Thursday, February 23, 2017

Breakfast at Baked, Regent Road, Sea Point

We write reviews of all sorts of restaurants, but we have to confess that we usually prefer to have breakfast at home. We start the day very simply with fresh fruit and green tea for Lynne and muesli and black coffee for John. He makes the breakfast every day. There is a sudden bloom of restaurants doing breakfast that people keep telling us about, so we have decided to try a few of them. This week was the turn of Baked, which is near the circle at the end of Sea Point, next to President Motors. Virtuously, we walked there and arrived just before 9 am
The outside of the restaurant. It was in Bakoven until December, when they moved to Sea Point
The bread on sale looks good, especially the croissants
The breakfast menu. Those laminated menus are rather old and tatty with turned down corners. They look a bit unsanitary and probably need replacing
An eclectic selection of furniture with some of the tables made from recycled cable reels
Our Americanos came with a glass of water. The water is flavoured with cucumber, not to our taste but you can ask for tap water. It is trendy to have those thick cups, but we would love something a bit thinner. However we do understand that they are not easy to break when washing, so that is why most coffee places use them. We like the bright colour
The eggs Benedict was not bad. R73 a portion, two slices of bread and two poached eggs topped with ham and Hollandaise. Strangely, they add beetroot juice to the Hollandaise sauce. Doesn't alter the taste much, which is good and it is not too acidic (as it often is in SA). The egg yolks were only just runny, sadly, although we did ask for the whites to be cooked but the yolks to be runny. The Prosciutto ham was superb, tasted imported and the bread was a revelation. It was hard to cut through the crust (blunt knife?), but it had a very good “crunch”, and the centre melted in the mouth. A good, well salted, crisp crust ciabatta, worth taking home
Baked Eggs and Brioche - R68. Actually, well cooked scrambled eggs on a lovely soft and buttery brioche roll. Layered with aged Gruyère cheese and a slice of tomato. No chives, as had been promised in the menu, but a couple of leaves of rocket which, like much local rocket, lacked pepperiness. We opted to add the good crisp pancetta topping at an extra R25, which brought it to R93. Both portions were generous and satisfying
Our bill. We might return and try the freshly made juices and the croissants. It was not busy on a Thursday morning, but more people did arrive as we left. There is also a small but good-looking lunch menu. The waiters were helpful and smiling. They have a security guard outside whom we thought was a local gangster! The waiters set us right
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

This week's MENU. Sand mining in the Swartland; Celebrating the Jordan Harvest; Harvest celebration at Muratie; MOK gallery on Muratie; This week's recipe. Rich Chocolate Ice-Cream; MENU’s Wine of the week. Muratie's Isabella Chardonnay

A honey bee harvesting from a pickerel weed flower in our pond (Pontederia cordata; jongsnoekkruid)
The shutter speed was 1/1250 of a second and the bee's wings are still a blur!
This is a lovely time of the year, but it is never complete bliss. We love the sunshine, but we long for the drenching rain our friends in the north of the country are having, even if it is a bit excessive at times. We have enough water in our dams to last about four months if we are careful. It should start raining by May, but we need to be very careful. Of course, this being harvet time in the wine industry, we need dry weather until the grapes have come into the cellars. It seems to be a very good harvest, down on quantity, but beautiful quality, so it should be a good vintage.
Sign the petition! Stop sand mining in the Swartland   The South African wine community is in a state of shock. An application for sand mining rights in the Paardeberg area of the Swartland has been approved by the Malmesbury municipality. An appeal against this decision is in progress. If it is allowed to go ahead, some of the country's best wine producers will be very badly affected, if not ruined. These include Eben Sadie, the Mullineuxs, Adi Badenhorst, Vondeling, David and Nadia and Lammershoek. PLEASE go to http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/protect-the-paardeberg and sign the petition against this travesty
Celebrating the Harvest at Jordan  Glorious summer brings on the grape harvest in our winelands and many farms are celebrating their success. We hear that this harvest is generally a good one, despite the drought; grapes are smaller but the juice is very concentrated, with good sugar and acids. We were invited to Jordan this week with other media people to taste some of the juice, the newly fermenting wine and last year's bottled wine and we were very impressed

A relaxed Harvest celebration at Muratie   Muratie opens its doors each year for the Harvest celebration and hosts a relaxed day in the garden with food, good music, lots of wine and fun. We saw the new Art Gallery, passed on the opportunity to stomp some grapes (much enjoyed by the youngsters), tasted their new fermenting wines, took a tractor ride through the vineyards and chilled under the trees with a huge box full of grapes, figs, cheese, bread and other delights, accompanied by their wines. It was "Cool bananas" as the chilled Capetonians say

The new MOK art gallery on Muratie  MOK is run by a relative of Rijk Melck, Cecile Blevi. Rijk took us to have a look and we were very impressed. It is in an historic old house on the properly, where freed slave Ansela van de Kaap lived with her German husband Lourens Campher, the first owner of Muratie from 1695

