Friday, June 20, 2014
Thursday, June 19, 2014
140619 Main Ingredient's MENU - Sense of Taste, KWV Fortifieds, Burgundy Festival, Calitzdorp Port Festival
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A misty rainbow
behind De Ou Pastorie between Oudtshoorn and Calitzdorp
In
this week’s MENU:
Calitzdorp Port
Festival KWV Fortified Wines
at Societi Bistro Burgundy Lovers’
Festival at The Vineyard Hotel Sense of Taste Culinary Arts School launch
To get the whole of our story, please
click on MORE... at the end of
each paragraph, which will lead you to the blog with pictures. At the end of each
blog, click on RETURN
TO MENU to come back.
This week’s Product menu – This is definitely
Cassoulet weather. This once a year rib-sticking but slightly
sophisticated country dish is only possible with good duck confit and the
correct white beans, both from France. And you can get them from us........ See them here.
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.
This has been another very busy
work-filled week and we have
certainly moved around the country and had a great deal of entertainment and
fun. Winter breaks are always so rewarding when you have been working so hard
and we have tried to blend work with travel and great events, despite the cold
and wet weather. Following our visit to the Calitzdorp Port Festival, we had a
welcome break, as we had been invited to review some very nice accommodation in
Knysna and Hermanus, which we will be writing about next week. John still has
to process lots of great photographs when we get home! We have two more events
on Wednesday and another on Thursday (which we will write about next week) so
this week’s MENU is being done on our laptops while we are travelling.
“Port” in South Africa – an explanation Officially,
we are no longer allowed to call the fortified wines we make in the port style,
“Port”. But no-one yet has come up with a better name (as was done for
Champagne, our local equivalent that we now call Methode Cap Classique or MCC).
We are writing this week about the Port Festival and that is what the
organizers call it. So we have continued to use the word port so our readers
will not be confused when we write about tastings we do of ports and wines made from port varietals like
Tinta Barocca etc.
Calitzdorp Port Festival Have
you ever visited the quiet and very hospitable little town of Calitzdorp in the
Karoo? We have once before, but have always wanted to attend their famous Port
Festival. On Saturday, we left home really early and drove the 375 Km through
to Calitzdorp for this annual festival of Port and the other delights which Calitzdorp
wine farms produce. They organise a weekend crammed full of events and the
restaurants come to the party as well. Calitzdorp was so full we had to book
ourselves into accommodation in Oudtshoorn and drove the 47 Km back and forth,
but it was worth it. MORE.....
We arrived at the festival site at the old station a
little before midday and went straight into the hall for a tasting of some
ports, wines made with port grapes and some muscadels and other sweet wines. We
started at Mike Neebe’s Axe Hill stand and love his cleverly named wine
Distinta, made from Shiraz and Tinta Barocca. Plus his 4 star Cape Vintage Port
and his Cape White Port. Next door to him was old mate Peter Bayly with his
terrific hand crafted 4 star Cape Vintage Port, excellent White Port and his
red blend made from Port varietals and named simply III. Peter recently received a gold medal for his
Cape Vintage 2004 at the Port Producers Awards. We also
tasted through the TTT range and some Bernheim and John tasted some of Margaux
Nel and Leon Coetzee’s very interesting Vagabond Viognier and Hoeksteen Chenin.
MORE.....
After a quick Kudu burger it was off to Boplaas for a
pairing of port, port varietal wines and brownies. It was a great deal of fun
but, most of us agreed, the sweet and decadent flour free brownies (made by
Eric Labuschagne of Yummi in Stellenbosch) do go better with the port than the table
wine. MORE.....
That evening we joined Boets Nel at De Krans for one
of their ‘secret’ dinners. This was entitled Boere Barok and the mystery chefs
were Francois Ferreira and Toinette du Toit. We had a selection of very
enjoyable Calitzdorp wines and ports with dinner, including some of Boets Nel’s
De Krans Cape Vintage 2011 which won the Miles Mossop Trophy for Best Cape Port
at the Old Mutual Awards. MORE.....
