Thursday, July 12, 2018

Sunday lunch. Taking a Bao

A new restaurant in Cape Town, called Bao Down, sounded as though it serves just the Asian food that we love. They have a special menu each Sunday for R300 per person, so we booked a table for four. You don't choose the food, they do and they change the menu every week. Bao Down chef Graham Oldfield has worked for Liam Tomlin as head chef at the Chefs Warehouse and Canteen and absolutely loves the clear flavours of Chinese, Japanese and Korean food. He has opened the restaurant with Philippa, his wife who was a caterer, at 3 Vredehoek Road, just behind the Gardens Centre. It is around the corner from Marika's
Bao are steamed Chinese buns, light and fluffy, and are often part of a Dim Sum menu. They do two sittings, we opted to arrive for the first one at 12h30. On Sundays, you get the several dishes for the table to share.  During the week you would order from their normal menu and share the dishes, just as you would at a Tapas restaurant
We were early, the restaurant filled up quickly
The inclusive Sunday lunch menu we enjoyed. They do not yet have their liquor licence, so you are welcome to BYO
The is current daily menu
Like the water bottles!
It’s an open kitchen with seats at the bar
Loved these matching green plates from Paris
All the food in these pictures is to be shared between two people. We just had two servings of everything. The steamed rice topped with crisp onions. Pamela, who has lived in the East, said she thought there was some sake in the rice, which is how they do it in Japan
We began with the wonton noodle soup with mushrooms. The broth was outstanding and we loved the dish, very satisfying food, especially in cold weather. We took two white wines with us. A special Spookfontein Reserve Sauvignon Blanc from Elgin, brought by Pamela, and a Babiana from Vondeling in the Voor Paardeberg. Both went so well with the food
John was given dumplings in a noodle broth with no mushrooms; we did let them know before we went about his allergy
This dish blew everyone's minds. Sticky Korean fried chicken packs a huge punch of chilli, just how the Koreans and we like it. We enjoyed it with a bottle of Pinot Noir from Quando in Bonnievale
Barbecued Belly of pork, so tender and well flavoured, topped with Spring and fried onions. You add a slice of this to the bao and you have a wonderful taste and texture experience
A great mix of Szechuan Dry fried vegetables, with new season broad beans
Those bao. Just waiting to have something slipped between the covers and enjoyed
A cucumber and sesame salad

Dessert was fresh cherries with a white chocolate crumb on a coconut crème brulée. This was such a good meal, we will definitely be back, soon. Our bill was R645 per couple with service

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Breakfast at Café ExtraBlatt, Green Point

Waking up early on Winter mornings is difficult; you want to sleep longer, but you have to address the day. We like a lie-in at least once a week and we realised that we could then go out and have someone else cook us breakfast. Café ExtraBlatt in Main Road, Green Point was our choice this week
They turned out to be very popular because of the Breakfast buffet which is available every Saturday morning. On Sundays, they have brunch for R139.90 from 09h00 to 14h00.
It is very spacious, and there are more tables on the verandah. Lots of people were celebrating birthdays, and there was a large group doing a baby shower. We suspect, as they are right opposite the Cape Town Stadium where many walking running and cycle races are started, that they get lots of customers after the races have finished
They have a chef making the eggs to order and several tables for the Buffet food. Service was quite friendly and reasonably efficient
You can have a healthy start,
even have a salad
Croissants and rolls
Cold meats
and cheeses
and help yourself to the ingredients of a more conventional cooked breakfast
We know that we could never do the buffet breakfast justice, so we usually order off the menu
For our German friends and those who love German food, we found this on the normal menu. A place to go if you are missing German food. Even Currywurst..
We ordered two black coffees and they come with a tiny biscuit
Lynne went for the Eggs Benedict. They get zero points for presentation. However, the flavours were good and that meant that, for taste, it scored higher. Two slices of white toast (you can order brown) or pay extra for a different bread) some spam ham, and two poached eggs, one perfectly done, the other overcooked and very small. The Hollandaise was good and coated the eggs well. The flick of salad was a token. Lynne enjoyed it.
John ordered the German Farmer’s breakfast. A turned-over omelette containing fried potato and onions, with bacon, German mustard, some gherkin slices and a similar flick of salad. This came with good sourdough bread, which John had with some marmalade (R6.90 surcharge) afterwards, with another coffee

