, and the friandise
A new mission statement
The herb 'butter' served with the sourdough bread
The amuse bouche has not changed. It is a bark garden, the bark curls are filled with beef tartare, a sherry emulsion and gel, a herb emulsion, pickled onion, tiny mushrooms and a rich paté. One bite and it's gone, but lovely texture and flavours
More Graham Beck Brut?
The signature dish of La Colombe, which we have had many times; the seared tuna in a can with a sesame umami citrus Ponzu soy sauce, with wasabi mayo and coriander micro greens
Now for the Blanc de Blanc 2012 which was paired with the first course ...
This is how the sommeliers should pour your sparkling wine. Note the wider glass
The first course of a seared scallop, perfectly cooked, fresh and sweet with flavours of the sea, with some sticky melt in the mouth char sui belly of pork, nice crisp pork crackling, pressed apple disk and a cauliflower, apple and black forest ham velouté, topped with pea shoots The apple flavours in the Blanc de Blanc made this a very good pairing
Two of the glasses they use for their different MCCs. The Lehmann Jamesse Prestige Grand Champagne Mouth Blown Glass, as well as the Riedel Veritas Champagne Glass for the Graham Beck Vintage range
A palate cleanser of apple ice lollipops
The second course was pan seared kingklip with a sweet corn sliver, cashew butter, lemongrass and kimchi relish, pak choi, rolls of courgette, a coriander, coconut and corn velouté and an Israeli herb cous cous. This mixed Asian and Eastern Mediterranean flavours. The interesting thing was the cashew nut butter cream with the fish, which worked so well. The pairing was rather controversial, especially for many of the guests. It was served with the Graham Beck Bliss Demi-Sec NV MCC, which has a sugar level of 35 g/l. We all had to admit that it was a rather good match. And the market for this wine has grown well in the recent months
Group photo! with dessert 
and the Brut Rosé NV
How pretty is that! Dessert was a Dulcey (Valrhona's caramelised blonde chocolate), namelaka (a thick crème), with basil, raspberry and ginger, topped with cake shards, fresh raspberries, raspberry gel and coulis.
Lynne chatting to Pierre about Graham Beck after lunch, while we enjoyed coffee and friandise
Then we took the Taste Test. This was John's test paper. It was confusing
Five bowls of jellies and sweets, you have to guess which colour bowl contained each flavour. Most were easy, but Lynne, who is rather sensitive to bitterness, found intense bitterness on those sour yellow jellies in the white bowl and this was wrong; they were coated in sour citric acid. The bitter was in the red bowl. Shows how palates differ
Posted by MENU at 4:04 pm 0 comments
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