Flavour Cape / flavourBlog / Archive / October / 2009

October 2009

FOODSTUFF Tokara Deli opens and Helshoogte snub

October 26th, 2009 — kim maxwell | 0 comments

Tokara’s new DeliCatessen opened on Stellenbosch’s Helshoogte hill at the weekend. It’s an interesting business model when the financial outlay on interior décor and children’s designer play equipment would be unlikely to be offset in a hurry by a restaurant’s humble food and wine takings. I say this because the number of talented designers, artisans or artists involved in the project seemed to outnumber the lunch menu items.

Don’t get me wrong: I like the white and light interior space dotted with Gregor Jenkin’s and Pierre Cronje tables and chairs, with inviting long couches in a lounge or benches on a deck. They’re designed to encourage people to linger over a newspaper or current magazine (also provided). Other big names include furniture-maker Norman Mehl; wooden toybox crates and a bookshelf cleverly reminiscent of jenga blocks by James Mudge, and a Heath Nash olive branch chandelier. And my favourite, a treehouse in the shape of a weaver’s nest suspended from a leafy oak, designed by Porky Hefer of Animal Farm.

The deli concept for adults is a la carte breakfast and cakes, plus a weigh-your-plate selection from the lunch counter similar to the likes of Melissa’s. A burger with handcut chips and homemade tomato sauce was delicious – I’ll be back. A kiddie’s menu should suit under sixes. Operated by Anne-Marie and chef daughter Kara Ferreira (busy in the open kitchen) with freshness and regional ingredients preferred, a plus is that the Ferreira’s extensive vegetable and fruit garden is regularly raided.

Vineyard views are from the deck or the glass floor-to-ceiling enclosed space. But what most impressed are the moderate menu and wine mark-ups. The target market is yummy mummies and families, and if prices stay this way, the Tokara Deli won’t struggle to attract a loyal clientele.

It makes a change from the neighbours, developing a reputation for offering a slick food and wine “experience” at an international price tag. We drove across the road to Delaire Graff Estate in the hope of ordering dessert and coffee. Their shady panoramic deck is an outstanding and inviting place to while away a few hours, and plenty were doing just that. At 3.20pm on a sunny Sunday I’m not surprised to be told - very graciously - that the kitchen isn’t serving food or dessert until 6.30pm. But I believe they’re missing a trick when ordering a glass of wine or a soft drink is acceptable, but enjoying coffee at the restaurant during a splendid afternoon is off limits.

http://www.tokara.co.za/ Tel 021 890 5950

FOODSTUFF gourmet picnics you will want to try

October 21st, 2009 — kim maxwell | 2 comments

Any seasoned journalist soon realises the value of good public relations people. Sure, they want to punt their products, but the good ones know that anybody with a bit of sense has experienced comebacks from people they like if they recommend something they haven’t experienced themselves. So they don’t.

Personally I’m often on the lookout for good ideas, but hesitant to recommend a wine or whisky release or leisure experience unless I’m certain it actually works, tastes good or offers a useful or unusual service, all the while representing outstanding value. Where it doesn’t, they’ll hear about it too. My flavourBlog is a private space to discuss things that inspire or annoy me, so if a place or service or clever product impresses me sufficiently, you may well hear about it.

I don’t know about the rest, but October holds more deadlines than I can comfortably cope with, thanks to most local magazines completing their December and January issues simultaneously. And since it’s a recession year where rates are down, and there is only one of me to go around, a bumper month means extra commissions, hence quality time with my laptop outside of business hours on quite a few weekends and extra nights.

Drumroll… The Picnic Company is a small business run by energetic Cape Town women that deserve a mention. I’ve tried their picnics previously at wine farms and en route to events, and I’ve never been disappointed. So when lunch arrived in a box on an October day where long hours at a desk seemed a foregone conclusion, it was cause for excitement.

The wine monster was around, and although no alcoholic stuff was included, plenty in the ‘District Six’ picnic satisfied two hearty appetites. The pictures do the talking here, but I should add that their picnics offer convenience, consistent quality, creative preparation and lots of tiny bags of extras. These picnic gals truly think of everything, down to the miniature cheese board and plastic bag to bin your waste afterwards.

Picnics start at R90 per adult, or R60 per child, and on short notice they’re prepared to cater to those annoying allergies, diabetics and kosher friends we’d rather forget about when standing in a supermarket making group catering decisions ourselves.

Oh go on, check out their website http://www.picnics.co.za/ I hold no responsibility for their tagline: With one call, we will do it all!

