And then we kicked off the week on Monday with a hike on Lion’s Head. Just gotta love life in Cape Town!

                                                                    The Gugulethu Tenors in De Waal Park

The hotel very kindly organized a bus to take us all to the Artscape Theater. The show was fan-tas-tic!! The singing was incredible and the decor was breathtaking. We really felt so spoiled the whole evening. So if you still have a chance to go see the Phantom, please do so. It’s the best production I’ve ever seen in South Africa and it’s a wonderful evening out in town!

Happy Holidays!

Me at the pool

The dining table

The open plan kitchen

The Hallway

Rates are between ZAR 2.500 – ZAR 4.000 per night depending on time of the year.  Please contact me if you more questions. It really is a very special place.

the fireplace, lovely spot to relax

The full moon

I have to say the place was absolutely lovely. The décor was light and mostly white with mismatched chairs. Let me just put up some pictures because that will show you much better than I could ever tell you in my sometimes broken English.

We decided it was a good occasion to start with a glass of bubbly. The appetizer was some delicious bread / pretzel with (I believe) a soft creamy gorgonzola in basil / fresh herb oil. Yammie!

We loved the way the menu was designed and had no problem choosing a starter. The choices were Green, Red or Yellow and consisted of a soup and salad. All ingredients are grown in the gardens and consist of vegetables, fruits, fragrant herbs and edible scented flowers. The plates looked beautiful!

For the main course we found it a bit difficult to choose. My friend felt like the lamb cutlets but they were sold out. Then there was a Water Buffalo which didn’t appeal to us. The other choice was a 600 gr. Sirloin which seemed a bit extraordinary for 1 person. I wanted to choose something a bit lighter. There was 1 fish dish on the menu so I choose the Franschhoek Trout which proved to be an excellent choice. My friends shared the Sirloin and thoroughly enjoyed their food as well. We were stunned by the speed of the food service. Within no time we had our starter followed by the main course. We can’t leave a place like this without having a dessert. We took a bit of a break and then ordered according to taste: Bitter, Sour, Savoury or Sweet. Since I’m a chocoholic my choice was easy: the Chocolate / beetroot fondant with espresso cream.

Oh, before I forget. They do really delicious freshly pressed juices. My friend ordered an apple juice, it was out of this world and looked beautiful!

After this incredible lunch with a walk through the gardens to see where all of the ingredients were grown. It’s a beautiful place. There are some stunning self-catering cottages. Prices are: R2.765 in low season per night and R3.950 in high season. Prices are per 1-bedroom cottage per night and include breakfast. Guests are encouraged to join in the cooking experience. We ran into some friends with kids and picked some carrots to feed the donkeys. How awesome to teach your kids an appreciation for nature, healthy food and fresh air?

www.babylonstoren.com

About 2 months ago I met Chris Von Ulmenstein at a Cape Town Bloggers Event. She told me about the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club. It was the first time ever I went to a Bloggers event and now I already had an invite for the next one. My curiosity led me from 1 thing to the other. How awesome! I read the Whalecottage blog a few times as a reference before visiting restaurants. To be honest I was a bit intimidated by Chris but meeting the actual person is always different and her passion for food, wine, and excellent service is contagious.

Yesterday the Club was held at Den Anker in the Waterfront. I just LOVE spending a few hours talking ONLY about food and wine. We had some excellent speakers who were absolutely passionate about what they’re doing. First we had Nikki Dumas tell us about her Swirl blog. Her ‘Tips for Successful Blogging’ are a good starting point for any blogger. I will repeat them here.

Write something:
useful, unique, newsworthy, first, that makes those who read it smarter, controversial, insightful, that taps into a fear people have, that helps people achieve, that elicit a response, that gives a sense of belonging, passionately, that interprets or translates news for people, inspirational, that tells a story, that gets a laugh, that saves people time and/or money, opinionated, that is a resource, about something ‘cool’.  Nikki advices to choose about 4 tips to be included into any blog you write. It makes so much sense.

