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Check out Moneyweb (18-Jul-08)
The fabulous Mandy de Waal has posted my Best for the moment on Moneyweb. Check it out here. • Permalink • Comments [0]
Sunday brunch at Winchester. From Next 48 Hours (18-Jul-08)
FOR nine years Maurice Gawronsky and his band have entertained folk on Sundays at The Winchester Mansions Hotel and for as long the hotel has provided brunch cuisine as plentiful as it is delicious.
Our visit on Sunday proved that band and kitchen remained in fine fettle, but over the years my tolerance for music over conversation has dwindled to the point that I found easy chatting difficult.
Being the glutton I am, I couldn’t pass up the breakfast offering when tempted by the option of eggs to order and an omelette station. Unlike other brunch offerings that conflate breakfast and lunch, here both are served fully but simultaneously.
I managed to skip the healthful fruit and cereal options for the pukka English breakfast complete with baked beans and porkers. Those more sensible than I would have stopped there...
The starters section could stand alone as a Mediterranean anti-pasti buffet with amazing salads featuring roasted zucchini and artichokes, a delicious sweet marinated shrimp dish, dolmades and roasted peppers while the main course dishes included roasted pork and lamb joints, lamb with creamy mushroom and tomato sauce, Malay-style chicken curry and crumbed and deep-fried calamari rings.
Baked swordfish was utterly delicious. I intended to sample about four other dishes but couldn’t. Equally, the dessert buffet just taunted me without reward.
Individual crème brules called my name, pink, coconut-covered lamingtons sang out like sirens on a distant rock and white-chocolate covered cheese triangles beckoned. Defeated but not yet deflated, I needed to walk along the beach front with the wind ahead. R180 per person.
Winchester Mansions Hotel, Sea Point.
www.winchester.co.za
021434-2351
Jacqui Daya is a deli in Main Road Newlands that has the usual deli fare but also a sushi bar.
There are a few cloth-covered tables at which to sit and a delicious selection of ready-made meals on a weigh and pay basis.
I was very pleased with my selection of spicy moussaka and penne pesto, a large plate full weighed-in at R65.
Philip Thraves ordered a toasted chicken mayo sandwich with a number of changes - he didn’t want butter on the bread and only the slightest amount of mayo which they perfectly complied with. Bread is supplied by Knead Bakery which is probably our best bakery in the land.
021-685-5383. 205 Main Road, Newlands.
Once in New York at one of those Third Avenue market days, I had a sweet crepe that was so lightly delicious those memories came flooding back to me while at Crespella in Lower Main Road, Observatory.
The special of the day (aubergine with garlic and Greek yogurt) in a crepe was so amazing I immediately followed it with the Thai chicken green curry crepe.
What impressed me about both was the care taken in preparing the crepe and ingredients.
The crepe was freshly made and the fillings had been cut in such small pieces that they filled a crepe perfectly.
So often one bites into a wrap and everything oozes out.
Crespella, Cnr Collingwood & Lower Main Road, Observatory. • Permalink • Comments [0]
Good, Better, Best. From Next 48 Hours. (10-Jul-08)
EVERY other cosmetic advert promises a lift and removal of wrinkles but if I hadn’t actually experienced the impact of a Carita Hydratante facial I would have scoffed, as I do, of the miracles or otherwise cosmetics attain.
Following a night of severe excess at the luminous La Colombe restaurant (seven courses each matched with wine) I conceded that my face was, in fact, much worse for wear.
The Spa at Constantia Uitsig follows the look as their pretty country hotel and restaurants do, with the absolute luxury of proximity meaning one can tumble out of the restaurant, into bed and onwards to the restorative Spa.
The Carita treatments (swanky French cosmetic house with a fifty year reputation) use purpose designed equipment that apply electric charges to the skin.
Not only does this deeply penetrate the tissue to effect a more than skin-deep result, but it firms the facial muscles and tones the skin to smooth it.
Even two days after the treatment (and as many face washes) people spontaneously remarked how good I looked.
At R690 for the 90 minute treatment this is money well spent especially if you’ve overdone it the night before and can’t afford to show the traces.
JP had the Swedish Massage (R450 for 90 minutes) and we both enjoyed lounging in the rest area next to the fireplace. Both changing rooms have steam and sauna facilities which is wonderful to use before or after a treatment when time is on your side.
Unlike so many other Spas, the gown actually fitted me comfortably - a vast improvement on many spas that measure their XL gowns on tiny people.
021-794-0433.
The great attraction of staying at Constantia Uitsig Hotel (other than being a hop, skip etc away from two of the best restaurants in the land) is the setting, deep among mature oak trees with the Constantiaberg in full view.
Cricket was the first reason for new activity at Uitsig and the restaurant initially designed to offer substance to the players. The accommodation also began in the same vein but soon became famed (as did the restaurant) far and wide and the cricketers made way for discerning customers.
Our suite, room 16, was roomy and comfortable with an elegant cherry-wood round table to work or eat at and a casually comfortable sitting area. The design ethic is English and French country house but not in a pretentious way that so many country establishments like to emulate. We felt we were in a friend’s home where we were welcome to kick off our shoes and slouch on the couch.
Under floor heating makes this a particular pleasure. I think it would indeed be possible to stay at Constantia Uitsig and not be seen by another. Some of the suites have a parking bay directly besides so if there were any reason to remain incognito that would be possible. After my facial I wanted the world to see me, so made a point of hooting and waving at all I passed on the way.
Constantia Uitsig Hotel.
021-794-6500.
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Where I stand on foie gras (07-Jul-08)
I don’t differentiate between the cruelty exacted upon geese in preparing their livers for Foie Gras and the commercial farming of animals for food. For me an equal cruelty is the presentation of cellophane-wrapped skinless chicken breasts where the consumer has absolutely no relation to the animal that gave up its life. Thanks to the anti foie gras lobby, those who eat the delicious rich liver should know how it came to be so.
Foie Gras is so costly because its production is limited and rigorous farming practices are upheld to ensure the quality of the end product. When I think about ethics and food, the life and death of a force-fed goose reserved for such a delicacy seems to me to have more respect and value than a battery chicken or worse, a skinless breast.
When it comes to eating ethically, the only ethical thing to do is not to eat any flesh at all.
• Permalink • Comments [7]
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