Thursday, August 23, 2018

New vintage of De Wetshof Limestone Hill Chardonnay launched at Upper Bloem Restaurant, Green Point

An invitation from De Wetshof to the launch of this year's Limestone Hill Chardonnay. The launch was held at the recently opened Upper Bloem restaurant which, rather confusingly, is nowhere near Upper Bloem Road in Bo Kaap, but is on Main Road in Green Point, near the Stadium. This is a new venture for Chef Henry Vigar and his wife Mari, who have been very successful with their restaurant, La Mouette in Sea Point, where they played a great part in re-establishing Sea Point as a place to eat

We arrived just as everyone was entering the restaurant after tasting the wine on the terrace in front
The 2018 De Wetshof Limestone Hill.  It is the top seller of the six De Wetshof Chardonnays and is unwooded.. Limes and lemon blossom perfume on the friendly nose with some brioche, butter and jam hints from the lees. A good prickle on the tongue; the wine is fruity and rounded with citrus, apple, white peach and a little tropical hint, followed by some nice soft chalky tannins and minerality. It is MENU's wine of the week. R95 on the farm
Saying hello to Johan de Wet as he joined our table
PRO Emile Joubert gets the ball rolling as he introduces Johan 
Chef Henry Vigar and his wife Mari, who is in charge of the front of house. They want to showcase Cape food, and the nostalgia of it. It will be happy food, from the terroir of the Cape
Johan de Wet, CEO of De Wetshof wines. He told us that they learned a lot about the vintage and the vineyards this year. In the drought, they found that they can put more stress on the vines. It is a winemaker's vintage, with very healthy grapes. They thought that the wine would not be good, then suddenly, two months ago, the wine turned around, showing minerality, fruit and friendliness
Chef André Hill, who will run the restaurant for Chef Henry under his supervision
The menu. The food is served tapas style; all plates are for two people sharing
The bread plate: Rotis with fishy seaweed butter and very smooth smoked snoek paté with seeded samosa crisps and a teriyaki glaze
A signature starter of Chef Henry Vigar's is different flavoured croquettes or bitterballen. These are Boerenkaas, crisp on the outside, meltingly warm cheese inside, topped with shaved radish and an apple purée, with the teriyaki glaze
Onion shells filled with a Cape Malay pickled aubergine and caramelised onion chutney, topped with pomegranate aruls. Lots of spice and heat in an onion shell!
Chef plating up in on the pass
Happy Chef!
Working with the Beef Carpaccio
Pink and tender naked beef - au naturel
Roasted, caramelised sweet butternut with fennel, shaved coconut, a roasted seed mix and herbs. So well cooked, must copy for future dinner parties
The carpaccio of tender beef, fully dressed with very creamy roasted beef, agar agar mayonnaise, pickled baby mushrooms, nasturtium leaves and grated cheese. The beef had been briefly marinaded
Oh boy! An all time favourite when they are cooked like this. Triple cooked duck fat potatoes with Muizenberg sour figs, curry sauce, burnt Swiss chard and a bhadji crumb
Lamb neck biryani with toasted pistachio nuts and grains, pomegranate and dried herbs. Not pretty to look at, but a joy to eat. Tender lamb and flavourful rice. Might look better in a bowl
The dessert plate for two: Classic Koesuster donuts coated in coconut with a coffee cream, baby toffee apples, almond and pistachio nut clusters, topped with chocolate - a lovely mouthful and  frozen naartjie (clementine) curd with curry leaf. And a coffee for John
Johan de Wet and Mari Vigar
and for the birthday boy, Peter de Wet, some cup cakes
Winemaker Peter looking a bit overwhelmed
A lovely refreshing wine, a great lunch, a place to visit again soon. We can encourage you to try it
Posted by MENU at 9:28 pm 0 comments