The next speaker was Matt Allison who writes a blog called Imnojamieoliver. I was SO happy to be seated next to him because once he started talking I didn’t want to miss ANYTHING he was saying. It was fantastic to hear that also in South Africa men choose to be housemen and look after their family in the best possible way while the wife is following a corporate career. It was wonderful to learn about his vegetable garden and how he ‘lives seasonally’.  He told 1 interesting fact after the other: supermarket vegetables are often picked unripe and ripened in an artificial way, and ‘free range’ chicken is probably not what we imagine when we read ‘free range’… I will def. have a look at his blog and I will also visit the market at Starling Café, 94 Belvedere Rd, in Claremont where Matt sells his veggies on a Wednesday between 4 and 6pm. You can be sure his veggies are picked just an hour before you buy them at this market. It doesn’t get any fresher…

The whole evening was very well organized. I loved the little menus on the table that had the food and wine pairing printed on them. I ALWAYS forget what I exactly eat and drink and just remember if it was delicious or not…Thank you to Robyn Martin from Jordan Wine estate for preparing it all so beautifully.

So now you perhaps would like to know what we ate and drank. Here are Robyn’s notes:

Starters
Aromatic, appley 2009 Riesling endorses the fresh flavor of just-seared and sesame-coated tuna.
Creamy toasty 2009 Chardonnay pairs happily with fragrant, truffle-enhanced scrambled egg.
Tropical, green notes of the 2010 Sauvignon Blanc are offset by a beer-poached, katifi-wrapped prawn, draped in a saffron beurre blanc.

Canapes with Duck Liver Pate upon arrival

Mains
Plumy, stylish 2008 Merlot enriches rare butter-tender pepper fillet.
Richly textured 2008 Syrah finds the perfect flavor/weight partner in the herbed richness of venison (kudu) with sauce bordelaise.

Desert
The unexpected liaison: smoothly subtle Bordeaux-style flagship Cobblers Hill makes music with ravishing chocolate ravioli garnished with pomegranate.

Are you curious already about this fun & fab club and do you perhaps want to join next month?
Contact Chris on whalecot@iafrica.com.

They offered an incredible agent’s deal: ZAR 600 per room, Bed & Breakfast. Of course when I heard about it, I JUMPED on it. Wow!! To stay in this awesome spot for close to nothing would be such a major treat. I had been to the place many moons ago on a site inspection. The location is superb, all surrounded by the beautiful mountains of the Cape Wine lands.

To make a booking as an agent was already quite complicated. I was contacted by a company called www.topplacestravel.co.za.  I made the booking on the 29th of July and eventually got the correct invoice (VAT nr, name, right amount…) at Friday 5 August in the evening. We were checking in on the 6th. I think I emailed about 10 times and  phoned a couple of times to ask what was going on and if the booking was really confirmed (systems down, no electricity, don’t know…all kinds of answers..). I didn’t want to drive all the way there to find out that there would be no booking. Upon arrival we were met by a somewhat confused receptionist who needed help from someone else to do the check-in and get the key card. Some staff wear uniforms but most don’t so it’s very difficult to see who’s in charge of what…We were accompanied to the room by a very friendly porter. BTW, most staff was very friendly, they just had no clue.

The Spa Suites are very spacious, great beds and beautiful bathrooms. And from everywhere you can see those stunning mountains. But our mini bar was empty and very smelly (ya, we do check that one first to make sure we’re sorted for drinks, NOT!), the safe was not working, there were no bath robes nor slippers in the room and there was no hair dryer.The TV was old and the reception was awful. Watching TV was not an option.  Now we wanted to go and enjoy the Spa but we had no where to put our valuables and we could not change in the room so we needed to ‘trek’ back to the Spa with all our luggage which is quite far.

