Lunch for three at La Bohème, Sea Point

The Menu, which changes daily, written on blackboards

Our starter:
Chicken liver parfait with toast & red onion marmalade
Beef & raisin samoosas, tzatziki & chutney

Beef schnitzel with creamy wedges, rocket & parmesan jus, R85

 Sesame crusted fish cakes with crispy potato wedges, aioli & side salad, R75

Steak tartare

Light Sicilian red blend, described as Sicily’s answer to Burgundy, R200

A chocolate dessert selection, assembled by the chef

Chef Rozanne Scholtz

Photographs © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2012

Lunch at George Jardine's Jordan restaurant

Last Sunday, John took two American tour clients, at their request, to George Jardine’s restaurant on Jordan wine estate in Stellenbosch Kloof. He had taken friends of theirs last year and they had recommended it as a highlight of the tour.

This return visit was a huge success.

The view down Stellenbosch Kloof from the restaurant’s terrace

An amuse to start, freshly baked breads from George’s oven and vetkoek

with a lentil paté, curried baby cauliflower and a wonderful aioli

Peppered tuna Carpaccio, onion and soy dressing,

tempura shimeji mushrooms and sesame

John, as usual, opted for no mushrooms

Butter roasted White Stumpnose, Jerusalem artichoke velouté, 

confit turnip and potato fondant

Jordan “The Outlier” 2009 @ R38 per glass

and Jordan BF Chardonnay 2010 @ R48 per glass

Wild nettle and parmesan risotto, pickled white asparagus, wild herbs and flowers

Wood fired pork belly with a warm salad of globe artichoke, broad beans, 

apple and mustard leaf

A trip to the cheese room, guided by manager Riaan Mol

enjoyed with Jordan “The Prospector” Syrah 2008 @ R48 per glass

and De Krans Tawny Port nv @ R35 per glass

Honey and poppy seed soufflé being presented at a neighbouring table

George, Louise and their chefs preparing plates at the counter of the open kitchen

and very happy clients

Photographs © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2012

10th October 2010 Main Ingredient's MENU - Klink Awards, Erawan, Durbanville Season of Sauvignon, CWG Auction, Ragu in De Waterkant, Ocean Jewels Deli, Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem, Hummus, Christmas Charity

MENU

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Cape Town harbour and Table Mountain, late evening

In this week’s MENU:

     Products

     Our market activities

     Klink Awards

     Erawan Restaurant

     Durbanville’s Season of Sauvignon

     Cape Winemakers’ Guild Auction

     Ragu in De Waterkant

     Ocean Jewels Deli

     Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem

     Hummus

     Christmas Charity

     Events and Restaurant specials

     Wine courses & cooking classes

To take a look at our Main Ingredient blog, follow the link: http://adamastorbacchus.blogspot.com/

because to tell the whole story here would take too much space. You can also click on underlined and Bold words in the text to open links to pictures, blogs, pertinent websites or more information

This week’s Product menu   We have, irritatingly, already started to hear snatches of Christmas music in some supermarkets. One day, we expect to hear them in February, with Hot Cross Buns being sold before Christmas. However, we are starting to feel the pressure build. Chestnuts and chestnut purees have picked up again and enquiries about corporate Christmas gifts are coming in. Some of our popular items like duck confit and French patés are in short supply and we hope that the importers will have them back on their shelves before too long. We’ve bought what we could find, so it’s “first come, first served” until the next shipment arrives.

We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.

Our market activities  Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s wonderfully exciting, atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip: Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking. It’s quite easy if you know how. Click here for a map which shows where we park.

We will be back at Long Beach Mall tomorrow, Friday 11th October from 09h00 to 16h00. We look forward to seeing you there.

Countdown to the first ever Klink Wine Tourism Awards     There are just two weeks left before the voting closes for the inaugural Wine Tourism South Africa Klink Wine Tourism Awards. Just two weeks for you to vote for your favourites in this year’s awards.

Vote for your favourite restaurant on a wine farm, your favourite wine festival, your favourite wine farm Deli and many other categories. The Klink award winners are the first to be based solely on your, the consumer’s experience and feedback is received via email, SMS, Facebook or Twitter. Any nominee could win. Check out Wine Tourism SA sites, see who is nominated and VOTE. www.winetourismsouthafrica.co.za, twitter: @WineTourismSA, Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WineTourismSouthAfrica. Remember, the voting closes at midnight on October 24th, so make the most of these last two weeks

Erawan     Sixteen of us from the Oenophiles wine club had a lovely evening out at Erawan in Wynberg village last Thursday. Our theme was “What wines go well with spicy food”, and the consensus seems to be something like a Gewürztraminer or a Riesling if white and Pinotage if Red. The standout wine was a Grangehurst 1998 Pinotage. We ate extremely well and found the prices still to be amazingly reasonable. We (John and Lynne) ordered two dim sum dishes for starters. The flavours are very good, but we did wish the portions were a little larger. 3 dim sum disappear in a minute, especially if you are sharing them. We then shared a large portion of crispy duck and pancakes which, at R105 for two, is very good value and then could not resist trying a single portion of the Penang peanut curry with steamed rice. Corkage on the wines was reasonable and the bill for each couple came to only R300. Service is quick and glidingly elegant. Click here to see the pictures.

