Final food and wine. Cheers. (20-Dec-11)
This is the end of my journey with you at the table.
It has been wonderful having you as my guest and I hope that you have enjoyed our meals and drinks together as much as I have.
I am preparing myself for bariatric or weight-loss surgery next year. I will continue to write about travel, but my limited diet won't allow me to write about restaurants or wines the way that I have.
I look forward to a healthier and lighter me. This is my gift to myself.
Speaking of gifts, here are some suggestions of tipple and foodie gifts.
What's interesting about the Graham Beck Sauvignon Blanc, given that I've written about wines from Darling and Durbanville recently, is that it is made from grapes from these areas from seven different vineyards. The grapes were handpicked and first tasted for ripeness and flavour development. I get that characteristic Sauvignon Blanc tropical fruit on the nose and lovely crispness after drinking it. You could gift a bottle (or case) of this with confidence.
Forget about paying through the nose for poncey French Cognac when our own KWV 10-year old has been voted as the Best Brandy in the World at the International Spirits Challenge, reclaiming the award it first won in 2007 and beating more than 1 000 entries in the process. If you must add Coke to it revel at least in the knowledge that you are doing so with the finest brandy. If you love the good stuff, explore Jorgensen's Distillery's Savingac Potstill Brandy. I drink their artisan gin and when they have stock available next I will buy a bottle of their brandy. Make arrangements to visit them in Wellington before you go.
I've mentioned David Nieuwoudt's fabulous Ghost Corner Sauvignon Blanc previously, but it gets another airing here as the perfect gift – it comes wrapped in a jacket of quality paper affixed by a gold label – how festive is that?
The Boschendal Grande Vin Blanc Sauvignon Blanc is another of the wines in the tropical-fruits-with-zesty-minerality style, but their Grande Cuvee Brut MCC scores higher points with me than some of the famous Champagne products. I prefer it over Moet.
Lindsay Hunting of Slaley olive oil says that any locally produced olive oil is far better than anything imported.
He mentioned hair-raising stories of how imported "olive oil" is mislabeled and adulterated. His Leccino-Mission olives blend is peppery and spicy, full of character, while the 100% Leccino olive oil is the perfect one to use for bread dipping. A foodie will always appreciate a gift of estate olive oil.
My favourite store, Le Creuset makes the best cast-iron pots and pans that will last a lifetime. They are costly so be prepared to pay upwards of R1000.
They have newly launched a range of wine accessories that are so affordable I'm even considering them as stocking fillers. I love their Champagne Star cork opener and their elegant yet inexpensive foil cutter. Their metal wine pump removes the air from opened wine bottles so that you can keep three bottles open at a time and not lose any quality to oxidization. It is the perfect gift for a wine lover. Le Creuset's brilliant staff will also wrap items for you.
We always associate Crabtree & Evelyn with skincare products, but they also have a super range of jams, chutneys, teas and melt-in-your mouth butter biscuits. Their packaging is so beautiful you don't even have to wrap them.
Thanks again for being with me. Happy holidays. • Permalink • Comments [0]
Brian Berkman's Best of the Best restaurants 2011 (09-Dec-11)
Best Restaurant: The Greenhouse
Cuisine that is fun and inventive without being contrived – the entire experience from the Peter Rabbit-statuary to the edible soil on the plate will delight.
Templehoff's modern cuisine in this setting is even more arresting. Like the spectacular nine hectare gardens that surround the hotel, what is served on the plate is fragrant and dazzling -a thing of beauty to look at and to eat.
Nothing is as it seems at The Greenhouse and you'll be forgiven for following one of the stone bunnies down the rabbit hole. Beetroot and goat's cheese lollipops are served in edible grass and a diminutive "Scotch" egg, made from crumbed quail's egg with prawn suggest what is to follow.
The Greenhouse,
The Cellars-Hohenort Hotel,
Constantia. 021-794-2137.
Best fish: Hook, Line & Sinker
The selection of fish is always limited to what's freshly available – typically it will be tuna, kabeljou and perhaps Swordfish with wild prawns and Patagonian calamari. Dessert is a fabulous crème brule, a "wicked chocolate pot" and recently also a minted version of the former. At lunch, except Sunday where it is a la carte, ale-battered hake and chips cooked in palm oil are served on newspaper directly on the rustic wooden tables.
Stefan has an armoury of sauces and he decides which sauce will accompany your dish – a sharp vintage cheddar white sauce, his version of Old Man's with mustard and Jack Daniels' Bourbon and "green stuff" or "red stuff" made from an undisclosed mix of herbs and spices.
Hook, Line & Sinker,
382 Crescent Road,
Pringle Bay.
