Taste of Cape Town 2015

We went on the first evening this year and found it to be a lot more fun than last year, but with less impressive food. And on chatting to some of our hotel, restaurant, wine and cheffie friends, it seems that they want things back the way they were to start with or their presence might be missed next year. We can’t put our finger on what made it so much fun, perhaps seeing so many friends in the wine and food world as well as people attending whom we knew, but it was fun

We ate and really enjoyed food from two venues, the rest was OK but not terribly exciting to us. It seems that the top restaurants won’t come and do this as a purely PR exercise –would they need to? They don’t make money, but we think they are missing out on introducing new people to their excellent food

Tiny print on the programmes again made for fairly random eating; we ate what we found, until we had had enough. Planning our route would have been good

A merry crowd, but no rowdiness or drunkenness seen on the first night

Chef George Jardine (emulating John obviously) with Louise Starey of The Bakery at Jordan They were one of the Pop-Up restaurants for the evening – sad if you missed them, as they had the best food there. Yes, we are biased

The Jordan Pop-up menu. The baked egg tart with the melt in the mouth buttery pastry topped with truffle hollandaise was magnificent, the dish of the evening, followed closely by that Chocolate and caramel slice

Poor Chef David Hicks from the Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg was visiting the show and was presented with an apron and Shanghai’ed into helping George in the kitchen. So two great chefs together had good fun

The two savoury dishes from The Bakery at Jordan

We had the Crispy duck pancakes from Kitima in Hout Bay. Well, it was just one small pancake filled with very dry, overcooked duck

These were their three display dishes on their counter. We had a problem getting our heads around Dutch gouda cheese wrapped around Prawns but friends who had it said they liked it

Errieda du Toit of Kokkedoor fame, who was one of the organisers of the show

Long queues at one of the more popular stands

Char sui oxtail from Azure, gloriously tender with great rich flavours. We also had their Fisantekraal trout done two ways, Tequila cured gravadlax cut in a small round medallion and a superb smooth mousse, baked avocado and corn succotash, second best dish of the night. The duck pancake is from Kitima

More queues of mostly happy people

Lynne asked what the wine was at the Vingooo stand. The reply was White Wine. As it was not at all drinkable, we didn’t enquire further

A new wine for us was the 2013 Neil Joubert's Christine-Marie Blanc de Blanc MCC. We liked it very much and at R110 a bottle, worthy of purchase

The Azure menu – it is the restaurant at the Twelve Apostles Hotel

Old friend Gavin Ferreira, Assistant General Manager of the Twelve Apostles, trying to tempt Lynne into eating something. He succeeded admirably

Vaughan Walker was kept very busy with demand for sweet things on the Queen of Tarts stand

Roger Jørgensen, with the good range of spirits he makes in Wellington, meets Lidia and Linda Nobrega of Chapman's Peak Hotel in Hout Bay

His range with the prices

On the Domaine des Dieux stand tasting their Claudia MCC and new Rose of Sharon MCC Rosé

Lynne having a laugh with the lads & lass on the oyster stand. She can only admire

One of the richer stands, selling spirits and cocktails

Two of our favourites from Thelema/Sutherland, Melinda Jost & Michelle van Eeden having fun on the first night

Shall I, shan’t I?

The Villiera Tradition stand was very popular

Paul Kruger and Pascal el Azzi were great fun and very good at attracting customers

A glass of their Domaine Grier Rosé, from their French vineyard in Rousillon

And who should we find cooking on the Big Green Egg stand but chef Arnold Tanzer, down from Johannesburg for the show

Nearly time to close, so we did the brandy tasting, paired with chocolate. It works very well indeed and we all had a favourite. The chocolate is from De Villiers

Well dressed promoters Megan Venter and Cameron Stroebel on the Black Dog whisky stand

A cider from Sweden? We were too late to taste

There was a good selection of goods to purchase stands , charcuterie, sausages, chocolates, chilli sauces and preserves from The Little Herb Garden, cakes from Queen of Tarts and many others

The Speedy salted caramel tart from The Bakery at Jordan. Such delight

Burgers to go from the Ultimate Braai Master stand. Necessary nourishment at the end of the evening for Silwood students Kayleigh Wortley and Emilie Vidal

On the Paul René MCC stand (from Wonderfontein in Robertson) we found the owners Henk and Monica van Niekerk, Chef George Jardine with Chef Pete Goffe-Wood. A great way to end an evening.