Birthday lunch at Chefs Warehouse, Beau Constantia

We are great admirers of Chef Liam Tomlin and the innovative food he and his chefs prepare. On Lynne's birthday last year we celebrated at the Chefs Warehouse in Heritage Square in town. We have since been to Thali, his Indian restaurant. This year, she chose to go to the Chefs Warehouse at Beau Constantia. It was a grey and fairly chilly day but the views from the farm do make up for it
The wine tasting facility is on the top floor, the restaurant is below
Aross the valley you can see both Constantia Glen and Eagle's Nest wine farms
We arrived early for our 12 o'clock booking, so went to have a look at the vegetable and herb garden the chefs use
Even in winter, there are some good alternatives
Winter vines enjoying the good soaking they are getting this year and just waiting to burst into bud
They make lovely patterns across the steep slopes
Studying the lunch menu and making notes
  We asked if they would let us drink a very special bottle of wine and were very happy to pay the R80 corkage they allow on just one bottle. This lovely elegant wine has floral hints and the typical just struck gun flint notes, while, on the palate, it is lean and crisp with limes and lemons, minerality and length. It went so well with everything on the menu.  It's a Sauvignon Blanc from Pouilly-sur-Loire, in the Nièvre département of France
It has an open kitchen, so you can watch the professional chefs working so well and mostly in silence
We chose to eat from the Tapas menu - R800 for two
You get everything on this menu, served in three stages
Our lovely waitress Justine was very good at giving us a very full description of each dish
We began with two lovely crisp buttery slices of layered paratha topped with lime marinated, lightly seared angelfish, resting on cream and topped with a lime chutney and coriander sprouts. The spicy chutney made this dish, it was like popping candy! The fish was fresh, succulent and a bit shy
The second dish in the stage was slivers of oh so lightly smoked beef entrecote carpaccio, Vietnamese peanuts in a creamy sauce, topped with fresh herbs and puffed rice
Coal seared tuna, which made it smoky, topped with a light as air umami miso cream, warm Szechuan spiced cashews, silken tofu cubes and tempura crisp mustard greens. A great balance of different textures and flavours
  We shared the portion and this is it halved and on show out of its dark bowl
Vineyards through glasses, not darkly
When a risotto is cooked perfectly and the flavour is true, you have a wonderful dish like this green parsley and cheese risotto. It comes with horseradish, an onion soubise cream and fried ham hock that added the right amount of salt and smoke. So satisfying, so warming on a bitter winter's day
Described as a Sweet Potato and Corn Masa "Gratin" Toasted Parmesan Catalan, this was a delicate roll of thinly sliced potatoes set on its side, toasted on top, and served with a spicy moroccan lime vierge sauce and a warm corn 'chutney'. Topped with a crisp fried tapioca flour spiral, dusted with grated parmesan, and some lime segments. Complex but complete, a joy for vegetarians
The final stage of three dishes.  First a smoked linefish (Cape bream that day) Bhadji with very drisp batter, on a saffron and onion masala sauce, with curry bush and swiss chard dressing (the herb oil was outstanding), and it was finished with a lemon and milk paneeer sauce
There was magic on this plate. Tender, flavourful rich debonded lamb rib with a Gruyère cheese cream, even richer walnut caperberry and raisin jam, deep fried sage leaves and dots of a fruity red gel - berry or beet? The magic was the Puffed Pie Crust, dusted with cheese. As you picked up this light as air piece of pastry, it went pouff in your mouth and disappeared leaving just butteriness and flavour
The final piece de resistance Char grilled slices of smoky and tender venison, pink and tender in the middle, crisp outside, meltingly tender inside, parsnip beignets (why is this wonderful vegetable so neglected in the Cape?) Accompanied by a BBQ cashew nut purée, crisp crumb and a good treacly jus.  There were pieces of confit blood orange, something new for us. The taste of the venison changed completely when accompanied by this, good but it masked the enjoyable smoke
A superb meal, just one point is that the many of the dishes have a rich cream accompaniment and the richness of these does affect ones liver a little. The Sauvignon Blanc helped to cut it. Chef has now changed this menu for a new one, so do go and try it. He does this regularly according to the seasonal and local foods available.
We had not one inch of space for dessert, John managed an Espresso

Chef Ivor Jones hard at work on the Pass
The bill
Amusing and clever signage in the loo
Posted by MENU at 4:22 pm 0 comments

Thursday, August 16, 2018

This Week’s MENU. Mensa wine launch, Kanonkop, Diemersdal Sauvignons. Jenny Morris’ Yumcious restaurant, Venison sausages, KWV Mentors Shiraz

It never rains but it pours, and we’re not talking about the weather – we wish we were. A few weeks ago, it was a very quiet time and we were wondering how we would have enough stories to tell. Suddenly, there are almost too many events on our calendar. We have tasted some magnificent wines, with more to come and enjoyed some wonderful food. Some of it is in this week’s issue, more will follow in the next few weeks. We hope you’ll enjoy seeing them

Launch of Mensa - a new 'bestseller' with a twist     
An invitation from Overhex wines to taste and experience their new range of wines called Mensa. A first in South Africa is the interactive labels. Scan them with your phone and the secret story of the wine is revealed. And there is no barcode in sight. The wine is named after grandmother Emmarentia Cornelia, whose nickname it was, and it has no connection to the organisation for high IQ people. The launch was held at The Library in Kloof Street

Tasting and lunch at Kanonkop    
Who could refuse an invitation to taste a range of current and vintage wines at Kanonkop? This high flying cellar has always produced classy wines, wines that sell, wines that are respected and wines that win international and local awards. They wanted to give us an opportunity to taste older vintages so we could understand the style of wines they produce, how they age and understand why they make and stay with these styles. They are always questioning how to stay relevant in such a changing climate

Tasting Diemersdal Sauvignons at the cellar    
An invitation to Diemersdal to taste their newly released Sauvignons Blanc. Cellarmaster Thys Louw (a confessed Sauvignon Blanc addict) now has 10 Sauvignon Blancs in his range, all different and good. First was the new 2018 Winter Ferment Sauvignon Blanc

Jenny Morris launches a new restaurant in Durbanville: Yumcious    
TV and Radio chef and big personality, Jenny Morris is famous for her good cooking, her ebullient nature and sense of fun. Durbanville is in for a treat; she has now opened a second branch of her restaurant Yumcious (the first is in the Cape Quarter in Cape Town) in the De Ville shopping centre on the corner of Main and Wellington roads. We were invited to come for lunch on Sunday with some other media and bloggers. It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday having lunch.

What’s on the MENU this week. Venison sausages in red wine with beans

Venison or game meat like springbok is relatively inexpensive in the winter when it is in season and the sausages are very reasonable. This lovely one pot dish is easy to make, does not take long and tastes delicious. You could spice it up with a little chilli if you want to, we added a splash or two of Tabasco. If you don’t have the redcurrant or cranberry jellies, add a spoonful of honey. You need the sweetness. This feeds four. Click here or on the title to see the whole recipe


It was from our cellar, but Lynne spoke to Izelle van Blerk, the winemaker, and it is still available from the KWV Emporium

Light smoky oak, ripe cherries and berries, incense and minerality with pepper and cinnamon spice on the nose. Silky on the rich palate, complex with beautify bruléed fruit, black pepper warmth, some herbal notes and a long finish with a dark coffee wood on the end. All the grapes are from Paarl and the wine spent 18 months in oak. A classy wine perfect for venison and other rich spicy dishes. Delicious


16th August 2018
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2018
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Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169

Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005

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. 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. 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
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