At the Spa we were welcomed by an intern, I guess (I think most staff are interns). We asked for the changing room and lockers so we could get ready for the Spa. She sent us to the far end of the pool and we ended up in the toilets, no lockers, no robes, no space, no nothing. This couldn’t be right. So we ‘trekked’ back (all our luggage…) to the reception area to find out. A friendly little lady, completely stressed out, told us Oh no, this girl doesn’t know, she just started (How about a 10 minute briefing before new staff starts in the morning and give them a quick tour??? yes, it sometime can be that easy…) so now she would take us to the changing rooms. FINALLY, we made it!

The Spa areas are all beautiful and nothing wrong with BUT of course, being from the hospitality industry we noticed some missed opportunities. I think most guests were there on a Groupon voucher or were agents like us. I guess they were operating at cost price (or a loss) as not much profit can be made from those deals  so you have to make sure that you make revenue from Food & Beverages. It took literally half an hour before we got our drink by the pool. The pool bar was not operational. We were first given a food menu. There was no drinks menu, only wines, we were told. How can you only serve wines in a Spa?? Open that pool bar, make sure you have a guy making awesome health smoothies and cocktails and SELL!

Another missed opportunity. When you have a hotel full of agents, surely the GM should come and say hello, invite us for a cocktail (or 2) and explain to us what’s going on, what the plans are, build relationships with the people that will book this property in the future, right? Small effort, BIG gain. He could have even explained why things are not up to scratch, ask for our feedback  and build rapport. It really is not very difficult at all.

Dinner time
We were sat down at a table. 2 minutes later a ‘manager’ came to check if we were fine, another 2 minutes later another ‘manager’ came to ask the same, 2 minutes later another ‘manager’ asked the same question. By then I lost my patience and I kindly asked: We’ve seen now 3 ‘managers’ (not sure if they really were because it’s not clear from the way they were dressed..), is it perhaps possible to see a WAITER and ORDER something??? The menu? Bread? Water? Wine? You know, the usual things you would like when you go for dinner. We did have to giggle though..So now we ordered a bottle of Merlot and some tap water with lemon. The jug of water came, no glasses. The wine took for ever. I said to my friend: Just wait, he’s coming back now with the message that there’s no Merlot. And so he did, 2 minutes later. By then we knew, if we wanted to get anything before midnight, we could not be too picky. My usual question then is: So what DO you have so we can choose from available options? He wasn’t really sure…(briefing staff before a shift is KING!!). We got a bottle of Shiraz I think.

After 15 minutes we saw that the ‘managers’ were actually now also getting more into action and were actually carrying plates and helping out. Another thing I don’t understand in this country. Managers seem to have the idea that they no longer need to work and that they can’t get their hands dirty. A manager in Europe works 3 times as hard as his/her staff, makes sure everything is prepared, comes early in the morning, leaves the last in the evening and knows EXACTLY what’s going on in the restaurant / hotel  in every single department! That’s the only way to know where staff needs help and where systems don’t work.

The pricing on the food menu, I found a bit weird. ZAR 125 for a steak or fillet, ZAR 120 for a chicken stir fry. It didn’t make sense to me. The quality of the food itself was not bad.  I enjoyed my chili prawns and my friend enjoyed her chicken stir fry (although sent back once because it was a bit dry). For dessert I had a Pana Cotta. I think there was nothing wrong with it but I was very sick the next day. I couldn’t eat breakfast (which in my case means I’m REALLY not feeling very well). I don’t think it was from the food in the evening but I’m not sure what made me ill.

My friend did have breakfast and I think she was happy with that. I did take a look at the buffet and it looked good (so if you know you can handle a buffet, just have a nice buffet for dinner as well, until you can handle a la carte, idea?). Check out was another disaster. I wasn’t there because I went back to bed. I had prepaid the room, ZAR 599 and gave them the voucher upon check-in. On the invoice at check-out there was a room charge of ZAR 800 something..When my friend complained, they just took it off. We did give tip at dinner but that was not on the invoice.  We left. And that was it.

www.santesa.co.za

Perfect start of the day

Doesn’t this look delicious? Some time ago I was supposed to have a morning meeting at Haas Coffee. Because I work from home it’s nice to have all my meetings outside and try new and interesting places. The person didn’t show up for the meeting but I still decided to order a flat white and ‘something sweet’. I have a sweet tooth. I love sweet things but in many cases I’m put off by the enormous sizes of cakes and tarts. I like the taste, I don’t like the calories. Haas coffee had the perfect little cinnamon bun, just enough to fill up my sweet tooth and kick off the day.

