Food Fanatics launches their new home at The Homestead, Wynberg

Caterers have always been our friends. We are happy to recommend those whose food we have enjoyed at functions and relationships have grown over the years. So it was with delight that we attended the opening of Food Fanatics’ new function venue in an 1820 farmhouse in Constantia Main Road this week. For many years Elaine Rousseau and her crew have been rushing all over the Cape to cater for functions, sometimes two or three on one day; now she and the crew can do it all from their great venue. Check out their web site http://foodfanatics.co.za/ if you are interested in using them at the Homestead

It used to be a vegetarian restaurant and the gated entrance is in the road behind with plenty of fenced parking and a security guard

It was a bit of a rainy evening, so they had put up a marquee on the lawn where they can hold the larger functions. The lawn is perfect for weddings, launches or parties. There are other spaces around and inside the house for smaller groups.

They had a great Braai station at the back of the kitchen with lovely things cooking for the supper spread

and a Meze Table too, inside

We sat in the Library, which is a central room with a nice fireplace. Very suitable for a ladies who lunch table of 6 perhaps? Or a tea party

Mini Fig tart tatins topped with blue cheese cream. Food Fanatics has always been so good a creating great canapés

Tiny deep fried crumbed suppli, a.k.a arancini or rice balls with mushrooms

Huge, sweet & tender tempura prawns with a good savoury Thai chilli dipping sauce

A humus dip, topped with honey and crushed nut

Wonderful hot haloumi cheese and filo pies with dill and lemon

The very organised kitchen, with each of the chefs getting on with their appointed tasks of making us delicious food

Searing broccoli and leeks

It was quietly industrious

The braai station with tiny brochettes of chicken sosaties. They also make killer Karoo lamb ribbetjies

Getting ready to eat

Lynne in the library with Elaine. She was wonderful to us after our car accident, when she lent us a van so that we could get to market. We will never forget the kindness

The bar kept everyone well oiled too. They served Klein Steenberg red and sauvignon blanc

The long table in the room for sit down dinners, buffets or cocktail events

Caroline van Schalkwyk from Steenberg relaxing in the Library

And the buffet is ready: Parma ham, seared artichokes and broccoli with leeks

Beautiful seared pink tuna, herb encrusted

Tomato tapenade with asparagus and grated parmesan

A fantastic selection of different breads. The olive sticks were perfection

More of those artichokes and, in the background, boquerones - soused fresh white anchovies, a very popular Spanish tapas

The humus dip we saw in the kitchen

Chorizo and chick peas with humus

A beetroot, pomegranate and pistachio dip

More of those warm arancini with mushrooms

Elaine's cookbook collection.

Time to serve oneself from the groaning boards

Listening to Elaine talking about The Homestead and their future plans for it

She feels that she has come home

Chilly evening; warm and friendly event

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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This week’s MENU: Diemersdal Wild Horseshoe Sauvignon Blanc, Ken Forrester's Dirty Little Secret, Lunch at The Conservatory, Cellars Hohenort, Bellingham's Homestead Wine Range, Diaz Tavern, Bertha's, Simonstown, Niël Groenewald's Bobotie

Cormorants, seemingly unconscious of the crashing winter waves

 In this week’s MENU:

 Diemersdal Launch of the Wild Horseshoe Sauvignon Blanc

 Ken Forrester's Dirty Little Secret

 Restaurant week lunch at The Conservatory, Cellars Hohenort

 Bellingham's launch of the Homestead Range at the Bellingham homestead

 The Diaz Tavern

 A light lunch at Bertha's, Simonstown

 Recipe for the week: Niël Groenewald's Bobotie

 Wine of the Week Diemersdal Wild Horseshoe Sauvignon Blanc

 Coming events

To get the whole story with photographs, please click on the paragraph title, which will lead you there. At the end of each story, click on RETURN TO MENU to come back to MENU.

