Saturday, March 07, 2020

This Week's MENU. Plaisir de Merle, Ken Forrester 321 Harvest Stomp, RMB Starlight Concert, Blue cheese figs, PdM Pinot Noir

A red Sea Point sunset after the DuToitskloof fire

A week of big stories. So big that editing and writing have taken longer than usual, so we are a bit late publishing. We thank all of you who have opted to continue receiving the email version of MENU. It will come to you weekly, but in a different format, one which we actually prefer. After consulting with a PR person, we have decided that the old version will still be sent to the big list, but it will be once a month, at month-end, as a digest of all our stories for that month. We have had some very generous subscription deposits this month. They are most appreciated, thank you to all who have contributed

An invitation to visit Plaisir de Merle in Simondium for a media function was very welcome. It is an estate which we had never visited before but meant to; there are so many wine farms that we still have to visit, new and old and some like this that we often drive past and say, “we must come soon”. Prompting had the desired effect and we do seriously regret not having visited sooner. Read On…


On a beautiful summer Saturday, we were off to Stellenbosch. We were invited by Ken Forrester to attend the 321st anniversary celebration of his farm, Scholtzenberg, and to enjoy a Harvest grape stomp competition with some lunch. Our host was the man himself, Ken Forrester. Ken is recovering well from some necessary leg surgery and has this innovative Kneecycle (he calls it a Hardly Davidson) to get around on for a few weeks until he heals. Read On…


It is always a complete delight and a reason for huge thankfulness when we receive an invitation to attend the RMB Starlight Concert at Vergelegen. It is one of our favourite annual events and we take nothing for granted. After checking in, you walk through the beautiful gardens and then walk through the Manor House to get to the concert venue. Vergelegen was settled in 1700 by Willem Adriaan van der Stel. After Sir Lionel Phillips bought the neglected Vergelegen Estate in 1917, Lady Florence Phillips transformed it into a floral and cultural treasure trove. Read On…

This week’s recipe is very quick and very delicious

Fresh figs, 3 per person – a creamy blue cheese (Gorgonzola, blue Brie or Danish blue) – prosciutto ham – rocket or other fresh salad leaves
We suggest three figs per person as a starter. Cut the stalks off the figs and then cut a cross two thirds of the way down in each fig. Open out the fig, put in about a teaspoon of crumbled blue cheese, put into the microwave for 1 or 2 minutes until the cheese has melted. Put in a pretty serving dish or individual dishes, make curls of prosciutto and arrange them around the figs, decorate with rocket or other salad leaves and serve. Perfect with a good chilled rosé wine. The figs without the ham do work well if you can’t eat ham


has incense wood from the expensive new French oak barrels used; it has quite a dark nose which leads one to expect wine with dark fruit but no, it is full of ripe plums and mulberries on the nose. Silky soft and delicious with cherry fruit in abundance, with long elegant flavours. So hard to put down! One of the best Pinot Noirs we have tasted in a while. And so different from the others. R350 on the Estate


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 are not already a subscriber, and wish to subscribe to this email reminder which we send out each week, please go to the "Contact us" page and send us the request. If you have a problem with the link, please mail us at Please subscribe me to MENU

MENU has appeared nearly every week since March 2003, initially as a free newsletter from our shop, Main Ingredient, and is sent to our subscribers by email. Many of our subscribing readers have followed us from our earliest days and we appreciate your support
It is also published on our website, as a blog, on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram and gives our personal view of events relating to food, wine, accommodation and travel in photo stories, as well as weekly recipes and wine reviews
We have never charged a subscription fee, and MENU has never made us any money. But our expenses are putting pressure on our pensions, so we are taking a bold step and asking our readers for a voluntary subscription to help us to cover our expenses. MENU is produced, on average, 45 weeks per year. We leave it to you to decide the amount of your subscription. We suggest a voluntary annual subscription of R100 (roughly the price of a mid range bottle of wine), which is less than R2.50 per week. In International currencies R100 is approximately £5.80/€6.30/$7.10. Links to our PayFast and PayPal accounts are on our website

We'd love it if you'd follow us on Twitter, Facebook and check out our photographs on Instagram and YouPic

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 our website and ancillary works are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are often 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
Posted by MENU at 12:29 am 0 comments

Friday, March 06, 2020

The 2020 RMB Starlight Concert at Vergelegen

It is always a complete delight and and a reason for huge thankfulness when we receive an invitation to attend the RMB Starlight Concert at Vergelegen. It is one of our favourite annual events and we take nothing for granted. After checking in, you walk through the beautiful gardens and then walk through the Manor House to get to the concert venue. Vergelegen was settled in 1700 by Willem Adriaan van der Stel. After Sir Lionel Phillips bought the neglected Vergelegen Estate in 1917, Lady Florence Phillips transformed it into a floral and cultural treasure trove