Season of Sauvignon at Durbanville     This was one of the festivals which, as judges, we helped nominate for the Klink Awards, as it is such a good experience every year. All the farms hold different and varied events on their farms over the weekend, so you can pick and choose to do to what suits you and your mood. Each of the 11 Durbanville farms showcases their own newly released Sauvignon Blanc as well as some of their other wines AND you can taste all of the other 10 farms Sauvignons Blanc on each farm, if you don’t have the time to visit each of them. The weather was not great on Sunday, with rain on the horizon, but we called in at Klein Roosboom first, tasted all their wines and some of the others and then went to Meerendal, where we had been invited to partake of the 10 (yes 10!) course fish Braai which, on that day, included carafes of Meerendal sauvignon blanc served unfiltered from a barrel. Click here for the photographs. There aren’t any pics of us lying under a tree recovering, but there could have been. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we ran out of time and could not visit other farms, but there is always another opportunity as Durbanville is no more than 30 minutes from the centre of town and all the farm tasting rooms are open to the public. The Contermanskloof Road is probably one of the most beautiful roads in the Cape, so don’t miss a trip down it when you go there. The vistas at the moment of high cornfields where the green corn is just ripening and vineyards new yellow green budding vines with the sea in the distance is spectacular. A huge “thank you” is due to Bennie Howard and his team for their marvellous hospitality.

Cape Wine Makers Guild Auction This year’s Nederburg Auction did not bring exciting results, with the final figures being approximately 16% lower than last year: R4 670 000, down from last year’s high of R6.1 million. So it was a very pleasant surprise to see that this year’s Cape Winemakers Guild Auction numbers were 8.6% up on the 2011 turnover of R5 286 700, despite there being 431 fewer cases of wine on offer. The auction attracted a record number of 54 new local buyers and private collectors, four of whom were amongst the top 10 buyers this year..  See the full story here.

Ragu      Last night, it was time to go out to play with some friends. Another friend had recommended this very small restaurant behind the original Cape Quarter precinct in Upper Waterkant Street. It bills itself as Food, Music, Fashion, Italian Campari Lounge and is more of an intimate bar than the Italian Restaurant we were expecting. We had great memories of the superb little Italian bistro, l’Aperitivo, in town and thought that this might be similar. Ragu has good lighting, a small selection of tiny tables and one or two four seaters plus seating on the small terrace where, sadly, there were smokers whose smoke drifted all the way in. You can shop while you eat.

We got the feeling that this is a place where young people pop into for a drink after work to meet friends and then, perhaps, share a plate of food rather than going on to a serious restaurant. As we were looking forward to an Italian dinner, we were a bit shocked at the small menu, as many of the dishes are what one would call snacks, like bruschetta, grissini, mini toasts and mini pizzas, but they are not at snack prices. Our vegetarian friends had only a couple of choices on the menu, but we did enjoy the pasta we ate. It is home made by the owner, Chiara, and is silky and light. Sitting at our table near the bar was rather like being at home for dinner, but with other people in the background. They do need to do something about the loo door next to our table, which kept opening and the loo aromas do not go with food. Our bill for 4 came to R560, including service but no wine, for 4 pastas, three desserts and a coffee. We took a 2009 Bloemendal Suider Terras sauvignon and a De Toren Diversity 2010 red blend, both delicious. We were quoted R65 for corkage, but it didn’t appear on the bill. The wine list is well-chosen but very short (5 whites and 6 reds) and the prices are on the high side. Click here to see the photos.

Opening soon! Ocean Jewels Deli     We are delighted to tell you that Julie Carter of Ocean Jewels Seafood will open her own shop in Woodstock on Monday the 22nd of this month at the Woodstock Junction, 66 Albert Road. She will still be trading at the Biscuit Mill on Saturdays, but you will now be able to go and buy fish and other things from her throughout the week and collect your orders. She is going to continue with her fresh fish deliveries and you can contact her on email: oceanjewelsfish@gmail.com Cell: 083 582 0829 http://www.oceanjewels.co.za/ Twitter: @oceanjewelsfish.  Facebook: Oceanjewelsfreshfish. AND watch this space because we will have some other exciting news soon about us trading there.

