Summer is flirting with us at the moment, we have
warm days then it is chilly and a little cloudy. Drought is with us again and
severe water restrictions in the Cape came into effect on the 1st of November,
so we just wish it would rain
Later than we intended, again. There simply
isn't enough time to attend functions, write notes, edit pictures, fix broken
bits of house etc., etc. but we enjoy pretty well all the things we report on,
and hope to entertain you with our stories
Restaurant Week Restaurant
Week now happens nationally twice a year, April and October. Selected
restaurants enter and often they are new venues needing exposure. For 10 days
you can have a 2 course lunch starting from R150 and a three course dinner from
R200. Better restaurants add stars and that means they can add R50 in
increments or stars, according to how good they think they are. You can view
the limited menu on offer on line and, if you register early as a VIP, you can
book before others. One thing we don't like is when restaurants don't publish a
menu and just say "We will surprise you". We won't go to those. What
if they served only something we don't eat, we dislike or are allergic to? Try
harder, it is all about attracting customers to your style of food; often we
have no idea what you serve. You will get more guests.
Restaurant
Week dinner at Raya Kitchen, Nelson Mandela Square We are generally so busy doing media
functions that we don't often get a chance to eat out at newer restaurants and
as we had a bit of a window between events, we grabbed the chance to visit two
that attracted us this time. Raya was originally an extension of Kitima, the
very popular Thai/Asian Restaurant in Hout Bay, but is now independently owned.
Now you can eat the same style of food in the centre of Cape Town, as they are
in the Mandela Rhodes Building on Wale Street
A
visit to Lanzerac, cellar tour, tasting, lunch and a look at the newly
refurbished accommodation Lanzerac
has been making changes since we last visited in 2013 when Christo Wiese sold
the farm. They invited us to come and see some of them and have some lunch last
week. We were delighted to find that Barend Barnard, whom we know from L'Avenir,
has just been appointed General manager. It was his first week. We had a great
wine tasting with winemaker Wynand Lategan and lunch with Barend
Lunch
at Burger & Lobster, Cape Town Another Restaurant Week place to try was Burger
and Lobster. It would be fair to say that crayfish or lobster is high on the
list Lynne's favourite foods. And John is rather fond of good Hamburgers. So,
when we saw this restaurant on the Restaurant Week list, it was almost a
foregone conclusion that we would go to find out what was on offer. And it's a
surprise, they offer only two dishes, a lobster roll and a hamburger
Stark-Condé
Vertical and Japanese lunch We received an invitation to Starke-Condé in the Jonkershoek Valley in
Stellenbosch. It
was an interesting invitation: The Japanese Ambassador to South Africa his
Excellency Mr. Shigeyuki Hiroki was to present Mr Hans Peter Schröder, joint
owner of Starke-Condé with a
Certificate of Commendation, on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Japan, for his role in fostering cultural relations with Japan. And after the
presentation we would be do a vertical tasting of Starke-Condés Three Pines Cabernet Sauvignon
Jonkershoek Valley from 2000. A first for this farm. Then a Japanese themed
luncheon. How could we refuse.
Launch
of the 2017 John Platter Wine Guide This is the quintessential guide of South
African wine. It is not totally comprehensive, some wineries do not wish to be
included but their names and contact details are included if not their wines.
We use it daily as a reference book and many of you use it as a travel guide
when you want to visit farms and as a purchase guide when choosing which wines
to buy. The 37th edition was released on the 31st of October and this year the
cover is Forest Green. We were at the launch and could taste all the five star
wines (95 to 100 points). Well nearly all. OK, some. There are 95 wines and 13
Brandy/Husk spirits with five stars.
Sunset
Beach Wines 6th birthday Mark
and Louise Herd, who own Sunset Beach Wines in Table View, invited us to join
them when they held a party to celebrate their 6th birthday. Mark can be seen
at every important tasting, keeping up with developments, to make sure that
customers in the Blaauwberg area have an excellent choice
How NOT to We don't want to sound too precious, but
sometimes we have a restaurant experience we don't want to repeat. We suspect
that it's a familiar experience for some of you too. At a recent visit to a
Waterfront restaurant - not one we have written about in this issue, why would
we? This is what they did wrong. The food was good, it usually is. They just
got almost everything else wrong.
1. They now
have outside seating and good views, both with ample seating but we were put
right at the back, next to both the busy kitchen and toilet entrance. Not our
favourite spot. Is this how they treat pensioners?
2. They didn't
tell us about the Wednesday special, but we knew it existed, which was why we
were there. So we asked for it. (We then told all the foreigners being seated
next to us about it! and they were delighted).
3. The
lighting - in a new space - was atrocious. Get this right please restaurants,
we want to see our food
4. There was a
large hair in on John's hamburger, we pointed it out, they ignored us
5. The portion
of excellent ribs Lynne was served was enormous so we asked for a doggie bag.
Refused point blank, said they don't do it on specials. Why? We know they do it
normally. So she simply wrapped the food in a napkin and put it in her handbag.
Why don't you offer a half portion on your menu, it would be popular
6. When the
bill arrived, it was full charge for both dishes. We made them change it to the
special
7. Service was
very attentive, but only when we didn't need them. The bill took forever to
come and we needed to be somewhere else
Will
we be back? Ummmmmm
This
recipe makes 12 individual tarts . We bought the tart cases ready made, but you
can make your own and prebake them. Use a short crust pastry. When they are
cooked and turned out, you make these two fillings, fill, cool and serve, so
the pastry does not get cooked again.
Salted
Caramel: ½ cup (125ml) single (pouring) cream - 25g butter - 165g white sugar -
¼ cup water - sea salt flakes
Before
you start have the butter and cream ready and waiting on the side of the stove.
In a small pan, mix the sugar and the water and bring to a boil. Let it reach
150⁰C and turn to
a nice dark (but not burnt) caramel. Remove from the heat and immediate put in
the butter and cream. It will bubble up alarmingly, stir well until it
subsides. Do not touch at this stage, it is like lava and will burn you. When
it has cooled somewhat and you can taste a drop of it, add the salt to your
taste, a quarter teaspoon is probably enough. Fill each tart case with the
caramel to 2/3rd full. Leave space for the chocolate. Set aside to cool. When
it has done so, it is time to make the ganache
Chocolate
Ganache
75
g of good 70% or 85% dark chocolate - 1/4 cup of cream - a little sugar if
necessary
Break
up the chocolate and begin to melt it over warm water. Heat the cream
separately to just below boiling point - it must not boil. Add to the melting
chocolate and stir well till it combines into a thick ganache. If you overheat
it, it will not be shiny. Taste and add a little sugar if it is too bitter for
you, a teaspoon or 2 should do it. But don't forget the caramel is very sweet.
Pour on enough to fill the tarts. Decorate each one with something small, like
gold leaf, gold dust or a tiny edible flower
Nitida CWG 2010 Decorous Sauvignon Blanc, made by Bernhard Veller. Lynne bid for and got this wine on the Silent Auction
at the Cape Winemakers Guild Auction a couple of years ago. We drank it this
week with dinner guests. It shows so well how Sauvignon Blanc can age if kept
in suitable storage. It is full of green peppers and elderflowers, gooseberries
and lemons, but deep and full rather than racy and crisp. It went so well with
the fresh tomato soup we served, adding to the soup, rather than overwhelming
it
Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172
/ 083 656 4169
Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point
8005
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
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