Our bill. Quite reasonable

"The Perfect Share" offering at Den Anker

Den Anker in the V&A Waterfront has a winter special which runs until the end of September, which you might like to try. They invited us to sample it this week. A nice touch is that R10 from each meal is donated to the Elundini School in Dunoon
It was another of those lovely Champagne winter days in the Cape. After a really welcome and long rainy period, it was nice to enjoy a bit of sunshine and warmth
The restaurant was preparing for the Belgium vs Brazil match that evening, so the bunting was being strung up (Belgium won, so we presume that their beer sales were commensurate with the excitement)
We were shown to a lovely table by the window
with one of the best views in town
It was interesting to watch this boat accompanying a diver who was working in the harbour
They brought us rolls and butter
We decided to go for the steak special. Lynne is not the greatest fan of mussels although those at Den Anker are really special. We were served this 600g Sirloin on the bone, which was very well seasoned. It came with a large portion of their excellent, thin and crisp French fries (frites in Belgium) and four different sauces. Mustard sauce, creamy mushroom, pepper sauce and some mayonnaise for the frites (which is how they serve them in Belgium)
We also had the Den Anker Belgian draught house beer - Anker Brew - with our meal. After the bone and the fat is cut off the sirloin, it was a tad small for sharing, You might just want one all to yourself! They flame cook the meat on the grill, so the outside is seared well, and the inside is quite rare. Perhaps a rump might go further? Our favourite sauce was definitely the pepper sauce, but the others are also very good. Do go and sample the special for yourselves. If you don't want beer, you can choose a glass of Jordan's Chameleon white or red wine

Thursday, July 05, 2018

This Week’s MENU. The Food Barn; Taste of Tyger Valley; Iberian Exploit 15. Return to Porto and Cape Town; Sweet Corn Pudding; Benguela Cove Sauvignon blanc

The Ponte Luis I, designed by Gustave Eiffel, connects Porto on the North Bank of the Douro River to Vila
Nova de Gaia on the South Bank. Trains run on the upper span; pedestrians, buses and cars use the lower
Trust the politicians….to take advantage of a situation and mess it up. We’ve had some wonderfully rainy days in the last two weeks, not nearly enough to start talking about everything being fine; the dams are, on average, at about 41.6% of capacity and we need at least another two months of the sort of rain we have just seen to allow us to stop being ultra-careful. But now we hear them starting to talk about easing restrictions, wanting us to feel good about them, as if they had anything to do with a natural phenomenon! Still, it has been good to see the pond filling up. Winter is here in no small measure. The mountains and uplands are covered in snow and Instagram is full of photographs of people playing in it, making snowmen and doing all the silly things we do when a rare occurrence happens. It was strange to see a picture in this morning’s paper of a bemused lion standing in a snow spattered landscape. We hope that the snow will add a good level to the water in the dams when it melts… We think you’ll enjoy this week’s articles

Pensioners' lunch at The Food Barn    
The Food Barn in Noordhoek is running some winter special so we went with friends to sample the Pensioners Lunch last Friday; very good value at R175 for two courses with a carafe of wine. They do have other specials (not only for pensioners) so check out their website to see what is on offer. We had a great time despite it being one of the wettest days last week. See our whole story here…

The Taste of Tyger Valley Wine Show    
Saturday saw us at Tyger Valley Shopping Centre at their wine festival. Lots of different farms, some we have never heard of before, others whom you don't often see at festivals and some favourites. Montpellier in Tulbagh ….

MENU's Iberian Exploit 15. Return to Porto and home to Cape Town     
It was time to leave Madrid and head back to Portugal. We left early in the morning of May 6th, as we had several hours drive ahead of us. At lunchtime, we stopped in the small town of Ciudad Rodrigo near the border which is the last stop at which we could buy petrol in Spain, where it is much cheaper than in Portugal and we were after some lunch. Well, we got the petrol....

Lynne cooked Belly of Pork last weekend and decided that we needed to try it with a new starch. She had some sweet corn cobs and thought that turning them into a savoury pudding might just be a great idea. Click here for the recipe she used
MENU’s Wine of the Week. Benguela Cove Sauvignon blanc 2017   
This newly released 2017 Sauvignon Blanc knocked Lynne's socks off. It has a little Semillon added, which just marries perfectly and adds depth, smoothness and richness. So attractively perfumed on the nose with elderflowers, white pepper and fig leaves. On the palate it is smooth as silk with zingy citrus and lime acids, and long flavours. To quaff or pair with good food

5th July 2018


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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


This Week’s MENU Recipe. Sweet Corn Pudding

Lynne cooked a Belly of Pork this weekend and decided that we needed to try this with a new starch. She had some sweet corn cobs and thought turning them into a savoury pudding might just be a great idea

Here is the recipe she used. It makes enough for four generous servings. You could double up for a dinner party or a braai. Just cut off the kernels from the cobs or use frozen corn. If you have very sweet corn on the cob, you might want to lessen the sugar. But not all corn is sweet and this needs some sweetness.  Use a sharp cheese, like cheddar. If you want this a bit spicy add a couple of bottled Jalapeno chillies, diced.

2 medium eggs - 125 ml milk – 30 ml melted butter– ½ t salt and ½ t pepper – a dash or two of Tabasco chilli sauce – 40 ml brown sugar – 60 ml flour – 250g fresh or frozen sweet corn kernels – a cup of diced fresh red pepper - 125 ml breadcrumbs – 65 ml grated cheese


Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Grease an oven proof casserole. Whisk the eggs, milk and melted butter together in a large mixing bowl. Add the seasoning and the Tabasco. Stir in the sugar and stir till dissolved. Sift in the flour slowly, making sure it is all incorporated with no lumps. Stir in the sweet corn and the red pepper and then pour the mixture into your casserole. Mix the breadcrumbs with the cheese and sprinkle over the corn mixture. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until you have a nice golden brown and crisp topping