Bottles for recycling after some enthusiastic MCC tasting

Strolling home in the fog

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

150409 This week's MENU -Daily Dish, Elgin Cool Wine Festival, Sing for your supper, Cookery course for domestics, Biltong and Pinotage Festival, Blaauwklippen Blending Competition, Bacon and Spinach Quiche

A common tern at sunset

In this week’s MENU:

 The Daily Dish

 The Elgin Cool Wine and Country Festival

 Sing for your supper

 Sense of Taste Cookery course for domestics

 Joubert & Monty Biltong and Pinotage Festival

 Blaauwklippen Blending Competition

 Bacon and Spinach Quiche

 Learn about wine and cooking

We write about our experiences in MENU, not only to entertain you, but to encourage you to visit the places and events that we do. We know you will enjoy them and we try to make each write up as graphic as we can, so you get a good picture of what is on offer at each place, restaurant, wine farm, festival we visit.

To get the whole story with photographs, please click on “Read on.....” at the end of each paragraph, which will lead you to the related blog, with pictures and more words. At the end of each blog, click on RETURN TO MENU to come back to the blog version of MENU.

A relaxing weekend     We have had a nice quiet Easter for a change, We were going to go away and suddenly the time slipped by, all our visitors went home and we decided just ‘kuiering’ (loose translation: comfortably and socially visiting) at home was going to be lovely and restful. Avoiding potential mayhem on the roads was an added incentive. We had so much to catch up with and also spending days doing exactly what you want to do - which might be absolutely nothing - was very appealing. Lynne has nearly caught up with Masterchef Australia, UK and Professional and Junior Bake Off and John did some gardening and watched some sport, which he loves, even though the Stormers’ match was a great disappointment!

The Daily Dish    “Daily Dish – South Africa's first internet start-up to offer a yummy, ready-to-prepare home meal kit delivery service – has partnered with Fairview to expand the company's foodie offering. “ We were asked to take part in an experiment by this company who deliver a hamper of food for four meals in a week with the recipe either for two people or four.

They offered to send us a box and we said great, we would then invite friends who are vegetarians and we would cook two of the dishes. We completely misunderstood what was in the boxes, we assumed we would be able to cook out of one box. What we actually received – and it was, impressively, delivered on Easter Monday - was two boxes, one for a Banting diet with four meals for two people and another Vegetarian box with another four meals for two. Which was extremely generous of them. We have cooked one vegetarian meal and three Banting meals so far. The last Banting meal of steak strips with peppercorn sauce will be cooked for supper tonight; then we will move on to the other three vegetarian dishes. This was because we had to use up the fresh meat supplied by today.

“This is directed at people who are too busy to cook, or those who simply relish the convenience of having recipes with exact ingredients that they can quickly and easily prepare delivered to their home or office. With its ultra-fresh ingredients, tasty recipes, and outstanding service, Daily Dish has grown so popular that the company was recently prompted to expand its delivery base to include Johannesburg and Pretoria, as well as suburbs and towns outside the Cape Metropole.”

If you are interested in this concept, have a look at their website www.dailydish.co.za for more information, recipes, and to register if you like the idea of this service. We have taken pictures of what we received and what we made and written the full story so Read On

The Elgin Cool Wine and Country Festival     This is going to be on the weekend of 2nd and 3rd of May and is usually great fun. If you can find accommodation and stay for the two days of the festival you will have a marvellous time sampling the events that the farms involved have planned. For instance Oneiric is not only opening its doors at the Cool Wine & Country Festival, but also throwing together the option of either lunch or an afternoon session with the incredible Watershed. Festival tickets to sample all 18 Elgin winerys’ wines over the two days can be booked through http://www.webtickets.co.za. To see what is on offer check out the Facebook page of Elgin Valley Tourism.

