Tokara
Wonderful
effects of lighting and art at night 
Richard
Carstens, the chef, briefing his staff in the open restaurant kitchen
Getting seated
with a nice warm fire in the background
The Chefs Menu
– This changes often
Starters on
the Main Menu
Mains on the Menu
Desserts on
offer
The current
Winter Set Menu.
Very good value - four courses with an intermezzo and a glass
of wine for R250 a person.
Our first
starter
A Frozen butternut dome with grain mustard ice cream, salmon caviar,
coconut foam and rocket. The refreshing
butternut sorbet went so well with the savoury and almost marmitey mustard ice
cream. The caviar bubbles gave notes of excitement with each bite and the
coconut sauce brought it all together . The rocket is the green gel on top of
the sorbet.
Reflections in
the glass window
Next came a perfect
light pasta prawn ravioli where you could taste the prawn, with sole goujons,
tomato concasse , chervil and a silky mussel velouté. Really classy.
The roaring
fire was kept going all evening
Lynne’s choice
of soup: a supremely smooth sweetcorn velouté with popcorn, rocket and crisp chicken
ravioli ‘croutons’ so suited the cold night.
John’s choice
of starter was one of Richard’s signature dishes. A savoury baked Alaska on
rainbow trout, cucumber, citrus salsa, smoked salmon ice cream and ginger soy
and mirin sauce.
The sauce was phenomenal as a match for what topped it, adding
beautiful Asian notes to a fresh delicious dish.
Some of the
art in the foyer of Tokara
One of
Richards new dishes: dry aged roast carrot, gorgonzola, yoghurt, curry oil,
orange, macadamia white chocolate and herbs.
Improbably one thought this cannot
work and every element on the plate went well with the others. The meaty carrot
counterpointed with the citrus and the chocolate and the cheese was a poem.
A gentle dish
of turnip, pear, ponzu, celery, spinach, mozzarella cream, pumpkin seeds adding
a good crunch as a change in texture,
garlic and bonito flakes.
Our intermezzo
of a crisp and refreshing lime sorbet on rocket gel.
Lynne chose as her main course an intriguing Sunflower seed risotto, soya honey glazed
aubergine which was unctuous and sweet, coconut, lemongrass and ginger.
The
sunflowers are cooked in a pressure cooker so are no crisp but more like a
grain.
John had to
have the Confit duck leg set on a sweet orange potato puree, crisp croquettes sprinkled
with roasted almonds, crisp beans and courgettes as a vegetable and a cumin
gastrique.
Delicious.
Our dessert,
one we have had before, is Richard’s White chocolate egg with baby meringues,
lemon mascarpone mousse, white chocolate mousse, and an almond financier.
 |
| Luckily, we shared this one as we were ready to roll home without the car... |
All these photographs are ©John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc 2012