Next morning we had a lovely breakfast at Handelshuis before
leaving for Knysna. Thank you so much Calitzdorp. MORE.....
KWV Fortified Wines at Societi Bistro
Another chance for us to taste some of these lovely local treasures,
which we so wish more people would drink and appreciate. KWV successfully,
deservedly and successively capture trophies and awards for this category of
wines. From a stunning dry fino sherry (which we tried to persuade Richard Rowe
to market in a smaller bottle and more aggressively so we can find it) to a
museum class Full Cream made from 44 year old vines and the Tawny Port from a
25 year solera, it was indeed a discovery of the Jewels of KWV wines.
The wines were matched with really impressive food
from Societi Bistro, a place we feel we have neglected of late and it is due
for a return soon. Lynne is still dreaming of the salt baked camembert with the
Tawny Port and the Chicken liver parfait with the red Muscadel…. yes please, more......
These wines match so well with all food, not just dessert, to which they are
usually restricted by people who have not experimented. MORE.....
Burgundy Lovers’ Festival at The Vineyard
Hotel This annual festival, run by Wine
Concepts, showcases some of the very best Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs that we
make in South Africa and this year it was so difficult to choose favourites as
the quality of both has increased so markedly. It is also held in Johannesburg
and all the wines are on special at the festival. Many of the wines we love
have already been mentioned recently, as they have won prestigious awards, but
we can still point you to some more great wines. Edgebaston 2013 Chardonnay
really impressed as did the Mulderbosch 2010 barrel fermented. The two
Springfield Chardonnays, Wild Yeast 2012 and Methode Ancienne 2009 are showing
beautifully. Richard Kershaw’s Elgin Clonal Selection Chardonnnay 2012 is a big
wine and very French in character as is the De Wetshof Bateleur 2012, while the
Vriesenhof 2013 Chardonnay is a great food wine. Our favourite on the night was
Glen Carlou’s Quartz Stone 2012.
We never manage to do the Pinot Noirs as much justice
as the Chardonays, as we always seem to run out of time, but we loved the
Crystallum 2012, Glen Carlou 2008 in a magnum, the slightly salty Strandveld
2010,and the very French Springfield Pinot Noir which Abri Bruwer has finally
released. He is such a perfectionist... MORE.....
Sense of Taste Culinary Arts School
launch This was held last week at the premises
of Sense of Taste in Maitland. We have done a short cooking course with the
owner Pete Ayub and know what a good teacher he is. We think this two year City
and Guilds course will equip the students for a good career in the food
industry. MORE....
No recipe this week, sadly, as Lynne hasn’t cooked
anything exciting while travelling. We both gained a kilo this week. Damn. But
not surprised.
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 and drives
the wheels that enable us to produce MENU possible. 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. If you wish to come to our
home, please phone ahead to ensure that we have what you want in stock and to
make sure that we are at home. We are often out!
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.
In addition to the
new Sense of
Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs courses for keen
home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details 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 Thursday evenings and she has decided to
introduce LCHF (Banting classes). The Kitchen Confidence classes, which focus
on essential cooking skills and methods, have been expanded and are now taught
over 2 evenings. She continues to host private dining and culinary team
building events at her home. She trained with Raymond Blanc, and has been a
professional chef for 25 years. More info
here
20th June 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
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Wednesday, June 18, 2014
A night at Oasis Shanti Backpackers, Oudtshoorn
We decided to go to the Port Festival in Calitzdorp rather late and all
the available accommodation there was full, so we spent the night in the closest
accommodation we could find which was in Oudtshoorn. It turned out to be a very reasonable
backpackers. Both of us stayed in a few of these in our youthful trips around
Europe and we are delighted to report that they have improved immensely. You no longer have to take your own sheets!