Welcomed with a glass of one of our favourite Rosé MCCs, the Simonsig Brut Rosé, nicely chilled

The concert is held on the lawn behind the famous, ancient camphor trees and it was buzzing with the patrons,
who had been there for a while. Tickets are sold once a year and are avidly snapped up by fans of this great concert
They bring chairs and umbrellas as well as picnics to enjoy before and during the concert

Vergelegen wines were on sale to enjoy while watching the concert 

and there was Seattle Coffee to warm one up later

We were directed to the invited guest area. where canapés were on offer
Nice and spicy tiny vegetarian tacos

and a chicken variation

We wandered into the huge food area set in the forest and managed to get pictures of the food
before the area was opened for dinner. Huge cheeses and fruit on offer

Smoked salmon to go with the bagels

As well as hot smoked salmon

A cous cous salad

A cheese we had not seen before, covered in smoked paprika

and great wheels of Brie

Grapes, table and wine varietals, in abundance at harvest time

and platters full of Prosciutto ham

A colourful fresh salad of peppers and carrots

Small potato latkes for the smoked salmon

A table with smoked brisket and gammon

Chef Joszka Nagy, formerly owner of Cargill's Restaurant in Rondebosch 

with his gammon
Lynne had some for supper later and it was absolutely the best gammon she has ever had. So tender and almost jellied, with a great flavour and it was not too salty. She did ask Chef Joszka if he might come and cook her gammon next Christmas but, of course, he’ll be rather busy then


702/Cape Talk Radio presenter Bruce Whitfield at the gammon stand; he loved it as much as Lynne had

Lynne also had some sushi but, sadly, it had been made hours before and the rice was hard and dry. It is a very popular table

On the sushi table, they also had bains marie full of three types of dim sum dumplings - beef, chicken and vegetable
There were lots of different dipping sauces available to add to these and Lynne had a couple, which were rather good

The food is served on tables in the forest and it is a lovely place to eat, with one proviso -
if you can find a table and some chairs. We did finally manage to get two chairs

A huge paella being prepared

and, intelligently, there was a smaller one with mushrooms as, nowadays, so many people do not eat meat or seafood 

A close up of the contents of the large seafood Paella

There was also a curry stand with rice, curries and a huge pile of poppadoms

The curry selection: vegetarian, chicken and lamb curries 

The food menu does not do justice to the available selection. They so spoil us

Tables and chairs on the edge of the forest

and then it was time to take our seats as the concert was about to begin
The Lady Day Big Band was playing to entertain us as we did so
Founded by vocalist Lana Crowster in collaboration with acclaimed vocalist/pianist Amanda Tiffin
and respected trombonist/composer Kelly Bell, it is SA’s first all-female big band

Conductor Richard Cock chatting to a guest

The paying patrons sit behind the invited guests

The huge camphor trees in front of the early 18th Century Manor House

And the concert got off to a rousing start with variations on the 9th (Choral) Symphony, Für Elise, the 6th (Pastoral) Symphony and other famous Beethoven works to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven, who was born in 1770. This was conducted by Richard Cock with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. Brandon Phillips, who is the Resident Conductor with this orchestra, shared the load at the Concert with Richard Cock. Someone rarely lauded for his work on this brilliant concert is the Director, Darren Hayward

We managed to commandeer the last aisle seat, right at the back,
so John could take photographs without dodging the heads of guests

A welcoming speech from Rand Merchant Bank’s CEO, James Formby, who told us that this is the 22nd Starlight Concert held at Vergelegen and that their partnership comes from RMB's commitment to investing in the Arts. He also told us of their support of the Hands of Hope charity who made the wine bags we received as gifts. He spoke about "Thinking" and having a clear vision of what we want as a country for our future. We need to be fearless thinkers to sort out the many challenges we face. He told us of the Fearless Thinker statues which are on their Sandton campus and also in front of their Portside offices in Cape Town. We need to work together, to focus on what we have and work towards achieving our goals

We then all stood to sing the National Anthem while watching a montage of pictures of our rowing team
who will go to the Olympics this year, sponsored by RMB. They were Gold medallists at the last Olympics

Then a song from the talented Mzansi Youth Choir, widely regarded as the best show choir in the country
Established in July 2003 with the aim of affording talented, underprivileged teenagers and young adults (14-24 years)
the opportunity to perform proficiently locally and abroad

The choir consists of 45 choristers from Soweto and other areas in and around Johannesburg
They have performed at the Presidential Inauguration and also with Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban and Celtic Women

Conductor Richard Cock announcing the next performer

Teenager Likhwithemba 'Likhey' Booi from Port Elizabeth has become a sensation on Instagram

Famous South African Opera singer Pretty Yende, who is performing in Manon at the Opera Bastille in Paris,
sent a video message to her sister Nombulelo Yende, winner of the Neue Stimmen in 2019,
and performing at Starlight this year, to wish her good luck