This week's recipe on our MENU   We know that many of you loved the simple strawberry ice cream Lynne published a while ago. Now for another decadent ice cream. Masterchef Australia has been full of ice creams, parfaits and mousses this year and they made them look very complex, especially when chocolate was involved. It is not
Rich Chocolate Ice-Cream
75g caster sugar - 4 egg yolks - 600 ml single cream - 1 Vanilla Pod, split open - 200g plain 70% dark chocolate
Put the sugar with 6 tablespoons of water in a small pan and heat gently until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and continue boiling until the sugar reaches the thread stage* – about 110º C. Beat the yolks in a mixing bowl, then pour in the syrup in a thin stream, whisking all the time
Put the cream, vanilla pod and chocolate, broken into small pieces into a pan over a low heat and stir till the chocolate has melted. Take it up to just below boiling point. Remove the vanilla pod and pour the scalding chocolate cream onto the egg mixture, whisking until it is thoroughly mixed. Pass through a sieve. It should resemble a light custard in texture. Cool and freeze for 24 hours. You can use an ice-cream machine if you have one.
[*Thread stage for sugar is when you drop a bit of the mix into a cold glass of water, the syrup will form a loose thin thread]
MENU’s Wine of the week. Muratie's Isabella Chardonnay is luscious, with white peaches, citrus and gentle caramel, and a nice clean, dry finish. The new fermenting juice we tasted from this year's harvest has fresh nectarines & apricots in abundance, with a hint of pine nuts. It points to another lovely wine from the 2017 harvest. Winemaker Hattingh de Villiers showed us the new wine fermenting in the cellar. It sells for R145 on the farm or on line, and is also available at good wine retailers. It is drinking well now but, if you can keep it for a couple of years, it is bound to become even better. Platter awarded the 2016 vintage 4½ stars






21st February 2017
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
If you like the photographs you see in our publications, please look at our Adamastor Photo website for our rate card and samples from our portfolio
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. This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

Monday, February 20, 2017

This week's recipe on our MENU: Rich Chocolate Ice-Cream

We know that many of you loved the simple strawberry ice cream Lynne published a while ago. Now for another decadent ice cream. Masterchef Australia has been full of ice creams, parfaits and mousses this year and they made them look very complex, especially when chocolate was involved. It is not
Rich Chocolate Ice-Cream
75g caster sugar - 4 egg yolks - 600 ml single cream - 1 Vanilla Pod, split open - 200g plain 70% dark chocolate
Put the sugar with 6 tablespoons of water in a small pan and heat gently until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and continue boiling until the sugar reaches the thread stage* – about 110º C. Beat the yolks in a mixing bowl, then pour in the syrup in a thin stream, whisking all the time.
Put the cream, vanilla pod and chocolate, broken into small pieces into a pan over a low heat  and stir till the chocolate has melted. Take it up to just below boiling point.  Remove the vanilla pod and pour the scalding chocolate cream onto the egg mixture, whisking until it is thoroughly mixed.  Pass through a sieve. It should resemble a light custard in texture.  Cool and freeze for 24 hours. You can use an ice-cream machine if you have one.

[*Thread stage for sugar is when you drop a bit of the mix into a cold glass of water,  the syrup will form a loose thin thread]

MENU's Wine of the Week: Muratie Isabella Chardonnay 2016

Muratie's Isabella Chardonnay is luscious, with white peaches, citrus and gentle caramel, and a nice clean, dry finish. The new fermenting juice we tasted from this year's harvest has fresh nectarines & apricots in abundance, with a hint of pine nuts. It points to another lovely wine from the 2017 harvest
Winemaker Hattingh de Villiers showed us the new wine fermenting in the cellar. It sells for R145 on the farm or on line, and is also available at good wine retailers. It is drinking well now but, if you can keep it for a couple of years, it is bound to become even better. Platter awarded this vintage 4½ stars
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

Muratie's Harvest Festival - family fun under the Simonsberg

Muratie opens its doors each year for their Harvest celebration and have a relaxed day in the garden with food, good music, lots of wine and fun. We saw the new Art Gallery, passed on the opportunity to stomp some grapes (much enjoyed by the youngsters), tasted their new fermenting wines, took a tractor ride through the vineyards and chilled under the trees with a huge box full of grapes, figs, cheese, bread and other delights accompanied by their wines. It was "Cool bananas" as the chilled Capetonians say
The fun begins with the grape stomping
We preferred to venture into the cellar for the tasting of the juice and fermenting wine
Supervised by winemaker Hattingh de Villiers, here pouring some wine for us to taste
It was a good, interested crowd
Carefully sipping the fermenting young wine. Sensational flavours of fresh fruit like nectarines and plums. But you don’t want to swallow too much or you will start to ferment. Next to Lynne is broadcaster Jon Meinking, tweeting
Rijk Melck discussing the harvest and the wine
Time to taste a tank sample of the Pinot noir
Peter Kampmeinert tastes a little
You could buy hamburgers, boerewors rolls, smoked salmon sandwiches, samoosas and other delectables for lunch
We had a few of these delicacies on the media table to share. Freshly baked bread, a selection of cheeses, ripe figs and grapes, humus, tapenade and pesto with koeksisters and chocolate brownies
Busy cooks
Under the umbrellas enjoying the day
We drank the Laurens Campher, an inspired blend of Chenin, Sauvignon Blanc Verdelho and Viognier. It was so much enjoyed. Stone fruit, nuts, a little smoke and richness from the Viognier
Magnums of it on our table
A colourful Greg Landman of Country Life enjoying the day
Tractor rides through the vineyards every half hour
No, “we are not drinking coals from Newcastle”, say Yvonne and Peter from Holland, it’s wine for us today
Our skilful tractor driver, Paul
On the way up the hill
Smile! He's a Hashim Amla fan
Enjoying the ride together
In the far distance the Peninsula and Table Mountain
Strange cloud patterns, hinting of rain. It never came, just more heat and wind. The vines were laden with grapes awaiting harvest
Sentinel pines at the farm entrance
The band is always good
A happy day
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017