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Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
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In
this week’s MENU:
Taste of Cape Town Twist Some More Dunstone Nabygelegen Van
Ryn Allesverloren
Launch TvM
Trade Tasting Vineyard’s
Pinot showcase
This week’s Product menu – Christmas seems as
though it was just the other day, and here come Easter and Pesach. We are
all sure to be looking forward to special celebratory family meals. Duck and Goose Fat are wonderful if
you want the best roast potatoes, and they are so healthy that they make the
spuds marginally more acceptable if you are on a Banting diet. Confit duck is delicious if you
want a quick way to enjoy the best French duck and it is also great for duck
dishes, duck salad and of course it comes with a generous amount of duck fat in
the tin.
If you can find it in the supermarket, we don't
usually stock it, just the products you would struggle to find.... Check our online shop to see more details and prices.
We have certainly moved about
the countryside this week
Taste of Cape Town Last Thursday saw us at the opening of
this fun food festival that is now in its 7th year. It did look much larger
than in previous years and we had a great time, but it was, perhaps, not as
concentrated on fine dining as before. We know that chefs find it hard to cater
at prices that have changed little in that time while costs have soared, and
perhaps that is why there were fewer of the chefs we have seen previously. The
festival was well attended and seemed very busy with people enjoying themselves.
Click here to see the pictures
Wellington again and Twist Some More restaurant Last Friday, we went off on a jaunt to
Wellington. We made a short stop at Windmeul wine cellar and had a
quick taste of their wines and then suddenly it was lunchtime, so we visited Twist Some
More which is one of the best places to eat when in
Wellington. We had a fine lunch. Click here to see the pictures
Dunstone Then it was off to Dunstone Guest House
where we had been invited to spend a night and write about it . They have a
summer special on where you can do dinner bed and breakfast for R995 and we
were put up in their Guava cottage where we spent a relaxing afternoon evening
and breakfasted the next morning. See the pictures here
Nabygelegen James McKenzie is always worth a visit
when we are in this area and we dropped in to Nabygelegen for a chat before
leaving lovely Wellington. He surprised us by giving us a special tasting from
barrels and tanks in his cellar and we talked about doing something with him in
the winter. Pictures here
Van Ryn On Tuesday morning we found our way to Van Ryn
in Stellenbosch where we had been invited to do a brandy and chocolate pairing,
a tour of the distillery and then lunch in their elegant dining area. Have a look here at what we did.
Allesverloren Launch of three new wines On Wednesday we had a lovely trip through
the sunny and warm Boland to Allesverloren in Riebeek West where
we had a magnificent view of the valley from their stoep and enjoyed a lovely
lunch with owners Danie Malan and his wife, eating superb food prepared by Nic
van Wyk of Kokkedoor
fame and drinking three of their excellent wines, all of them new releases. Click here to learn more and see the day
TvM Trade Tasting Then it was a smoky trip back to Cape Town
to Harald Bresselschmidt’s function venue, Auslese, to attend what we regard
as one of the best trade wine tastings of the year. Tracy van Maaren represents
a very exciting list of wine farms and they all present some of their wines
cleverly matched with dishes prepared in Harald Bresselschmidt’s kitchen. With
many chefs, sommeliers and other trade friends attending, it is also a great
social event. Click here to see what we tasted and ate
Vineyard Sunday Don’t forget to get your tickets to the Vineyard’s
Pinot Noir showcase this Sunday. This is one tasting not to miss if you love
good Pinot Noir. The vineyard always lays on great snacks with these tastings.
R180 a ticket. We and several of our friends and customers will definitely be
there
Question Why are
the farms in the Boland allowed to burn their wheat stubble? The air pollution
in the Cape at the moment is horrible and we can attest to the fact that it is
being caused by this stubble burning. There is thick smog from Franschhoek
right across to Riebeek and beyond and all the way back to town. Lynne’s asthma
is really bad today and the flu she picked up last week is also making it very,
very difficult to breathe. Surely this is not allowed? Certainly in Europe it
has been banned for years. Why don’t they just plough in the stubble as compost
to help aerate the soil?
Buying from us On Line We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing
the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and
wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and delicious ready-made
gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our on line shop. We can send your requirements
to you anywhere in South Africa. Please do not pay until we have confirmed availability and invoiced
you, then you pay and then we deliver or post. When you make an eft payment, make sure
that it says who you are. Use the form on the website to email us your order. Click here to see our OnLine Shop.
There is a huge and rapidly growing
variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western
Cape. There
are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have
made separate list for each month for which we have information. To see what’s happening in our world of food
and wine (and a few other cultural events), visit
our Events Calendar.
All the events are listed in date order and we already have a large number of
exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Events outside the Western Cape are listed here.
Learn about wine and cooking We receive a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more
about wine.
Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine
education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see
details of Cathy’s WSET and other courses here
and here and the CWA courses here. Karen Glanfield has taken
over the UnWined
wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here. Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has cooking classes in
Fish Hoek and conducts cooking tours to Normandy. You can see
more details here.
Emma Freddi runs the Enrica Rocca cooking courses at her
home in Constantia. Brett Nussey’s Stir
Crazy courses are now being run from Dish Food and
Social’s premises in Main Road Observatory (opposite Groote Schuur hospital).
Lynn Angel runs the Kitchen Angel
cooking school and does private dinners at her home. She holds hands-on cooking
classes for small groups on Monday and Wednesday evenings. She trained with
Raymond Blanc, and has been a professional chef for 25 years. More info here
10th April 2014
Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best
to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we
can send it to you! Check our online shop for details and prices.
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.
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
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