Jerusalem Recipe book by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi     Lynne was overwhelmed recently when one of our special customers presented her with a copy of this much coveted recipe book. She has been experimenting all week and we have now had two of these different and unfamiliar but delicious dishes. She made two recipes and many more are planned. We heard from another ‘owner’ that the Roasted Cauliflower and Hazelnut salad was the best salad she had ever tasted, so Lynne made this and, later in the week, Braised Quail with Apricots, Currents & Tamarind as we happened to have some quail in our freezer. There is a huge intermingling of cultures and foods in the book and lots of interesting reading about the history and origins of the food and Jerusalem.

This week’s Recipe: One comment in the book by the authors, which we loved is: “It takes a giant leap of faith, but we are happy to take it, to imagine that Hummus with eventually bring Jerusalemites together if nothing else will”.

So in our currently turbulent country we can also take that leap and give you their recipe for

Hummus

250g dried chickpeas – 1 t bicarbonate of soda – 270g light tahini paste – 4 ts lemon juice – 4 garlic cloves, crushed – 100ml ice cold water – salt

The day before, wash the chickpeas well. Cover them with twice their volume of cold water and leave to soak overnight. Next day, drain them and place in a saucepan on high heat and add the bicarb. Cook together for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add 1.5 litres of fresh water and bring to the boil. Cook, skimming off any foam and skins that float to the surface. This will take from 20 to 40 minutes, depending on the type and freshness, sometimes even longer. Once done, they should be very tender and break up easily when pressed between finger and thumb, but will not quite be mushy. Drain them – you should have approx. 600g. Process in a food processor till you have a paste and, with the machine still running, add the tahini and the lemon juice, garlic and salt. Then slowly drizzle in the iced water till you have a very smooth and creamy paste, about 5 minutes. Now rest this in a covered bowl for at least 50 minutes and refrigerate. Take out half an hour before serving.

It will keep in the fridge for 3 days. Serve on a plate drizzled with good extra virgin olive oil and serve with warm flat bread. You can also add a few whole cooked crushed chickpeas for texture, some ground cumin and adjust the amount of Tahini and lemon to suit your taste. You will get Tahini in supermarkets under the Mediterranean label – ask the supermarket to order it for you if they do not stock it. Or at places like New York Bagels, or Goldie’s in Sea Point. Lynne does use tinned drained chickpeas when she is in a hurry and they work very well.

Giving for Christmas     We know you are all starting to plan for Christmas as we have started to see things like Chestnuts being bought again and people are already looking for foodie presents. However, we wondered if you would like to give something back to those who have nothing, mainly children in rural towns and villages, and take part in something we think is an amazing project, the Santa Shoebox Project. Irene Pieters started this scheme in 2006 with 180 boxes and this has now grown to a target of 100 000 this year. You pack a shoebox with treats and some sensible things for one child. You can add items to your shopping when you do your other Christmas or seasonal shopping. Check out their website for more information www.santashoebox.co.za or contact them on 021 461 7143, or email info@santashoebox.co.za

Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy

There is a huge and rapidly growing variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. There are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have made separate list for each month for which we have information. To help you choose an event to visit, click on our Events Calendar. All the events are listed in date order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Click here to access the Calendar. You will need to be connected to the internet.

Learn about wine and cooking We have had a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details here.

Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs evening cooking classes at Sense of Taste, his catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme here.

Restaurant Special offers. Some more restaurants have responded to our request for an update of their special offers and we have, therefore, updated our list of restaurant special offers. Click here to access it. These Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. If they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.A calendar of their classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs evening cooking classes at Sense of Taste, his catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme here.

Restaurant Special offers. Some more restaurants have responded to our request for an update of their special offers and we have, therefore, updated our list of restaurant special offers. Click here to access it. These Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. If they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants

10th October 2012

Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our product list for details and prices.

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

Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups (up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in English, German, Norwegian or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans.

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 these newsletters are ©John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are usually 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. Our Avast! ^® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.

This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.

Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Auction defies recession with record sales

Brisk bidding at a rate of R1 million per hour set the tone for a record breaking 28^th Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Auction in the Stellenbosch winelands over the weekend, with the highest turnover ever of R5 739 000 (excluding VAT) with a complete sellout of all the wines on offer.

Recognised as South Africa’s most prestigious wine auction that is open to the trade and general public, this year’s record sales were 8,6% up on the 2011 turnover of R5 286 700, despite 431 fewer cases of wine. The auction also attracted a record number of 54 new local buyers and private collectors, four of whom were amongst the top 10 buyers this year.