A beautiful late afternoon scene over the Karoo on the road to Oudtshoorn, which
is only about 47 kilometers from Calitzdorp
Oasis Shanti backpackers is in a large old house in what obviously was
once a very prosperous neighbourhood but now is a little run down, most of the
Ostrich money having left Oudtshoorn several
decades ago
The side view
and the large car park
Seating under the tree by the swimming pool for better weather
Our spacious and clean bedroom had an electric blanket and heating and
all linen was provided bar towels, which we took with us
A simple but adequate private bathroom and there were lots more communal
showers and loos down the hall
The dining room
Seats and table on the verandah
One of the guests was braaiing and the others were watching the Rugby in
the rec room.
There is a huge and well fitted kitchen. The price for our double
room with ensuite was R325 a night in
winter. Not bad for somewhere to lay our heads and leave early the next
morning. And the staff were very helpful. Oh, and it had the most comfortable mattress we slept on all week!
©John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014
Chocolate and Port pairing tasting at Boplaas, Calitzdorp
Boplaas tasting room entrance in the sunshine
The tasting room was very busy doing tastings and making sales and there
was a Festival special to tempt you – a white blend called Fees Gees at R25 a
bottle.
And of course some of the award winning dessert wines and Ports
The selection of five ports and five wines and the brownies to be paired
with them, plus two very unusual savoury filled macaroons. One was a chicken
liver flavour and the other a blue cheese. The blue cheese went well with both
the wine and the port but the sweet brownies, and they were delicious, did fight
a little with the dry wines.
Chef Francois Ferreira took us through the tasting and made us laugh a
lot.
We loved his humour. “When I first drank this I was young and
beautiful.... now I am just ‘and’” ! The bottles in front of him are what we
tasted with the brownies and macaroons.
Francois with Eric Laubuschagne, who made the brownies and macaroons.
His company Yummi is in Stellenbosch and he really knows his stuff. They are
completely wheat and gluten free, moist and full of the very best chocolate and
other ingredients and flavours.
An excellent selection to taste of an afternoon
©John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Sunday morning drive from Oudtshoorn to Calitzdorp for breakfast at Handelshuis then via Groenekloof to Knysna
A typical Karoo road, the Romans could have
built this, it is so straight
Wonderful morning light on the hills
We followed rainbows all day. This is De Ou
Pastorie. Looks a bit like the Russian Steppes
Storm clouds coming in. Our car parked on the
side of the road while John takes photographs
Another wonderful rainbow
The interior of Die Handelshuis café – we had
several recommendations to have breakfast there
Lots of local charm and many fun signs
This one says it all
A nice arrangement!
The menu
Because of these Angels, Lynne kept calling
this De Hemelshuis. Must have come from an old church.
John popped outside while we were waiting for
breakfast to photograph the quiet Sunday streets
The local museum
The outside of Die Handelshuis
One of the many B and B’s
The lightest omelette in the world. Made by beating the whites till stiff and
then folding in the rest of the egg. As fluffy as a soufflé
The Full
House breakfast for Lynne. Superbly
fresh eggs and very good Boerewors.
They obviously have some strange customers
When men were men and beer was beer...
The owner with two of her regular locals
A wild flower blooming on the side of the
road
We took the route less travelled down the Groenfontein road on our way back to Oudtshoorn and onwards to Knysna. There are lots of art galleries down this
road and Peter Bayly’s farm and others
Having a look at art and pottery on a Sunday
morning. We know the owners, they also have a gallery at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock
A nice view through the trees of Peter and
Yvonne Bayly's home farm
Some locals on the road next to an aloe covered
Kloof
A farm nestled in the hills. Many of the
houses and farms are painted cream and white and have green roofs. It looks very traditional and fits into the
landscape very well
Down the steep wandering road. The surface had
just been graded so it was an easy trip of just over an hour with very beautiful scenery
Full dams, rolling hills and high mountains
shrouded in cloud on a chilly and wet winter Sunday
Such a thrill to see this raptor so close
up. It was resting on a post on the side
of the road and flew off as John pointed the camera at it. We saw so many birds on our trip to Calitzdorp.
Definitely a place to revisit.
©John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014
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