Thursday, May 05, 2022

Freedom Day Street party in Regent Street, Sea Point

Sea Point came alive on our Freedom Day public holiday. Regent Road was closed off to cars from Church Road down to Solomons Road. And it was such fun. Perhaps not for people trying to get home at 6, who had to divert to Kloof Road or Beach Road, but residents came out in droves, both during the day and until 9 at night. We decided to go at 6 and see "what was occurring". We started at the Church Street end

There were all sorts of businesses on the street, like this popular Lamb Spit roast
R150 for Lamb and Chips and R120 for lamb on a bun

The Mojo market was pumping and people were happy sitting out on the pavement enjoying the passing parade

Two venues selling draught beer, one was craft beer from Lowland Spring, the other was Heineken

and the bars inside MOJO were busy

Seating on two floors

Outside the Clarensville, a good Reggae Band

and people could bring their dogs too, as well as children in prams

As we went further down the road and it became darker, it began to be quite crowded

and certain restaurants like Kama (our favourite Sushi place), Sundoo and 3 Wise Monkeys were really popular

Another band outside Spar was keeping people happy

Some were bopping along and many of us were singing along!

We heard that Latitude was selling large gin cocktails and beers; we were thirsty, so beer it was

We met friends who live in Sea Point and Green Point and stopped for a chat while we enjoyed our drinks and then, at 8, we went seeking something for dinner. We decided to try The Greek Fisherman which has moved from the V&A Waterfront and taken over the La Mouette/Europa building. (See our article about that)

Will this happen again? We hope so, but then we don’t live on Regent Road, so we wait to see what the neighbours think. We are sure that the businesses involved, who have been very quiet during lock down, had a great day. We chatted to two local police officers on our way home at 9 about how well behaved it had been. There was some discarded rubbish, but not much, plenty of bins had been provided and used

All our stories can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right

If you do not wish to receive e-mails from us, please email menucape@gmail.com with the word 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in your email

Posted by MENU at 5:16 pm 0 comments

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Breakfast at Lourensford

 














Posted by MENU at 6:24 pm 0 comments

In MENU This Week – Muratie’s Summer Wine Down, Massimo's, Dias Tavern, Irish whiskey, Raw juices




Ancient oaks and Groot Constantia manor house

Eight working hours in the week. That is what we have lost to “load shedding”, and that is just this household. Multiply that by all the businesses and homes in South Africa and one cannot begin to calculate the cost of the mismanagement and corruption in our government over the past twenty years or more. And that is only related to electricity supply. But the good news is that we have had some good meals, in restaurants and at home and one superb event on one of our favourite wine estates. We tell you about some of them here.

Muratie’s Summer Wine Down

The good news is that many Cape wine farms are reporting that 2022 has had a great harvest (it has been a long slow cool year with a little heat excitement at the end) and that it will be a good vintage. We love harvest time and being invited to harvest celebrations, so accepted when we were invited by Rijk Melck to attend Muratie’s second Summer Wine Down on Saturday 9th April to celebrate another fruitful harvest. The last two years have seen a very long period of trials and isolations, so it was so good to see peoples' unmasked faces and have a good laugh at life and its twists and turns. We have survived. So far 
Read On….

Pizzas and pasta lunch at Massimo's

When we heard that Massimo's in Hout Bay had been voted the best Pizza place in Africa we decided it was time we went. Neither of us is a huge fan of Pizza but we do enjoy it when it is really good. And we had never been to this renowned restaurant. We made a date with friends who live in the area for lunch this week. And they don’t just do Pizza, but Spuntini (Italian tapas style dishes) Salads and Pasta. They do daily specials and there is a Kids menu and a Vegan menu, and we discovered there is a wicked dessert selection. 
Read On….

Lunch at Dias Tavern after a long break

Lynne's Goddaughter Nicolette was visiting us from Holland and brought her Portuguese friend Catia who has never been to South Africa but her parents had worked in Mozambique and Angola. Catia is a Professor of Economic History at Leiden University in Holland, with her speciality being the VOC, so she has an interest in our varied history and culture. We mentioned Diaz Tavern (known locally as The Portuguese Embassy) and they were really keen to go. So lunch it was. 

Read On….