Another long weekend looms. At least, this year, one of the public holidays is at the end of the weekend. In most years they fall in the middle of the week, giving the country a long, unproductive, mostly free holiday when our fragile economy doesn’t need it. We are looking forward having fun and tasting good wines at Elgin’s Cool Wine & Country Food Festival. Full details can be seen at http://ecwcf.elginwine.co.za/index.php?page=programme-and-map

Diemersdal Launch of the Wild Horseshoe Sauvignon Blanc     Lynne asked Cellar master Thys Louw if he had ever considered adding any Semillon to his excellent Sauvignon Blanc. "Heavens, no", he said ..."then I would have 10 Sauvignons!". The Wild Horseshoe is his 9th iteration and it is a cracker. It's their first skin-fermented natural wild yeast Sauvignon Blanc; fermented on the skins for 96 hours and kept on the lees in 3rd and 4th fill barrels for 10 months. It tasted disgusting until they transferred it into tank and then it got itself together and changed in style to produce this clean crisp elegant wine. (Our wine of the Week this week) All Diemersdal wines are grown on the Estate and Sauvignon Blancs make up 50% of their production. The grapes come from a vineyard planted in 1982, older than Thys. The launch was followed by a wonderful lunch, at a restaurant to add to your list to visit. Read on.....

Ken Forrester's Dirty Little Secret     This was revealed last week as his latest block buster Natural Chenin Blanc of which only 3,500 bottles have been made and which will sell on the farm for R950 a bottle. And they will sell. Ken always pushes the envelope in quality and in price. And chutzpah and charm. He can, he has proved it. He introduced his first Old Vine Reserve in 1994, then the FMC (Forrester Meinert Chenin) in 2002 at a record price of R160 a bottle, it sold out immediately. With this wine he has shown the young guns that older experienced wine makers can also do fabulous Natural wine from the Swartland. He needed to find a new Chenin vineyard with the same character as Stellenbosch and this is it. The grapes are from old vines planted in l965 in Piekenierskloof. Read on.....

Restaurant week lunch at The Conservatory, Cellars Hohenort      Restaurant week has run for 10 days from the 21st of April this year. We were keen to book for some of the top restaurants but were certainly not successful for La Colombe. Lynne went on line the moment the site was up and failed; all the seats were sold out in an hour. Perhaps due to the fact that they only had one table for 2 for lunch on each of the days - not really a great way to entice new customers? We did get a booking at another of our choices for lunch at The Conservatory at Cellars Hohenort and it was a good experience, despite the severe Cape storm that day. Read on......

Bellingham's launch of the Homestead Range at the Bellingham homestead      Bellingham Estate in Franschhoek was founded in 1693 but was made famous by vintner Bernard (Pod) Podlashuk, who bought the farm in 1943. With his iconic wines like Johannisberger in its classic green bottle shaped like the Klein Drakenstein peak behind the farm, and the first dry Rosé, Premier Grand Cru and Shiraz in South Africa, he made history and positive change to a stagnant industry. These wines were breaking new ground in the South African wine industry in the 1950s. His wife Fredagh remodelled the homestead into an extraordinary house filled with precious antiques and oddities, art and artefacts, dust gatherers and valuable objet d'art. We were invited this week to come and taste the new range of Homestead wines with lunch and to tour the house. It was quite an occasion. Read on.....

The Diaz Tavern has been a part of Cape Town's culinary landscape for many years. John has been a happy patron for a mere 30 or so years. It is always busy but, somehow, we have always managed to get a table, even if we haven't booked. The Portuguese menu is simple and consistently excellent. John's brother, on his first visit, said that the peri peri chicken was the best he'd ever had. The fish dishes are legendary and the trinchado, John's favourite, is still the best. See the photographs.....

A light lunch at Bertha's, Simonstown      Last Sunday, John took a group of clients on a Peninsula tour. They wanted a light lunch, so he booked a table at Bertha’s in Simonstown. The Navy was holding its open day, so there was no parking anywhere in the town. The management at Bertha’s were most helpful and “made a plan” with the nearby parking attendant, who let John double park in the small parking lot at the side of the restaurant and then called him when the trapped car needed to move

The food was uncomplicated, well prepared and presented and the service friendly and efficient. Prices are competitive, as you can see on the menu below. A pleasant surprise was that Bertha’s gives a free meal to drivers and guides who bring clients for meals. Read on.....