 “With the increased variety and superb quality of our auction selection reflecting the great diversity of the South African wine industry, there was more scope for different types of buyers this year. We got the balance right between red and white wines on offer once again, which ensured keen interest from the floor right until the end. Unusual varietals such as Nebbiolo and Cinsault as well as stylistic differences within varietal categories such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon created a lot of interest. We were also delighted by the increase in local buyers,” said Louis Strydom, Chairman of the Guild which celebrates its 30^th anniversary this year. 

The auction, conducted by Henré Hablutzel of Hofmeyr Mills Auctioneers for the 15^th consecutive year, attracted 148 buyers including 14 foreign buyers and for the first time, 14 online bidders. In total 2 517 cases were sold at an average price of R2 281 per case equivalent of 6 x 750ml bottles. The lineup of 52 wines included 38 red wines, 10 white wines, 2 Méthode Cap Classiques, one dessert wine and a port.

Alan Pick of The Butcher Shop and Grill in Sandton triumphed for the 11^th consecutive year as the biggest spender at R1 017 400 million. The bulk of the wines, 87%, was bought by local buyers. Amongst the foreign buyers, the biggest sales went to Belgium with R266 800, followed by Namibia on R131 400, Denmark on R105 600 and the United Kingdom with R101 600.

Three Kanonkop wines were amongst the eight top sellers at an average price per case of over R3 000: Kanonkop CWG Paul Sauer 2007 (R3 760), Rust en Vrede Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 (R3 548), Kanonkop CWG Paul Sauer 2009 (R3 485), Hartenberg Estate Auction Shiraz 2009 (R3 324), Kanonkop CWG Pinotage 2010 (R3 294), Beyerskloof Traildust Pinotage 2010 (R3 214), Bouchard Finlayson Pinot Noir 2009 (R3 120) and Ernie Els CWG 2010 (R3 063).

Amongst the white wines, top sellers were the Jordan Chardonnay Auction Reserve 2011 with an average price per case of R2 353, Chamonix Chardonnay Auction Reserve 2011, Gottfried Mocke’s maiden auction wine, at R2 044 and the Cape Point Vineyards Auction Reserve White 2011 at R2 014.

The best performing Méthode Cap Classique, Graham Beck Non Plus Ultra Cap Classique 2008 sold at an average price per case of R1 630. The only dessert wine on auction this year, the Teddy Hall Eva (Krotoa) Muscat de Frontignan Noble Late Harvest 2009 averaged at R1 113 per case of 6 x 375ml, whilst the only fortified wine, the Carel Nel Cape Vintage Auction Reserve 2010, achieved an average price per case of R1 353.

Over and above the main auction, a record amount of R182 100 was raised on the day in aid of the Cape Winemaker’s Guild Protégé Programme, a mentorship initiative for young, upcoming winemakers. Every year a very special charity item is auctioned off to raise funds. This year’s item, a one-of-a-kind 18-litre 2010 Members’ Reserve comprising a blend of top wines from all 45 members of the Guild, was purchased by Annelie van der Merwe of Restaurant Mosaic for a record price of R50 000.

A full house of 52 exceptional wines all crafted exclusively for the auction by members of the Guild to represent the pinnacle of what can be achieved in South African winemaking, went under the hammer this year.

For further information visit www.capewinemakersguild.com or contact the Guild Office on Tel: 021 852 0408 or email info@capewinemakersguild.com

Pasta and ambience at Ragu

Ragu at 123 Waterkant Street, behind the first section of the Cape Quarter

Inside, they have a small number of tables, some clothes for sale and there is a bar

The brief and rather drink oriented menu
The wine list is very short with high prices

What shall we have? Sitting at our dining table was rather like being at home for dinner, but with a few people you don't recognise in the room

It is small and intimate with good lighting

Some of the racks of clothing etc in the restaurant bar area

Interestingly, there is a display of DeMorgenzon wine cartons, 
but the wine isn't on the list

Simple vegetarian linguine al limone dressed with just oil, lemon and seasoning. 

It needed cheese and something more substantial like artichoke hearts

Another vegetarian option. Linguine with spinach and pesto, which needed more flavour.

Parpadelle with ragu, the signature dish.  Good sauce. All the pasta was very good and freshly home made

Dessert: Coffee and vanilla ice cream, served the Italian way – you pour the hot espresso over the cold ice cream and you have an Affogato, (literally “drowned in coffee”)

Another dessert: strawberry tart, which was very good, with a shortbread base

Our helpful waiter, Kyle. We didn’t get the style statement though...

The bar

A photo of what the owner was having -  a mixed plate of antipasti from the menu.

Photographs © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2012