District Six picnic

FOODSTUFF George Jardine and Jordan restaurant

October 14th, 2009 — kim maxwell | 0 comments

Scottish Chef George Jardine has filled me in on his new plans. His Bree Street, Cape Town Jardine Restaurant http://www.jardineonbree.co.za/ is one of my city favourites, and Jardine has been saying for a while that he wants to open a second venue to allow his talented chefs to develop their own style.

The Jordan Restaurant with George Jardine opens in late November 2009, a collaboration between Gary and Kathy Jordan and George Jardine. South African wife Louise will be a new addition in front of house (Jardine says it will be a new challenge for them to work together). The concept is country fare in terms of ingredients but retaining the Jardine clean style on plates. Extra additions are a wood-fired oven and grill, and sourcing from favourite country suppliers.

Diners will be able to appreciate Stellenbosch views from patio tables. It will be family-friendly at lunchtime and the dress code won’t be smart. On Thursdays and Fridays smarter tasting menus will be offered, priced similarly to those of Overture. Sounds like a delicious development.

Tel 021 881 3441 Jordan winery for more info. See flavourCape Dec 20th review at Jardine at Jordan

gary-and-kathy-jordan-with-george-and-louise-jardine-and-neleen-strauss.jpg

FOODSTUFF Conrad Gallagher on auction

October 12th, 2009 — kim maxwell | 1 comment

I passed this auction sign while driving home to Green Point in Cape Town over the weekend.

I’m sure the house will fetch a good price: double-storey in a prime address, boasting three bedrooms, pool and granny flat. Interesting that the auction company has his name on the signage instead of the standard address details. Potential buyers expecting a state-of-the-art chefs’ kitchen could be disappointed. The kitchen was fairly standard with a country cottage feel when I last saw it.

They say Irish chef Conrad Gallagher left a trail of irate suppliers and former staff at restaurants and coffee shops when he packed up his family and fled South Africa this year. It’s doubtful we’ll ever know the full story, but it’s surely a warning to any restaurateur about taking on more than you can chew and expanding too fast during recessionary times.

WINE delicious wines at Franschhoek Uncorked

October 10th, 2009 — kim maxwell | 0 comments

I popped into a few wine farms today during Franschhoek Uncorked today. It’s a festival where wineries offer music, food and leisure activities on their farms in the hope of attracting carloads of Capetonians. And hopefully sell a lot of wine…

Môreson wines were in good company on Happy Valley Road with Bread & Wine Vineyard Restaurant converting into “market stalls” selling fresh produce, buffalo mozzarella, homemade boerewors rolls and my favourite - Neil Jewell’s delicious softly poached Scotch eggs (coated in pork, sage and onion sausagemeat and a strip of homemade bacon). We stocked up on extra Scotch eggs (R15 each) and saucisson Sec to eat at home.

My visit to Lynx Wines was a first. It won’t be the last. I’ve heard wonderful stories about the personal wine experience people receive when they arrive at Dieter Sellmeyer’s small tasting room opposite his vineyards. Peeping into the cellar I’m not sure if it qualifies as a micro-winery, but with red wines punched down in cement tanks and a few wines vinified in a couple of tiny stainless steel tanks, it should be!

German-born engineer-turned winemaker Sellmeyer was raised in Spain, studied in the UK and has worked in a few countries around the world before deciding to put down roots – literally – in Franschhoek soils. Three attractive daughters and a few friends were roped in to dispense tapas to the crowds today.

Spanish-style calamari strips in chilli, and skewered prawns with lime were both delicious with the Lynx Viognier 2009 (R90). Confession: I don’t enjoy most Viogniers as the variety’s stone fruit overtones are often drowned in new oak, reminding me of a reduction of apricot Liqui Fruit instead of white wine. Even if a winemaker incorporates two or three percent of Viognier in a wine I often sniff it out. The Lynx Viognier was such a refreshing change and I happily drank more than a glass. The Lynx secret to refreshing Viognier is sandy soils, and only fermenting and maturing 50 percent of the grapes in barrel; the rest from the tank. Delicious stuff.

I can recommend the Lynx Shiraz 2007 too. Again planted in those sandy soils, acting as a natural vigour control to keep yields low, this vintage made it into WINE magazine’s 2009 Shiraz Challenge top five. Expect a lovely savoury quality, perhaps biltong with coriander seeds. It’s as elegant as its Viognier counterpart, thanks to the use of second and third-fill barrels. Nice price too for a red at R90 per bottle.

