Lunch at Plant, Cape Town's new vegan restaurant

Vegans may now celebrate. Plant is here Vegans and vegetarians get very short shrift in South Africa. There are even some who regard chicken as a vegetable in this meat obsessed country. And selections for them in most restaurants are abysmal. A salad or a plate of steamed vegetables are all they are usually offered. Today we were invited to Plant restaurant and served a selection of totally vegan food, full of flavour, spice, texture and enjoyment.

Plant was opened in the Bo Kaap a year and a half ago by engineer Adien Aggenbach and her partner Jacqueline Lahoud. It was such a success that they have now moved to bigger more accessible premises at 8 Buiten Street, just off Long Street in central Cape Town. If you are seeking good vegan or vegetarian food this place will be an eye opener to you and your non vegan friends.

The spacious restaurant has lots of drop ins for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Download the Menu here 

They are open from 10 am to after 10 pm. And they are licensed to sell beers and wines

Soup of the day was potato and spinach with tomato. Nourishing, thick and very flavourful

Yum, Nachos. Good corn Tortilla chips topped with their own melted dairy free cheese, non-dairy sour cream, guacamole and salsa plus a side of chilli. They make their own dairy-free cheese, eggless mayo and smoke their own tempeh bacon. Tempeh is 100% organic and non-GMO certified, their soy is non-GMO (organic where possible). They source local and organic produce where available. Everything is vegan, 100% plant based and prepared with love

Eggs and bacon? No, Tofu scramble with slightly sweet smoked Tempeh bacon. Tempe is a fermented soy based product. The tofu scramble did taste a little like egg mayonnaise and was very pleasant

Described on the menu as a Bunless Mexican Tower, it consisted of two black bean patties, towered with homemade sour cream, salsa, avocado and coriander. You can enjoy this spicy or non-spicy. It was John's favourite and we had it spicy with a smoked chipotle chilli sauce. It has great texture and flavour

We had lots of food to try and shared them with both Adien and Jacqueline. This is the refried bean quesadilla. Not all the food is Mexican themed, we just love it. There are plenty of other choices

The Vish burger in a ciabatta bun. It is actually a Nori (seaweed) encrusted potato steak, grilled and placed on a bed of rocket, topped with tomato, raw onion and our delicious tartar sauce, served on a ciabatta roll, with a side salad. The Nori does indeed impart a fish taste to the burger

Lynne's favourite was the exotic mushroom, raw vegetable and buckwheat noodle stuffed rice paper wraps served with two different dipping sauces: homemade sweet chilli sauce and an excellent ginger miso dressing

There is a large selection of desserts. They are made without cane sugar. They use coconut blossom sugar and maple syrup in the raw desserts

We managed only a taste of three: A sticky almond Florentine, a wicked sugar free chocolate brownie and a truffle made with apricots, dates and pecan nuts, coconut flakes, almonds and cashews rolled into delicious balls

They also sell lots of vegan products like mushroom biltong, Meat free mince and a chocolate protein shake

Thank you, we really enjoyed our vegan lunch and will be back with some vegetarian friends soon

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Veritas Awards dinner at the CTICC

A Glittering Evening at the Veritas Awards

This huge wine awards ceremony is held once a year and this year was again at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Several hundred guests pack the banqueting hall and Black tie formal wear gives us a chance to gussy up in our finery for a change.

Taking our seats

Chairman Bennie Howard opened proceedings. 290 farms entered and there were 1763 wines entered. 57 double gold, 157 gold, 473 silver and 662 bronze medals were awarded . You will find the full results on www.veritas.co.za

We have to compliment them on the food, for a change. For the last few years it has been extremely disappointing, nay shocking, on occasion. This year they employed three great chefs and they produced good food. David Higgs, late of The Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg, flew down to Cape Town to do the starter of beautifully orange cured local trout with humus, sunflower seed pesto and salted almonds, pickled cucumber, sunflower sprouts and crisp shards of radish.

CTICC Executive chef Warwick Thomas produced the main course of tender seared lamb loin steaks and wonderful slow roasted lamb shoulder, with bone marrow on a slightly sticky pumpkin risotto, topped with peas, tomato and mange tout. He has extensive experience in high volume banqueting and conferencing, having headed up the cuisine offerings at various 5 star establishments in South Africa. Keep it up, this is what the convention centre needs to show visiting delegates - how good our food in Cape Town can be. Wines served through the evening were wines entered into the competition and varied from table to table. There was a table where you could help yourself and there was also two brandy tables serving the brandy winners

A very well dressed journalist Sandile Mkhwanazi of Wynland Magazine with another glamorous guest from our table

Chef Bertus Basson did the dessert course and it was entitled "Puddings at my Mothers Table" and consisted of a selection of dessert served family style to each table so you could help yourself. This was vanilla ice cream

