Where to celebrate
Lynne’s Birthday? We knew after our busy week that we were going to be extra busy on
Thursday, writing and editing MENU and processing photographs. So we couldn’t go
out of town. We attended a function at Societi recently and were extremely
impressed with the food. It had been rather a long time since we last ate
there. They had a table and off we
went. It was buzzing and is obviously one
of Cape Town’s most popular restaurants. They run monthly specials featuring French regional food and you can mix
these in with courses off the blackboard menu. It turned out to be a very funny
and enjoyable evening, with a surprise ending.
It is in a lovely old Cape house on Orange Street
Despite the slight chill, people were happy to sit outside and eat,
wait for tables to become free inside or just have a drink
Our table for two. Next to us was a party of French tourists loving Cape
Town and the food at Societi
How we prefer our water, from a tap. And this is how it is served in the restaurant, endorsed by the World
Wildlife Fund
A special bottle of Cape Point Isleidh 2007 “Birthday” wine from our cellar,
commanded by the birthday girl
And it turned out to be very special as it had been signed by the
winemaker, Duncan Savage. It was delicious, as always. Who says our white wines can't age well. This was still beautifully fresh
A surprise gift from the kitchen, a small amuse of some of the starters
on that nights menu. From the left: lemon pickled courgette slices with creamy
goats cheese on seed load – one to try at home, a delicious slightly smoked
oyster soup and tangy black olives with a hot harissa on a parmesan crisp base, topped with flaked parmesan. Very clever and a lovely taste sensation.
The current menu
The ‘Tour through France’ menu of the week and the area was Normandy.
Who can resist Tarte Tatin?
Lynne’s starter of marrow bones with crisp ciabatta. They were
sensational, very good on a Banting diet but
it did need one of the slices of
bread to assist the path to one’s mouth. In fact all she could manage were two
marrow bones as they were lovely and big. There is a nice sharp caper, parsley
and red onion relish to contrast the fattiness
John had the succulent Moules (mussels) in cider from the Normandy menu
We had been sent a case of some of the new Perdeberg wines to taste and
we took this one, Joseph's Legacy, a blend of
Shiraz, Cabernet, Petite Verdot and Mourvedre along to go with supper.
Thank you Peter for letting us do so. We need all the opportunities we can get
to taste wines with good food. We can
heartily recommend this good value selection, particularly the Reserve Barrel
Fermented Chenin, which delivers so much class that you could imagine you were
paying R210 a bottle from the Helderberg rather than approximately R70 from the
Perdeberg. Their MCC sparkler, made from Chenin, is also worthy of a purchase. Check out their website http://www.perdeberg.co.za where you can order on line. They are also
definitely worth a visit as the area is close to Cape Town and very beautiful
and very unexplored by us Capetonians
Lynne wanted seafood for her birthday. How perfect is a platter of huge
prawns cooked in garlic, butter, lemon and a little chilli?
That came with a good, well dressed salad
John went for a very traditional but excellent Steak au Poivre, with
green peppercorns, a brandy cream sauce, wilted spinach and good crisp chips
Dessert for Lynne came with two surprises. John managed to capture one,
the sparkler which was on the plate but failed to notice that Peter had send
the waiter ‘topless’! So sadly no photo of him. Lynne was in hysterics and
thought it very amusing and quite sweet, even at her advanced age. The Tarte Tatin was more like an apple pie baked the right way up, but was very enjoyable,
as was the whole evening
What was left of John’s dessert, because he enjoyed it so much he forgot
to take a photograph
The kitchen sent him another sample to photograph (on its way to another
customer) so he could capture the wickedness for you to see. Thank you all for a lovely birthday
experience
Most photographs were taken by candlelight, which will account for colour variations and unsharpness
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014