Sing for your supper     Something fun to try. We have been to one of these and had a great time. On Saturday 18 April at 7pm, opera singer Monika Voysey and chef Marc Wassung will join forces to present an elegant Spanish themed soirée that will feature glorious arias and food, at the beautiful Welgemeend Manor House, Welgemeend Street, Gardens. It starts at 7pm and tickets cost R350 per person, and includes sangria, tapas, a main course and dessert, and the opera concert. 
Booking is via 076 423 8191 or monika@singforyoursupper.co.za. Guests are encouraged to dress according to the theme.

Sense of Taste Cookery course for domestics     This is something we know some of you are looking for. The course is great way to train the Housekeepers to become more confident in the kitchen…..understand seasoning, cooking methods, knife skills etc. The current course starts on the 18^th of April and will be held on 5 consecutive Saturdays from 10 to 4 pm, so if you are interested contact Debbie Ayub at Sense of Taste 082 337 6240 Tel: 021 5110426 chef@senseoftaste.co.za or see their website www.senseoftaste.co.za/school/ for more information. This is an accredited City and Guilds course.

The first Joubert & Monty Biltong and Pinotage Festival will held on Saturday, 18 April 2015 from 11h00-18h00, at L’Avenir Wine Estate and will have 2 guided tastings at 12h00 and 14h00. Only 20 tasters can be accommodated per tasting. Pre-bookings are essential at info@lavenir.co.za, Tel: +27 21 889 5001 or Tasting Room: 076 267 9172. The cost is R50 per person. Ticket price at R150 pp includes a branded wine glass, free wine tastings, a biltong cup and coupon booklet. Bookings at www.plankton.mobi and selected Joubert and Monty outlets. Visit www.joubertandmonty.co.za or J&M’s Facebook page to find the outlet closest to you. Wineries taking part are: Anura Vineyards, Ayama Wines, Badsberg Wine Cellar, Beyerskloof Wines, Boland Cellar, Diemersfontein Wines, Kaapzicht Estate, Lanzerac Wine Estate, L’Avenir Wine Estate, Mellasat Vineyards, Perdeberg Wines, Rhebokskloof Vineyards, Remhoogte Wine Estate and Windmeul Cellar.

Blaauwklippen Blending Competition      It’s that time of year again. Call on all your wine club friends, because this year you could be the winner of the 32nd annual Blaauwklippen Blending Competition. Register on the Blaauwklippen website. http://www.blaauwklippen.com/bbc/wine-society-registration/

This week’s recipe is one from Daily Dish, the one we enjoyed the most. It’s a classic quiche, it just doesn’t have any pastry base, so it is probably more a frittata than a quiche. But there is nothing to prevent you from putting the contents into a pastry case should you wish to. The quantities are big, so we found the recipe for two might well do two meals.

Bacon and Spinach Quiche

For 4 (halve quantities if you want one for 2)

500g bacon, cut into thin strips – 1 red onion, finely chopped – 2 T butter – 1 t olive oil – 100g chard spinach, cut in strips – 175g mature cheddar, roughly grated – 125ml cream – 6 eggs – salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 200°C. Fry bacon in a dry pan over medium to high heat until done to your liking. (Crisp is good). Heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Cook onion for a few minutes until translucent. Turn the heat down and add the spinach, cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring until it wilts. Remove from the heat. Whisk together the eggs, cream, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Add the cheese, onion, spinach and bacon and stir well. Butter a large pie or quiche dish and pour in the mix. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until just done. Check by inserting a knife in the centre, it should come out clean. Let the quiche rest for 5 minutes before serving. Cut a slice for each plate.

Lynne did fry the bacon and then the onions in the same frying pan. We like our vegetables, so we accompanied this with steamed green beans and broccoli; you could also make a salad.

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

The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become professional chefs, has a variety of courses. See the details here

In addition to his Sense of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details here

Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek 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

Nicolette van Niekerk runs baking courses at La Petite Patisserie in Montague Gardens

George Jardine will be running a series of winter cooking courses and other activities at Jordan. Details here

9th April 2015

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.