Tasting O'Connell Irish Whiskeys with Hector McBeth and Daithi O'Connell

Hector McBeth of WhiskyShop invited us to a tasting of premium Irish Whiskeys. collated by Irish whiskey negociant Daithi O'Connell. The tasting was held at The Gin Emporium in the V&A Waterfront, which also houses WhiskyShop, where Hector McBeth sells a very large selection of excellent Scotch whiskies, Irish whiskeys and others from all over the world. The building has the most amazing views and Lynne would have loved to have moved in! She has an affinity with water. Apparently, it was the show house for the developments in the Waterfront and has now been converted into business premises housing the Whiskey Shop and Gin Emporium. What a location, on the edge of the yacht basin. 
Read on…

Raw Berry Juices

Recently, we were brought a sample pack of juices by a colleague in the food industry. There is an assortment of juices, some pure fruit or vegetable, others blends of fruits and/or vegetables, all cold-pressed. They claim significant health benefits; we were more concerned with flavour. We have been trying them with lunch and have enjoyed most of them. Our qualification is that we did not enjoy all the flavours, but that is down to individual tastes, such as our mutual dislike of cucumber. Most of them were very good, with very concentrated flavours; they could also be enjoyed diluted 50% with water. You can see the whole story at https://therawberrypress.co.za/.

All our stories can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right

If you do not wish to receive e-mails from us, please email menucape@gmail.com with the word 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in your email

Posted by MENU at 1:06 pm 0 comments

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Tasting O'Connell Irish Whiskeys with Hector McBeth and Daithi O'Connell

Hector McBeth of WhiskyShop invited us to a tasting of premium Irish Whiskeys
collated by Irish whiskey negociant Daithi O'Connell

The tasting was held at The Gin Emporium in the V&A Waterfront, which also houses WhiskyShop,
where Hector McBeth sells a very large selection of excellent Scotch whiskies, Irish whiskeys
and others from all over the world

The building has the most amazing views and Lynne would have loved to have moved in! She has an affinity with water. Apparently, it was the show house for the developments in the Waterfront and has now been converted into business premises housing the Whiskey Shop and Gin Emporium. What a location, on the edge of the yacht basin

Four Gins are on offer at the Gin Emporium. We were not offered a tasting of them

They do have an Aroma Wheel and descriptions of the four Gins

A highball to start was offered, made from Ginger ale, a Naartjie shrub and Campari (a shrub is a concentrated syrup that combines fruit, sugar, and vinegar. Apple cider vinegar is the most common base for shrubs, and herbs and spices are often added to create interesting flavour combinations). It was very refreshing, somewhat like a good ginger beer

While we waited for the people to attend to arrive, we watched the activity in the harbour
There were crews practicing Dragon Boat racing - when Lynne worked for Safmarine they had a successful boat
And we watched some very impressive boats and yachts steaming home after a day at sea
- how the other 10% wealthy live

All set to begin

Tables filling up with media and guests

Hector McBeth, co-owner of WhiskyShop

Compère and broadcaster Guy McDonald. He works with Hector as Two Macs and a Dram

Daithi O'Connell is a Bottler and Bonder. His company WD O’Connell is a very different kind of whiskey maker. Their headquarters are in Kilmacthomas, County Waterford, Eire. They do not have a distillery and they are not trying to build one. They bottle & blend the best spirits they can find, to curate a bottle and cask library that matches their adventurous spirit. They seek out the finest new-make and mature spirits from the best of Ireland’s distillers. Working with peated whiskey; single grains; they cherish an all-sherry cask strength release. They are happy to re-mature whiskey in a Madeira cask, and source the best Scotch whisky Islay has to offer. He had just arrived that day from Ireland

He told us all about his company and how he had started in April 2019, when he bought his first cask of whiskey. Now they have a 1000 sq metre warehouse for blending, bottling and maturation racking and another building of 800 sq. metres which they will expand into a History of Whiskey exhibition

Time to taste. We are experienced whisk(e)y tasters as well as wine! And we always have a good bottle or two at home

We were to taste these three Whiskeys. The first a 10 year old single grain Bourbon and Rye cask Irish Whiskey

On the nose caramel and spice with a hint of oak and green herbs
On the palate we tasted toffee, vanilla and cinnamon milk chocolate and, yes, some honey
Some salty caramel on the end

Bill Phil is a single Malt peated Irish whiskey, it is named for Daithi 's great grandfather - see the back label below

Honey and spice and peaty earth notes, long flavours with the peat and wood from the first fill ex Bourbon casks
It becomes a little softer with a drop of water. You need to be a fan of peated whiskey; those who were enjoyed it a lot

Then a limited edition 12 year old Irish single malt; cask strength (59.5% proof) from a single sherry cask

Lots of cardamom spice, caramel and smoke on the nose
Unadulterated, it is hot with alcohol, we are not used to so much
It did need a drop or two of water to calm it, which brought out the spice, hazelnut, cigar smoke and fruit flavours
We really enjoyed this one

All these whiskeys and many more can be ordered from Hector at the WhiskyShop https://whiskyshop.co.za/

As we left, the Waterfront was aglow with all its night illuminations

The tasting was followed by public tastings in Cape Town and Johannesburg
of the international range of whiskies sold by WhiskyShop

The WhiskyShop price list


All our stories can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right

If you do not wish to receive e-mails from us, please email menucape@gmail.com with the word 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in your email

Posted by MENU at 1:10 pm 0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)