Villiera has refurbished their tasting room. I have to be honest, this was my first visit, so I have nothing to compare it with. The drive way was lovely. Ah, just love how Autumn paints this beautiful landscape of red and orange leaves, blue skies and mountains in the background. Does it get more beautiful?

Villiera drive way, autumn colours

We tasted the Villiera Tradition, Villiera Brut Rose and the French Grieer Brut. The Rose was my favorite this time. I have to be honest, this afternoon was really about catching up with girlfriends so no matter what they would have served us, we would’ve enjoyed it, I am pretty sure.

3 Cape Ladies

Now that was a good start of the afternoon. Next stop: Warwick. Warwick really is a beautiful place to take your friends and family for the whole afternoon. In Summer they have lovely picnic baskets which you can enjoy in a picnic pod.

Picnic Pod @Warwick, super cozy!

In Winter they have a delicious Tapas Menu. We were the first ones to taste their new tapas menus so the staff was very concerned and interested in our feedback. Since one of us is vegetarian and the other 2 are ultimate carnivores we choose a wide range and almost tasted everything on the menu, I believe. We even went for seconds J. We started of with a selection of 3 soups: A prawn soup with Chorizo, a cauliflower blue cheese soup and a Pea/Pancetta variation. The vegetarian didn’t have a lot of choice… BUT we all agreed that the cauliflower soup was unexpectedly our favorite. So we had to taste it again.

Trio of Soups

I LOVED that they have Beef Tartare on the menu. It’s one of my favorite dishes. I love raw food as you can see..Theirs was very tastefully done with tomato blended into the mix, perfectly served with the right condiments and nice Melba Toast.

Beef & Tomato Tartare

Do I really need to explain each and every dish to you or can I just show you the pictures?? We enjoyed every dish we choose.  Other dishes we choose: Sauteed Wild Mushrooms with Simonsola (wow!!),  Simonsig Camembert with figs in phyllo Pastry (I’m not a Camembert fan so not for me..). The glass pot displayed in the picture is a beautiful solar lamp. You can buy it at the Warwick shop for R 250.

Buffalo Mozzarella, Caprese Salad, SUPER delish!

Grilled Spanish Chorizo & Tiger Prawns

The staff at Warwick was very friendly and the waitress explained the menu well to us. We just had such an awesome afternoon. Girls, we must do it soon again!

3 Cape Ladies, drinking 3 Cape Ladies, Warwick Wines

GORGEOUS!!

hm, 1 of the nice things of living in Cape Town is that you never ever need to get bored. Last weekend we had to improvise a bit because suddenly the weather let us down a bit. But hey,  how difficult can it be to make a plan B when you have about 300 wineries on your door step?? Can’t be THAT hard. Saturday I firstly had breakfast at Nitida Wines, I had never been and was looking forward to go there because I had heard good stories. It was terrible weather to drive but I’m from Holland so no moaning, just got in my car, on my way. However, I wasn’t amused when my breakfast date sent me a text message: ‘only woke up now’. Hm…luckily only a joke. I’m very German when it comes to time…Anyway, lovely breakfast, Eggs Florentine, perfectly done. Their capuccino’s need a bit of work. The first one I got was almost cold and the 2nd one had burned froth. After breakfast I was ready to move to the wine tasting area. I really felt like tasting loads of red wines but we somehow first went through all the whites.  I really need to catch up on my wine knowledge and taste a bit more because I can’t say a decent word about any wine except: hm ya, I like it.. which I then say after each and every single one. Not sure if that’s a bad thing..We ended up both buying a bottle of their Nitida Calligraphy. It should still age for a bit but it was already quite drinkable. Back home I REALLY felt like: I want more!! So I phoned my partners in crime and YES they were also into some wine tasting. Pfungwa had never seen Groot Constantia so we made a short stop there to view the estate and have a glass of course. I have good memories here. Used to bring all my wine groups here and have a great tasting by Boela Gerber, the wine maker. Then we moved to Gorgeous by Graham Beck at Steenberg, a new Champagne Bar that I wanted to see, taste and experience. Oh, how I LOVE hanging out in beautiful, gorgeous places and live the life… We had a spot at the bar which always allows for interacting with people next to you which I quite enjoy. We all choose for the non-vintage flight and thought we’d moved on to the vintage flight afterwards. However, this never happened. I like to eat, always. So the canapes on offer were just what I needed. 1 picture says more than 1000 words so see below…

Canapes @gorgeous

After Gorgeous, we didn’t feel like going home. I suggested to go to Kitima@kronendal in Hout Bay. One of the most perfect places in the Cape that I would love everyone to experience. They just get EVERYTHING right. Another spot at the bar, now some delicious cocktails and Aromatic Duck Pancakes. OMW!! Oh what a day & night! Loved every single minute of it. Thanks guys!!

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.

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.

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