028 273 86 88
(Look for the blue roof and painted fish.)
Best sea view: Azure
Azure is ticking all the right boxes with its commitment to sustainable seafood and its involvement with StreetSmart. The menu is divided into dishes created by Bea Tollman, founder of Red Carnation, that owns the hotel, and those created by executive chef Henrico Grobbelaar. Henrico's previous profession as an engineer before coming to food has taught him the importance of structure – each flavour in the dish seems to build upon and enhance the first.
Leave space for Bea's famous baked cheese cake – a soft, rich bottom layer of cream cheese and an upper deck of sour cream which bakes into a layer that teases your teeth and tongue before it sinks, like into quicksand, into a cloud. And then there's the views, views, views.
Azure Restaurant,
12 Apostles Hotel,
Oudekraal
021-437-9000.
Best pizza: Grand Café & Beach
It is a glittering spectacle, iridescent as the setting sun fires up the white sandy beach and the iron warehouse shimmers like mercury. Light reflects off everything – the vast chandeliers and Venetian mirrors; the silver ice buckets; the diamonds on the rings and ears of patrons.
By dark, candles light up long tables of diners still with the feet in the sand. In the warehouse the pace is frenetic, long-aproned waiters shimmy past tables and through queues of people wishing they had one. This is not the spot for a quiet night out but it is for their crisp-based meter-long pizzas.
The Grand on the Beach,
Granger Bay.
021-425-0551,
sms 072-586 -052 or
email beach@thegrand.co.za.
Best Sunday brunch: 15 on Orange
Rather than pile-up your plate to the brim with gleaming oysters from the buffet, ask one of the brilliant waiters to bring a dozen or two to your table. Taste the zesty gazpacho soup, salmon sashimi, Tuna tataki, proper Greek salad and tuna ceviche. From the hot buffet enjoy top-notch tandoori chicken and Thai seafood curry with salmon, calamari and mussels in a rich coconut cream.
The dessert selection of individual confectioneries is superb. Too often hotels skimp here using factory made items, margarine and poor quality chocolate. This pastry chef has the skill and the budget to create masterpieces, and he has.
15 on Orange Hotel,
Grey's Pass,
Gardens.
R265 per person.
021-469-8000.
Best cakes: Treat
You too will circle the table like a cooped up jaguar being taunted by each plate – one more alluring than the next. Treat offers cakes that few others do and displays them in such an elegant manner – some under large glass domes that imprison and yet magnify their deliciousness – others on pedestals. There are platters of chequered squares of coconut ices, ooey-gooey chocolate brownies and pies and slices of quiches. The baked cheese cake with a sour cherry topping is evil as is their signature dish, the red velvet – a beetroot-red vanilla cake with a marshmallow coating that has been flamed. Also try spicy apple; the orange and poppy cake; humming bird with pineapple and cream-cheese topping and a chocolate cake topped with Lindor truffles.
Treat,
12 Bella Rosa Street,
Rosenpark, Hertex Fabrics.
021-914-7041.
Best value: The Common Room at LQF
When food and service is as outstanding as its famed sister, The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais, this is extraordinarily good value. Consider that all the ingredients used by executive chef Margot Janse meet the highest ethical eating standards you won't find food this good at this price elsewhere.
Feast on stellar strawberry daiquiris to start, and end with Amarula coffees, served in flasks (each enough for two) and in between on fish pops on colourful sticks with the chakalaka sauce, divine ham and cheese bitterballen with sweet apple mustard, lamb frikadelletjies with flat vetkoeks and raïta and satay spiced squid, in a spicy peanut and coriander sauce.
A mini pizza with pulled Springbok shank and cabbage is a winner and short rib and bacon crumble reminds us of cassoulet. More traditional tappas like pan-fried sardine fillets with anchovy salsa are also available.
The Common Room,
LQF, Main Road,
Franschhoek.
(021) 876 8442.
www.lqf.co.za
Best Power Table: Tower restaurant, Westin Grand.
Take the corner 19th floor table with floor-to-ceiling glass on either side to prove that you're king of the castle. Eat carpaccio of smoked duck and then the velvety summer squash soup with luscious ricotta-stuffed zucchini flowers. Lamb comes three ways: slow-roasted meat which is shredded, in a terrine and then grilled lamb loin all with mashed potatoes and truffle oil. The olive oil-poached Norwegian salmon with burnt citrus endive, gnocchi and a white chocolate sauce is inventive and delicious.
The Westin Grand, Foreshore.