Recipe for the week is Bellingham winemaker Niël Groenewald's Bobotie. This comes from a cookbook issued by Bellingham and it is a classic South African dish, very easy to make. If you can't get Mrs Ball’s chutney, use a fruit chutney you like. If you like your food with a bit of heat, use one with chilli. Bobotie can be made using lamb or beef or a mix of both

2 slices white bread, crusts removed - 100ml milk - 30 ml olive oil - 1 kg minced meat - 1 onion, finely chopped -1 large carrot, grated - 40 ml mild curry powder - 10 ml turmeric - 30 ml apricot jam - 30 ml Mrs Balls Original chutney - 30 ml raisins (optional) - juice and grated rind of one lemon - salt and freshly ground black pepper - 3 eggs - 200ml cream - 3-5 bay leaves

Preheat your oven to 180⁰C. Soak the white bread in the milk and set aside. Heat half the oil in a saucepan and fry the meat until it is brown. Scoop out and set aside. Heat the remaining oil and fry the onion, carrot, curry powder and turmeric until the onions are translucent. Add back the meat and let them cook together for 15 to 20 minutes. Add the soaked bread and milk, apricot jam, chutney, raisins, lemon juice and rind and stir until all ingredients are thoroughly blended. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Ladle into a greased ovenproof dish. Beat the eggs with the cream, season with salt and pour over the minced meat mixture. Place the bay leaves on top of the cream mixture (let them sink into the mixture) and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Serve with yellow rice and home-made beetroot.

Food Fact: Did you know that almonds are one of the best nuts for you, but not roasted. They need to be raw and in their skins. A few a day will help stave off hunger, constipation, and will promote weight loss. They contain healthy fats, fibre, protein, magnesium and vitamin E and B2. A small handful, 25 to 28 grams a day contains about 161 calories and 2.5 grams of digestible carbohydrates. And almonds are a good source of antioxidants

Wine of the Week Diemersdal Wild Horseshoe Sauvignon Blanc     It is shy but sophisticated on the nose. This silky fruit driven wine is crisp and green, with minerality and some wood notes; long flavours remain and delight. Rather French in style. And a wonderful food wine. Only 1500 bottles made, so it is sold in the Diemersdal Tasting room only

The Wolftrap Steakhouse Championships     During the month of April anyone can vote for their favourite steakhouse, via Facebook and SMS, and stand a chance to win fabulous prizes of The Wolftrap wines.

So please cast YOUR vote, and please spread the news to get the public voting like crazy, via www.facebook.com/SteakHunter and SMS 32845

29th April 2016

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 and standard or Dutch-flavoured Afrikaans.

If you like the photographs you see in our publications, please look at our Adamastor Photo website for our rate card and samples from our portfolio

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 and our blogs 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.

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MENU's Recipe for this week is Bellingham winemaker Niël Groenewald's Bobotie

This comes from a cookbook issued by Bellingham and it is a classic South African dish, very easy to make. If you can't get Mrs Ball’s chutney, use a fruit chutney you like. If you like your food with a bit of heat, use one with chilli. Bobotie can be made using lamb or beef or a mix of both.

2 slices white bread, crusts removed - 100ml milk 30 ml olive oil - 1 kg minced meat - 1 onion, finely chopped -1 large carrot, grated - 40 ml mild curry powder - 10 ml turmeric - 30 ml apricot jam - 30 ml Mrs Ball's Original chutney - 30 ml raisins (optional) - juice and grated rind of one lemon - salt and freshly ground black pepper - 3 eggs - 2ooml cream - 3-5 bay leaves

Preheat your oven to 180⁰C. Soak the white bread in the milk and set aside. Heat half the oil in a saucepan and fry the meat until it is brown. Scoop out and set aside. Heat the remaining oil and fry the onion, carrot, curry powder and turmeric until the onions are translucent. Add back the meat and let them cook together for 15 to 20 minutes. Add the soaked bread and milk, apricot jam, chutney, raisins, lemon juice and rind and stir until all ingredients are thoroughly blended. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Ladle into a greased ovenproof dish. Beat the eggs with the cream, season with salt and pour over the minced meat mixture. Place the bay leaves on top of the cream mixture (let them sink into the mixture) and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Serve with yellow rice and home-made beetroot

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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MENU's Wine of the Week. Diemersdal Wild Horseshoe Sauvignon Blanc

It is shy, but sophisticated on the nose. This silky fruit driven wine is crisp and green, with minerality and some wood notes; long flavours remain and delight. Rather French in style. And a wonderful food wine. Only 1500 bottles made, so  it is sold in the Diemersdal Tasting room only

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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Cape Town's Portuguese bistro pub, Diaz Tavern

The Diaz Tavern has been a part of Cape Town's culinary landscape for many years. John has been a happy patron for a mere 30 or so years. It is always busy but, somehow, we have always managed to get a table, even if we haven't booked. The Portuguese menu is simple and consistently excellent. John's brother, on his first visit, said that the peri peri chicken was the best he'd ever had. The fish dishes are legendary and the trinchado, John's favourite, is still the best

Portuguese tradition from South Africa and Portuguese lightness. Axe Hill's Distinta Souzao and Tinta Barocca blend (14.5%) with the classic Casal Garcia Vinho Verde from the cool north of Portugal (9,5%)

The wonderful Trinchado. Tender, medium rare chunks of beef in a red wine sauce which is rich in garlic and chilli. A Portuguese roll is mandatory to mop up the sauce. The rich full flavour of the Distinta complemented the rich sauce perfectly

At a nearby table a group of men was saying farewell to an elderly colleague who was retiring for the second time. Moët in a Castle Light ice bucket makes an interesting statement. No question which we prefer!