A fridge tart

Jelly and cream, a warm baked pear pudding - our favourite, served with the good real vanilla custard

After the awards and music by Elvis Blue, the disco started and that got people up dancing

Final course was rather boring cheese platters and some friandise which didn't arrive at our table. Lynne had a winning brandy - her favourite Laborie Alambic and then it was time to go

The younger folk danced till late. It looks as if some people don't understand Black Tie Formal wear

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Lunch at Chart Farm, Constantia

Roses are blooming at Chart Farm and so is the food

Our friend Sandra Engelen who, with her husband Philip, ran Greyton Lodge and now runs Brooklands House has taken over the restaurant at Chart Farm in Constantia. We were in the area on Saturday and popped in for a quick lunch. It was very good. We think you too should go and try it. The roses are not in bloom yet, but soon will be and the views are wonderful

The restaurant entrance. In the summer you can go along and pick your own roses to take home. And in the autumn they usually sell fresh chestnuts at the farm stall

Sandra has been doing some refurbishments and there are great cakes and scones on offer and we saw some good savoury filled croissants

There is space inside, in the foyer and the glassed in conservatory, or outside on the terrace

Lots of ladies lunching

Smoke in the valley, mountains, vines and flowers

Lynne's delicious salad of smoked salmon, caper berries, cream cheese and avocado, which was substituted for the cucumber it usually comes with. It was huge, but very satisfying and the french dressing supplied separately was good

John chose the shredded smoked chicken salad, also a winner. We ordered two glasses of the house white wine which is a local sauvignon blanc and it comes in a generous pichet so you get more than one glass each. Our bill came to R200 with service added

A small part of the rose garden

Roses for sale in the front of the restaurant

Lots of parking and easy access for wheelchairs. We will be back

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Le Lude Cap Classique launch at Tim Martin's Cellar

Tasting the stars with Le Lude

Six and a half years ago Nic Barrow, a former Attorney, and his wife Ferda, a High school teacher, cook and gardener bought this Franschhoek wine farm. It has taken a long time to get to this day, the launch of their Cap Classique MCC

It was held at Tim Martin's cellar in Salt River

Tim Martin has his own winery, brewery and venue here

Welcome glasses of the MCC, coffee and good canapés were served

Good croissants, necessary as this tasting started at 9.30 am

Traditional Portuguese pastries De Nata (custard tarts) were perfect with freshly brewed coffee

Media chatting to Nic Barrow

The Le Lude Rosé and Brut in their unique bottles

The tasting began with some history and some news of the future from Nic. Chef Westley Muller will be opening a French restaurant on the farm in November, to be called the Orangerie. Nicolene Barrow, their daughter, a chef who has worked for Michel Roux at Le Gavroche in London will also work there

We began by tasting the three base wines of the 2015 Rosé, The 2015 Prestige and the 2012 Reserve, which spent 2 years in barrel and is now in magnums. All show clearly what the final MCC wines will become. The wines were tasted in Riedel sauvignon blanc glasses. Similar glasses were used by the Champagne producers when we visited Vinexpo in Bordeaux in 2013. They suit MCCs and Champagnes better than the flutes we have all become accustomed to using

Winemaker Paul Gerber. His assistant is Lisa Kruger. They buy in the grapes from Plettenberg and Robertson. They have planted a vineyard in snowy Sutherland where the challenge is frost, so they have a sprinkler system to prevent the vines freezing solid, as they do in the Marne region in France. And they buy in Pinot Noir from the best producer in the country. They use gyro pallets in the cellar to rotate the bottles

Time to taste the Brut NV. It has had 36 months on the lees and was bready, yeasty with a fine crisp mousse. It is a 60% Chardonnay/40% Pinot Noir blend, with flavours of strawberries, apples and pears. And then the NV Rosé. Also 36 months on the lees. Pink fruit nose, leesy, strawberries, vanilla, with a soft mousse, it is very dry with hints of wood on the end. It was made using carbonic maceration

We then tasted three blind and they turned out to be L to R Le Mesnil Blanc de Blanc Champagne from the Marne region, a style that they like. The Le Lude Prestige Cuvée 2012, bottled with a crown cap, which we liked the most as it has good long apple and citrus flavours and the Le Lude Prestige Cuvée bottled under cork. The pinot noir red fruit shows more in this version. These are both 70% Chardonnay 30% Pinot Noir

The bottles of the new Brut, Rosé and Le Mesnil

Anne Ferreira, who handles their PR, with assistant winemaker Lisa Kruger

On ice for lunch

Trays of Canapés

Oysters with red wine

Rice paper wraps

Thai shredded chicken in lettuce wraps

Jeanri-tine van Zyl

Good crisp fish cakes

The cork clip

Chef Westley Muller

The Barrow family

The Le Lude team

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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