Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The Bombay Brasserie Chilli Festival at The Taj

We are great curry fans and we like curries of all types, meat, chicken and vegetarian. So we were excited to be invited to The Taj Hotel for the Chilli Festival currently being run in the Bombay Brasserie. They sent a car for us, which meant that John could really enjoy the wine and beer paired with the food and not worry about driving home.  This small but perfectly decorated restaurant seats, on average, only 40 people, and has lots of well trained staff of character and good manners. We had a wonderful time
Mountaineering up our steep street to ‘mount’ the huge Range Rover sent by the Taj to fetch us. Royal treatment indeed
The glamorous Bombay Brasserie
A choice of cocktails
or some interesting Craft beers which do match curry very well
We decided to taste and share a Robson’s Durban Pale Ale as our aperitif. It was excellent
First a Tazza platter of crisp Indian nibbles, poppadoms and crackers and crudités served with a tomato dipping sauce
Then an Amuse. This is a Chaat, a popular street food in India - a dumpling filled with finely ground lentils and covered in sweet yoghurt and a mango chutney
The Chilli Festival menu
And the  Vegetarian options. Many are the same. We each ordered one version and shared the dishes that were different on each menu.
Seeing the rather extensive menu, and you do get all the courses, we were relieved that the soup is, thankfully, a small portion in a cup. It has a tomato and lentil base with tempered spices and pink peppercorns which add a lovely flavour. We were served small wine samples in ISO glasses and with the soup came the Sterhuis Astra white blend 2009
We meet Harpreet Longani, the Executive sous chef, who is married to the Executive chef. They have been at Bombay Brasserie since it opened in Cape Town and both are from the Punjab
The restaurant has some lovely touches, like the decorations on the back of the comfortable chairs, the huge glass chandeliers and the marvellous Indian mirrors
Restaurant manager Stephen Petersen
The starter platters. On the right is the vegetarian option: Tikka paneer tossed in warm Jwala chilli powder, a salsa of corn, pineapple and Degi chilli, topped with popped sago and spicy fried broccoli. On the left a prawn coated in yellow chilli, a moist and tender piece of fried butterfish with birds eye chilli and a spicy chicken ‘ stick’ kebab. This was served with a rather oxidised Nederburg Viognier 2004 which had a sweet perfumed peach nose, but was more like a dry sherry than a table wine
The non Vegetarian selection of starters
The Vegetarian platter of starters
Tatiana Marcetteau, Sommelier at The Taj, talking to us about the wine pairings
What steaming delight is heading our way?
It's a beautiful refreshing palate cleanser of lemon and lime sorbet on a bed of dry ice.
Main course is a selection of three curries, pilau rice and a butter nan.  The vegetarian options were a delicious and very warm mushroom and water chestnut curry, a soft and gentle yellow dhal spiced with patti chillies and Bhindi (ladies fingers) served with fenugreek leaves and Byodgi chilli.
The non vegetarian options were a mutton and lentil dalcha with Taddapolly chillies – taste resembled a good Rogan Josh, Chicken morsels in a creamy red pepper curry with Red peppers that were really smoky like Spanish smoked paprika and the Bhindi. The pulao rice had peppered dumplings and potato in it. The Naan was really delicious and so difficult to resist. We had this course with two wines: The Goose 2008 Expression red blend, which was very fruity and smooth and a Nederburg entry level Winemaster's Reserve 2012 white blend.
A special treat was served with dessert, the Double Gold Nederburg 2012 Noble Late Harvest, based on Chenin Blanc with a touch of Muscat de Frontignac
Dessert was a soft and squidgy fried pancake spiced with fennel and black pepper with a vanilla custard, a chilli kulfi ice cream and a fruity chilli ‘splash’. Two coffees and our chauffeur was waiting outside to take us home
A lovely evening, thank you all at the Taj
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

New World Wines trade show at the Vineyard

Each of the Trade Wine tastings we go to has a different location and also a completely different character. It depends very much on the personality of the people involved, both organisers and winemakers, and on the wines, the warmth of the welcome and the venue. Monday night saw us happily enjoying all of the above at the Vineyard for this fun tasting of some very good wines.
Bev Murray Sales Manager, W Cape New World Wine Agency
Hein de Jager
A smaller banqueting room at the Vineyard Hotel
Narina Cloete, Winemaker at Quoin Rock, looking very glamorous
Paul, Mark, Bobby and Nicky Wallace of Wallovale with their Black Dog and Little Flirt wines
Juli Dykman and Eugene Kinghorn of Saxenburg
Tony da Costa of Liquor City tasting with Elna Dreyer and Melanie Lourens of Raka
George dalla Cia charmed us with his wines
Bev Murray and Lynne with irresistible sushi
Ilse-Marie Thiart showing the wines of Hermanuspietersfontein
Andrew Barns and Bernard Dewey of Mischa
Chris Williams and his wines from The Foundry

Johan and Ad Wegner of GetWine
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Truth Coffee launches biofuel powered coffee roasting

We received a mysterious invitation from Coffee entrepreneur David Donde, asking us to arrive at Truth at 3pm on Tuesday for something exciting, and some free coffee. It was headed “Truth Coffee Roasts on left overs”. We arrived to see his newly refurbished behemoth of a coffee roaster, circa 1947, which had been adapted to work on Bio-fuel instead of diesel. We applaud this green initiative. He is currently installing solar on the roof of his building. David says that Truth is the only roaster in Africa and probably the only one in the world roasting completely on waste fuel.
What Bio Green Fuel is and how it is made:
Bio fuel is a biodegradable, renewable, alternative fuel created from nearly any naturally occurring vegetable oils and animal fats, through a chemical reaction process occurring between the natural oils and alcohol, followed by purification. This creates molecules which can easily be burned in a diesel engine. Biodiesel can be made from vegetable oil or fat. The Bio fuel from Bio Green that Truth is using is waste oil collected from restaurants, hotels and other institutions (this is a quote from their press release).
You’ll find Truth at 36 Buitenkant Street, just uphill from the Central Police Station
It is very industrial in design, great space for computing and filled with lots of ancient household relics and quirky antiques
The bar backs on to the coffee roaster
Some comfortable and private banquettes
Some snacks laid on for the media
Did your mum have one of these? This old washing machine came with the building, said David, so he kept it
A section of old typewriters and other artefacts
Such bad memories! Lynne learned to type on a machine like this. Wrist breaking and finger cracking. John didn’t believe that Ellerslie still had these in operation in the 60’s. They did!
David explains how the roaster works and how the raw coffee beans from one sack are fed by a vacuum pipe overhead into the oven
It only takes a few minutes to transfer all the ‘green’ beans ....
... into the hopper above the roaster. Note that it has been adapted to use computer temperature monitoring
It is a vast machine
The furnace beneath, burning the bio fuel, which is made from old oil and fat collected from industry, restaurants and other sources
Roasting temperature control
And a little new technology helps
The sensible green message from Truth
Approximately 18 minutes after the green beans hit the roaster, they are ready and come pouring out of the door with a rush of wonderful aroma. These beans came from Mysore in India. The hopper cools them.
Stirring the beans to stop them continuing to pop and roast. Cooling them down quickly is essential
And then they come pouring out into the hopper where they pass through a filter and a magnet to get rid of any possible contaminants like stones or metal that may have got into them at source
Measured quantities can then be taken to fill packages of coffee
David Donde explaining how the process works and answering questions
Roy de Gouveia of Bio Green who process and supplies the bio fuel explains it to us
A cheerful wave goodbye from Jose Vilandy, Truth Barista
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014