NOTE: for coffee lovers: at HAAS you can drink the most expensive cup of coffee in the world, ‘kopi luwak’, a very unusual ‘blend’ if we may say so. Not for the fainthearted. (which we are not ) I will have to go back with a friend to have this extraordinary experience .

Haas Coffee is situated in a very historical area of Cape Town, Bo-Kaap. Beautiful colourful houses lighten up your day and from the terrace outside you will have a stunning view of Lion’s Head, my favourite mountain. Parking is a bit of a mission so rather come by scooter or bicycle or walk through our stunning city!

Open Mo – Fri: 7am – 3pm
Sat, Sun, Public Holiday: 8am – 3pm

www.haascollective.com

We were the first ones to arrive in the restaurant and were welcomed by Ashley (who later turned out to be Rudi, he lost his name tag.. bit of a hilarious situation..).  At the first glimpse of the menu I already knew that making choices was going to be difficult tonight. No worries, we’re 2 girls with a VERY healthy appetite so we choose quite a few courses.  For ones I took pictures of all the dishes and I will include them here in the blog. Not superb quality but you will get the idea of the amazing dishes we tasted.

We started off with a deconstructed Ceasar Salad to share. Just choosing the best ingredients and don’t go wild on the ansjovis, will make any Ceasar Salad perfect for me. We liked the quail eggs and the croutons crumbs were delish too.

Ceasar Salad

The next course were our REAL starters. If I can say 1 or 2 negative things the 1 would be that we were not served any bread. I thought that was a bit odd and I kind of missed it. I guess the Chef didn’t want to spoil our appetite with heavy breads but he wouldn’t need to worry about that with us . Believe me.
I choose the Confit of Crayfish on Cucumber with Paw Paw Salad. Loved it! My friend choose the Wild Mushroom Ragoût and was equally enthusiastic about her choice. (next time better pictures, I promise).

Confit of Crayfish

Wild mushroom Ragout

I love Sorbets! At Dash you can have a choice of Sorbets which I thought was fantastic. So we choose all of them to share. The choices are: Tomato Granite, Lime & Lemon (def. a favourite), Amazing Rose (not my taste), Apple and Cinnamon (2nd best) and Orange Citrus (favourite).

If I may say a 2nd negative thing… We entered the restaurant at 7pm, by 7h45pm we had the Sorbets. It was all a bit too fast for us. We were not in a hurry so we kindly asked to wait a bit with the main course. I guess we made our booking a bit too early and were the only guests for the first hour. I would suggest you make a booking at 8pm rather.  Slowing down was not a problem. We enjoyed our bottle of Hamilton Russell Pinot Noir and considered ourselves extremely fortunate, again, to be able to wine and dine like Queens in the most beautiful city in the world. On to the main course.

My friend choose the Beef Fillet which is served with a vegetable garden, yes really, a vegetable garden and the  nick name of this Signature dish is Alice in Wonderland. It’s a colourful display of beautiful vegetables and of course the fillet.
I choose to try the Scallops with hazelnut crumbs, cauliflower puree and fennel. Wow! It was delicious

Delicious Scallops

Alice in Wonderland

For desserts we choose the Chocolate Fondant and Liquorice Macaroons. Of course the Chocolate Fondant was my favorite. It just had the perfect texture and I LOVE dark chocolate. For those who don’t know me, I’m a Chocoholic and will most likely choose desserts with chocolate. I find it very difficult to choose anything else.. We finished this lovely dinner and evening with some double Espressos and left the place feeling very happy. It is just a beautiful evening out, being spoiled with delicious food and being served by very attentive staff. It’s such a pleasure to experience true hospitality without being too formal.