We apologise if MENU caused your phone to bleep in the early hours. To send to our huge list of subscribers takes a long time and many of them receive it in the middle of the night. Might we suggest that your phone should not be activated to receive messages from us or from other sources in the witching hours? If your boss needs to contact you at that time, (s)he’s intruding on your valuable personal time.

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 apologise. Our Avast! ^® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.

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Ready to cook meals from Daily Dish

“Daily Dish – South Africa's first internet start-up to offer a yummy, ready-to-prepare home meal kit delivery service – has partnered with Fairview to expand the company's foodie offering. “ We were asked to take part in an experiment by this company who deliver a hamper of food for four meals in a week with the recipe either for 2 people or four.

They offered to send us a box and we said great, we would then invite friends who are vegetarians and we would cook two of the dishes. We completely misunderstood what was in the boxes, we assumed we would be able to cook out of one box. What we actually got – and it was impressively delivered on Easter Monday - was two boxes, one for a Banting diet with four meals for two people and another Vegetarian box with another four meals for two. Which was extremely generous of them. We have cooked one vegetarian meal and three Banting meals so far. The last Banting meal of steak strips with Peppercorn sauce will be cooked for supper tonight, then we will move on to the other three vegetarian dishes. This was because we had to use up the fresh meat supplied by today.

“This is directed at people who are too busy to cook, or those who simply relish the convenience of having recipes with exact ingredients that they can quickly and easily prepare delivered to their home or office. With its ultra-fresh ingredients, tasty recipes, and outstanding service, Daily Dish has grown so popular that the company was recently prompted to expand its delivery base to include Johannesburg and Pretoria, as well as suburbs and towns outside the Cape Metropole.”

If you are interested in this concept, have a look at their website www.dailydish.co.za for more information, recipes, and to register if you like the idea of this service. We have taken pictures of what we got and what we made and written the full story.

They don’t send you eggs, butter, oil, salt and pepper and foil, these you use from your pantry. We were a bit confused at the onions. We received two very large red onions and two small. Which should you use when they say half an onion?

The recipe and the ingredients supplied. Enough to make a Bacon and Spinach Quiche for two people, you add 3 eggs, butter and olive oil and seasoning. This was our favourite dish so far. The cheese supplied was interesting. When Lynne tasted it grated it had very little flavour indeed, but it was really present in a very good way in the quiche

The resulting dish. We like our bacon pieces big and crisp. We will be making this again, we liked it so much. No accompanying vegetables are supplied or suggested. We added steamed beans and broccoli, or you could do a mixed salad

Everything you need for Steak Strips and Peppercorn Sauce

The ingredients and recipe for the Green Curry Pork Stir Fry. We added more pork as we served three people with this dish as John’s daughter Clare also came for supper. There was plenty; enough for second helpings. We even enjoyed the cauli-rice, but perhaps that was because our steamer was not terribly efficient and the cauliflower was still a bit crisp. It works well in taking up the sauce. The recipe warns that the green curry paste is HOT, we didn’t agree. And we did need to add more fish sauce, as the dish lacked salt and depth of flavour. The pork was very tender and we enjoyed the dish. There is a lot of preparation on this dish (as there is in all stir fries) but it comes together very quickly in the wok

Our version of the Green Curry Pork stir fry

The recipe and ingredients for the Cajun Chicken and Avo. This was a good dish, quick to prepare and cook. The flavours and the textures were good and we really enjoyed it. BUT it is not a main course portion and you would want to add something else. We had cauli rice left over from the previous day, and Lynne also served some green beans. We don’t like eating raw onions, so Lynne blanches them in boiling water, cools them and then added them to the salsa so they don’t repeat so much. There was a temptation to add Nacho’s! But that wouldn't be Banting, would it? It doesn’t look very pretty, it's a little messy, so we didn’t photograph it

The Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie. This is more of a wintery dish for us and the size of the ingredients were huge, especially those sweet potatoes. Still to try