BREAD & WINE VINEYARD RESTAURANT, Happy Valley Road, Franschhoek. Tel 021 876 3692, http://www.moreson.co.za/
LYNX WINES, Wemmershoek R301 Road, Franschhoek. Tel 021 867 0406, http://www.lynxwines.co.za/

FOODSTUFF Gourmet closing shock has SA foodie relevance

October 6th, 2009 — kim maxwell | 6 comments

I read with alarm news of the closure of Gourmet magazine after 68 years… Read David Carr’s blog on http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/media-decoder-few-luxuries-left-inside-conde-nast/

I subscribe to Gourmet’s digital newsletter, and while I often find their recipes and tone too American, I enjoy the quality food writing by contributors on their website, disecting issues around chefs and food on a level where the emerging food culture of South Africa simply can’t compete.

Somebody called Julie commenting on Carr’s article struck a chord:
Gourmet’s shuttering is symptomatic of the larger struggles facing all manner of publications. As magazines and newspapers are forced to compete against a din of free online content (of inferior quality), they are forced to provide more editorial content with less money and fewer people. In the end, the public is the loser, as the number of talented paid writers dwindles. We have fewer people whose full-time job it is to keep an eye on politicians and corporate executives. In the case of Gourmet, we have fewer talented chefs and writers researching, documenting, uncovering and pioneering the trends and issues of what we put into our mouths and bodies three times a day.

I echo Julie’s sentiment in part. I make a living writing about restaurant openings, profiling chefs and tracking food and wine trends. I spend a great deal of time doing that, often partnering with talented photographers to produce fairly impressive layouts on very tight writing and image budgets, for very little remuneration in real terms.

Previously I worked in Asia on premier titles, exposed to people who had premium bank accounts funding their gourmet wine and eating habits and I’m not ashamed to say I revelled in it at times. True foodies don’t spend on meals or ingredients for the sake of snobbery, they’re compelled because they have the ability to appreciate flavour equally in a fine dining restaurant or a simple street market stall.

I ate an unexpected meal at Bokkie Botha’s delightful The Olive Branch restaurant (Tel 082 892 7222) while in Prince Albert recently. There was such enthusiasm and attention to recipes from treasured cookbooks and great mealtime restaurant experiences that it infused the meal and overshadowed the lack of technical skill in places. Although Botha is a self-trained cook who opens his Prince Albert restaurant only periodically, this increases demand. And he has more experience than most, eating in and then touring Michelin-starred restaurant kitchens of France and Europe after the meal. It shows in the dedication and love he offers on these country town plates, using a well-intentioned but amateur crew to assist in creating complex dishes.

In South Africa it’s been amazing to track food progress since the days of Apartheid when out-of-touch European chefs served tired buffets in local hotels. We don’t have Michelin stars but we have a generation of chefs and amateur cooks who are enthusiastically discovering local produce, the same produce that receives quality thumbs up from visiting overseas chefs.

I’ve contributed to plenty of sinking titles in South Africa in recent times. A few printed publications don’t have the history of Gourmet, but we have an exciting food culture we’re still exploring. In the same way that restaurants are reinventing themselves to cope with adjusted dining budgets, I’m feeling positive that serious foodies publications will go the same route in SA, and survive. Anybody agree?

FOODSTUFF new restaurant smoking laws

October 1st, 2009 — kim maxwell | 0 comments

Has anybody had any experience of restaurants following the new smoking laws signed into effect this month?
I read an entry on http://www.eatout.co.za/ about it. I also noticed a sign to that effect on a guesthouse in the Little Karoo last week.

According to the eat out website, heftier fines will now be dished out to restaurants that ignore smoking regulations and to individuals who smoke in public places.

Fines for breaching smoking laws have been increased to a maximum of R50 000 for owners of restaurants, pubs or bars, while the fine for individual smokers is set at R500.

The new bit is that restaurants that allow smoking on balconies and verandas need to take extra precautions. The new legislation bans smoking in “partially enclosed” public places.

Hudson’s Burger Joint in Cape Town is one place that didn’t enforce the rule when they first opened. I like their burgers so I’m hoping they’ve taken note!

Parents of young kids also listen up: it is now also illegal for persons under 18 to be allowed into a designated smoking area. Presumably that applies to watching rugby in pubs too. Chapmans Peak Hotel in Hout Bay is a venue that enforced that rule even before these regulations were introduced. Good for them.

Flavour Cape