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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A light lunch at Bertha's, Simonstown

Last Sunday, John took a group of clients on a Peninsula tour. They wanted a light lunch, so he booked a table at Bertha’s in Simonstown. The Navy was holding its open day, so there was no parking anywhere in the town. The management at Bertha’s were most helpful and “made a plan” with the nearby parking attendant, who let John double park in the small parking lot at the side of the restaurant and then called him when the trapped car needed to move

The food was uncomplicated, well prepared and presented and the service friendly and efficient. Prices are competitive, as you can see on the menu below. A pleasant surprise was that Bertha’s give a free meal to drivers and guides who bring clients for meals

The exterior of the restaurant from the quayside

and the view of the harbour from the restaurant

The seafood menu

West Coast mussels

Grilled sole

Smoked salmon salad

Grilled Cape salmon

5

Tempura prawns

The tour guide menu

Hamburger and chips for the guide

Off to Boulders beach for a visit to the penguins.

We wish more places would have this rule - we did see one person using one, though

A look at the penguins

Home for dinner after a busy day fishing

A bizarre curio. Stuffed baby ostriches on the half shell

 and a look at the yachts on Hout Bay after a drive along Chapman's Peak

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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Restaurant Week lunch at The Conservatory, Cellars Hohenort

Restaurant week has run for 10 days from the 21st of April this year. We were keen to book for some of the top restaurants but were certainly not successful for La Colombe. Lynne went on line the moment the site was up and failed; all the seats were sold out in an hour. Perhaps due to the fact that they only had one table for 2 for lunch - not really a great way to entice new customers? We did get a booking at another of our choices: for lunch at The Conservatory at Cellars Hohenort and it was a good experience, despite the severe Cape storm that day and very grey sky

One of the Cellars Hohenort buildings; this one houses the Greenhouse restaurant. This is part of The Collection (of hotels) made by the late Liz McGrath. The restaurants are now run by Exec Chef Peter Tempelhoff

One of the old cellars

The entrance to the Conservatory restaurant

One of the very comfortable lounges in the hotel

A lovely corner by the fire to see out the storm

In the Conservatory with a view of its terrace for warmer days

Inside the more formal side of the restaurant

The value menu for the week. We think they played it a bit safe with the choices, but the food was good

A good selection of hard to resist, freshly made bread and crisp breads with guacamole and butter

Ducks loving the pond and the rain

Our table in the centre with an all round view of the magnificent gardens

We all fell for the twice baked Underberg cheese soufflés. Light and gentle with a very good cheese sauce

The girls had the pan fried Line fish which was kingklip, perfectly cooked and seasoned, with an interesting squid ink foam. (Note: kingklip is often featured as a line-caught fish on menus. It is actually a deep water cusk eel which is caught by trawl nets). This came with pan seared calamari, a sweet tomato fondu, broccoli spears and a Linguine of pasta Nero which was rather tasteless. We drank a bottle of Klein Constantia KC Rosé which went well with all the courses, even the steak although, with his abscess and consequent aggressive antibiotic, John was only drinking water and had only a sip of the wine

John chose the grilled grass fed sirloin, tender, but a bit more done than the medium rare he ordered. Crisp topped potatoes, leek fricassee, roasted heirloom carrots and a good meaty thyme jus

Only one of the party, Anne, could resist the dessert. We are both suckers for any Tarte Tatin and this was an excellent one. The gooey dark caramel was still pliable, the apple cooked to perfection in crisp shortcrust pastry (we prefer it to flaky and believe it was the original). This was topped off by a butterscotch sauce, Madagascan vanilla ice cream and a brandy snap tuile.

Our coffees came with friandise: mint marshmallows, apple macarons and fudge. Tempting. And all this lovely food while the storm drenched, whirled and blew the countryside about outside

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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