Mushroom and Basil Linguine recipe. This was what we cooked for our vegetarian guests on Monday night. Lynne thought 200g of linguine was not enough so she added 50g of spaghetti but it was more than enough. John was banished from the kitchen while she cooked the mushrooms, as he truly hates the smell of the food he is allergic to. The dish was very bland, despite Lynne adding lots of seasoning all along the way. In fact, during cooking she added fresh thyme to the mushrooms and a grating of nutmeg as well. The sauce was rather thin too. Suspect that adding an egg might have helped. We did supply some white truffle oil and more parmesan cheese from our larder when we discovered the lack of taste. This recipe needs work

The cooked linguine with mushrooms

Corn Fritters with Bocconcini Salsa

Lynne was going to cook this on Monday as the starter, but simply ran out of time. Preparing two complete dishes and a dessert was enough. It looks absolutely delicious and we can’t wait to try it

Our dessert was a recipe Lynne saw Donna Hay make on TV this week, a lemon pudding made with one whole lemon, sugar, eggs and corn flour. A great success although ours didn’t look at all like hers! And one of our guests found it very sweet. We topped it with real vanilla ice cream. Puddings are meant to be for cheating once a week

Haloumi with Broccoli and Sesame. This sounds good and it’s a huge head of broccoli. But will this have enough flavour? We will let you know

We were really delighted at the quality of all the goods in the boxes and the attention to detail. You can subscribe and receive a box a week. And if you don’t want one on a particular week, you are able to skip that week but you need to give them notice. We wondered why there are only 4 nights catered for? 5 might be better. Perhaps is a cost issue. Perhaps they assume Monday is left over night and the weekend is for going OUT!

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Vertical tasting of Inanda red blend at Yonder Hill

Winemaker Abé Beukes moved to Yonder Hill two years ago from Darling Cellars and he is enjoying his tenure at this farm, established by the Naude family in 1997. The draw card was a tasting of some of their Inanda (place of Beauty in Zulu), a Bordeaux blend, and then to have some fun, blending some of the new wines to see if our media blends compared with the professionals! Our table didn’t make the winning blend but we came a close joint second with two other tables

Welcomed by Winemaker Abé Beukes

The Yonder Hill tasting room

Getting the room ready for breakfast and the tasting

The wines we were to taste. In the decanter is their top wine, 2009 Nicola, a classic Bordeaux style blend. It had lots of sweet fruit with grippy, chalky tannins. Smells herbaceous with smoky oak and savoury notes before the fruit appears. The palate is full of nice sweet plums and cherries and a kick of cherry pip wood. It has a lovely finish of violets from the small amount of Petit Verdot they add. Drinking well now, but will last

A butt full of Inanda

Ladies from the media, all dressed in blue, by coincidence, chat before the tasting

There was good coffee, muffins, smoked salmon egg wraps and toasted cheese sandwiches. Or fruit and yoghurt and muesli for breakfast before the tasting. We arrived at 9 and started tasting at 10. An early start

Catching up on the media gossip

John would never miss this wine box lid, it is his favourite Bordeaux

Owner Mr Naude welcomes us and tells us about the wines we will be tasting

Autumn hits the vines

Tasting begins. We tasted three. 2008, 2009 and the 2013. And then a barrel sample of the 2014. The current vintage 2013 is good value at R85 on the farm and is full of incense and violets with lots of elegance. Sweet black & dark red fruit with chalky tannins. Black cherries and their pips show in these wines and some have plums and mulberries as well. There is a little dark toasted wood bitterness on the earlier ones

Christian Eedes of Wine Magazine with the 2009 Nicola

Time to start the blending exercise These are the components we used to make our blend of Inanda

We discuss our blends. In fact both teams on the table made the same blend without realising it

Time for a coffee before heading back to town

We look forward to seeing the wines that winemaker Abé Beukes produces when they are released

This is the oldest vineyard on the farm, it is Merlot. Many of the other vineyards have been taken out and are waiting to be replanted

The front of the winery

Beautiful views across the Stellenbosch hills. It is indeed a Place of Beauty

Shady parking

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015