Best for sundowners: Maestro's on the Beach
Right on Milnerton beach this popular spot spans pizzas to salads, to burgers to pastas to grilled steaks and stews. The Roquefort salad is packed with crumbled blue-veined cheese and interesting and fresh greens. The grilled line fish is served with Med-style veg and your choice of starch. Come here for friendly service, acceptable food and amazing views. Chicken Tikka pasta is a favourite.
Maestro's On The Beach,
Milnerton Golf Club,
Bridge Road,
Milnerton.
021-551-4992
Best Italian: 95 Keerom
One of the city's finest restaurants, enjoy Milanese cuisine where the focus is on the best ingredients and classic recipes. Giorgio Nava has a number of restaurants but you will find him cooking here and coming to each table to present the specials. Lamb comes from his Karoo farm and tuna, which he serves seared with a fresh tomato sauce, is fished by people he knows well. The fresh lobster pasta is perfect to start followed by richly fragrant osso bucco and parmesan enriched polenta. The chocolate soufflé has become almost as famous as the acclaimed Nava himself.
95 On Keerom,
95 Keerom Street,
Cape Town.
021-422-0765
• Permalink • Comments [0]
The Common Room reviewed and Durbanville's regional dish revealed. (07-Dec-11)
Aside from Pieter Dirk Uys and beautiful orchids, Darling is better known for its fine wines especially those from Groote Post Estate. Winemaker Lukas Wentzel makes two delicious Sauvignon Blancs.
The easy drinking and more affordable 2001 is lovely but try to get your hands on the special, award winning 2011 Sauvignon Blanc Reserve where only free run juice from the first pressing is used in the making of the wine. Cloof Estate, also in the Darling area, has bottled the taste of summer with their Summertime SB.
The bikini on the label says a lot about what you'll find inside – wine that's easy drinking, fruity and fun. Both Groote Post and Cloof wines have rich fruit flavours which are indicative of the region.
Terroir is the term in wine that describes what the soil gives to the finished product. The Durbanville Wine Valley has run with an idea suggested by Diemersdal's Thys Louw – to serve a dish that reflects the Terroir of the area. Many wine estates in Durbanville now offer Lamb sosaties with pumpkin 'stampkoring', cumin sauce and pumpkin pickle as the regional dish. A starter portion is R65 while a double skewer is R120.
I loved the "stampkoring" or pearl wheat served "risotto" style with the roasted pumpkin and the pickle adding the brighter pumpkin flavours. Aside from being a clever marketing idea that will further define the region, it is absolutely delicious to eat. I look forward to seeing how different estates interpret the dish although I'm told that the cumin sauce and pickle recipes have to be followed exactly.
www.durbanvillewine.co.za
We all know that The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais tops global and local restaurant awards. There are only two reasons why you haven't eaten there: you think it is too expensive or you haven't been able to secure a reservation.
The good news is that food and service at the adjacent Common Room is as outstanding as its feted sister, only casual. Also, it is extraordinarily good value. We feasted, ordering far too many courses than we should have, and quaffed stellar strawberry daiquiris (think grown-up Slush Puppy) and ended with Amarula coffees, served in flasks, for R200 per head.
Most of the dishes are R35/R40 except for Chicken or Beef - whole roasted chicken and gravy (R135) or 400g fillet with béarnaise (R180). But, like all the ingredients used by executive chef Margot Janse, you won't find better elsewhere. Not satisfied to use free range chickens, hers are pasture raised – the new high bar in ethical eating.
The food is witty, inventive without being contrived, and moreish. We ordered two dishes at a time to share as we cosied up to the outside fireplace. It was a chilly evening so we were the only table outside while inside was packed.
First came the fish pops, on colourful sticks with the chakalaka sauce and divine ham and cheese bitterballen with a sweet apple mustard. These were perfect over drinks.
The not-to-be-missed lamb frikadelletjies are served with flat vetkoeks and raïta and eat well with the satay spiced squid (softer than you will find anywhere else) in a spicy peanut and coriander sauce.
A mini pizza with pulled Springbok shank and cabbage is a winner (and don't be surprised if you find similar on next year's Col'Cacchio's celeb menu).
The short rib and bacon crumble reminded me of a cassoulet while the pan fried sardine fillets with anchovy salsa was probably the most traditional of Spanish tappas.I finished with a jar of brownies while JP had the apple and speculaas spice pie.
Open daily from 7.30am for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Book a table.
The Common Room,
LQF,
Main Road,
Franschhoek.
(021) 876 8442.
www.lqf.co.za
When Brian Berkman isn't cosying up to fire places he assists clients with public relations campaigns. Follow BrianBerkmanZA on Twitter and see www.BrianBerkman.com.
• Permalink • Comments [0]
|
|