Her first performance was a beautiful rendition of an aria by Verdi

Then Jonathan Roxmouth, international musical theatre star, whom RMB flew home from Korea
where he is in the world tour of Phantom of the Opera, sang a selection of songs from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story

Acclaimed South African tenor Siyabonga Maqungo currently performing with the Berlin State Opera under Daniel Barenboim,
who is the Musical Director there. He gave us a beautiful rendition of Franz Lehár’s "Freunde, das Leben ist Lebenswert"
(Friends, life is worth living)

Contestant on The Voice 2019 Lelo Ramasimong sang I Wanna Dance with Somebody,
accompanied by the JazzArt dancers

Jonathan Roxmouth and TV star Katlego Maboe who hosts Express TV and appears in those TV ads for car insurance
sang a very moving version of Song For You by Donnie Hathaway

Siyabonga Maqungo and Nombulelo Yende sang the beautiful love duet from La Bohème, O soave fanciulla
It sent shivers down our backs, it was so moving

The new moon in a cloudless sky 

The TV camera men were right behind us!

Jonathan Roxmouth and the UCT Jazz Choir performed a rousing version of Anthem from Chess

Seen here with the Choir

Amanda Black sang Sing Out with the Jazz Art dancers and the Mzantsi Youth Choir

The famous quartet from Rigoletto, Bella Figlia Dell Amor, was stirringly sung by four voices,
a soprano, a tenor, a mezzo soprano and a bass whose voices melded so beautifully

Katlego Maboe, in a solo, began a medley about the sky

and was joined by all the other major performers with the Galaxy of Blue

At interval, we met Vergelegen winemaker André van Rensburg with his wife Maritza
and wine merchant Wade Bales with Lynelle Hoeks

The second half began and Richard Cock was in his new RMB Blue tuxedo

He showed us the new Starlight clef logo
and said that three of the RMB founders were there that night

Next a performance by the UCT Jazz Choir of some great old jazz numbers including
In the Mood, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Mac the Knife and If You Ain't Got That Swing... with dancers from JazzArt
Lynne used to dance with Pam Hickman, a very good modern dance teacher, who herself was taught by Martha Graham
JazzArt came out of that dance class, way back in the 1960s

The UCT Jazz Choir in full voice!

Singing the duet from Don Giovanni, Là ci darem la mano, are Bongani Kubheka and Nombulelo Yende

having lots of fun

And then it was our time to light our candles, which were provided to all of the audience, and sing along. Richard Cock had us singing Beethoven's Ode to Joy, from the final movement of his 9th Symphony, in honour of his 250th anniversary later this year. How did we do it? Well, the words were rendered phonetically on the screen and, after one rehearsal, we managed very well. It is also known as the European Anthem for the EEC. Some of us learned it in school choirs. It was great fun

He asked us who had sung in a choir and to hold up our candles if we had - many went up

Nombulelo Yende then gave us a beautiful rendition of Never Enough from The Greatest Showman;
she can also perform songs from musicals very well

Jonathan Roxmouth took a selfie with the audience and their candles

On his white grand piano, he gave a stirring rendition of Piano Man and we all sang the Chorus La di Dah!

A tribute to Vincent van Gogh was a very good duet with guitar of Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) by Don McLean,
performed by Bongani Kubheka and Katlego Maboe, in both English and Italian

A montage of van Gogh's famous Starry Night painting was on the screen behind

followed by a rousing version of Whitney Huston's Olympic anthem One Moment in Time
to remind us of the support given by RMB to the rowers in 2016 and their continuing support in 2020 at the Olympics in Japan 

A fantastic rendition by Jonathan Roxmouth and Nombulelo Yende of Say You Love Me from The Phantom of the Opera
had people standing and cheering

with dancers at the back of the stage

And then a juke box selection of very modern pop songs by the Jazz Choir and some of the performers

A few songs from the stage show of The Lion King included the choirs, the dancers and many of the performers

And we applauded all the cast members and choirs as they came on stage for their final bow

The entire cast takes a final bow but there is always a huge chorus of Encore!, or MORE!

Jonathan Roxmouth with a fantastic and very emotional version of The Beauty of the Night from Phantom of the Opera

and this year they had a fantastic idea for another encore
We all, audience and cast, would sing along to the words of Bohemian Rhapsody
made famous by the late and very talented Freddie Mercury and Queen
The words were on the screen and everyone sang along with gusto and joy
What a fabulous way to end the concert. Thank you RMB

At least some people were attempting to clean up the horrendous mess left by some of the guests
We are always supplied with rubbish bags and fill them for disposal and recycling by Vergelegen,
but not everyone gets the message, sadly

The Camphor trees are lit and so resemble walking Ents in the dark as one leaves


Posted by MENU at 11:31 pm 1 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)