If CTG was a Steri Stumpie
18 May 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, food, hilarious, 2 Comments
She would be this Steri Stumpie!
Oooh lala!
Get your own Mr Steri Stumpie Head Steriphernalia Kit on the Steri site!
She would be this Steri Stumpie!
Oooh lala!
Get your own Mr Steri Stumpie Head Steriphernalia Kit on the Steri site!
Just because we have taken a break from macaroons does not mean we have totally forgotten what they are. Yes SPAR I am talking to you. About this:
Um, This is NOT a macaroon. These are MASQueroons.
I know what you’re all going to say… “That’s what you get for being in Hout Bay!”
I deserve it, I guess. But really. Do you think they do this because they don’t actually know what macaroons are? Dear Spar, allow me to show you what macaroons are:
These are macaroons
And these are also macaroons
Do you see SPAR? Are we clear now on what macaroons are? I trust y’all will take the relevant steps to correct your grave error.
Love, CTG xxx
(image credit - thanks Amanda x)
Been getting some great entries to the Things That Make You Go Nom competition. I did ‘brace for rude image onslaught’ but so far there’s only been one of those, and it was a picture of a baby with chocolate all over its face, so I think we’re doing quite well. Send your pics of Things That Make You Go Nom to editor@capetowngirl.com before next Friday 21 May to stand a chance to win one of these divine Nomu Gift Boxes!
Here’s a little smattering of what CTG has received so far (not including the brand who tried to sneak their stuff in as a legit submission – naughty!)
An obvious one really!
More flapjacks - clearly the macaroon has a confection contender!
Ice-creams in Struis Baai - good one ladies!
Spicy Basque chicken - om nom nom sounds good!
What makes you go NOM NOM NOM?
If you follow me on twitter despite the endless addition of the words NOM NOM NOM to almost every food post, then well done. You are a person of character and patience. Is not ideal but I am okay with virtually chanting nom nom nom, even though it makes me sound like a LOLcat, or a small child, or a LOLcat eating a small child. Because when something tastes good, it deserves a NOM. And that, my friends, is the internet for you.
Luckily, there are brands out there made for people like you and me, internet friend. Which is why I’m super excited to announce I’ll be giving away THREE Nomu Gift Packs to readers who send me a pic or a description of Things That Make You Go NOM. Those things can be anything from a delicious meal in a restaurant to your favourite snacky treat (in CTG’s instance that would be Marshmallow Fish) to your killer butternut soup. It really can be anything, just as long as it makes you go NOM.
nom nom NOMU
Send your pics and / descriptions to editor@capetowngirl.com before next FRIDAY 21 May. Winners will be chosen on a lucky draw basis but as is always the case with CTG, we have a LOT of time for creative people so if you really want a Nomu Box of Love you just have to try.
NOM nom nom
What’s in the boxes? We have a selection of their finest rubs in one, a stir set in another and a dipper/grinder set in the last. Nom nom NOM!
Eric from One&Only Cape Town
It was with much excitement that Frances Sauvage, Chris Rawlinson, Therese and myself found ourselves handing our keys over to the valets at One&Only Cape Town for an evening with Eric, renowned sommelier and dinner at Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant, maze. Just read Eric’s story:
“Eric moved from the Northern Cape to Cape Town in 1994/1995 and got a job at a bottle store. The bottle store was often quiet, so he used to read the back of wine labels and this is where his interest in wine developed. He managed to get his hands on a John Platter guide and through studying it, learnt more about the topic. Via the John Platter guide, Eric heard about the Cape Wine Academy and over time, Eric entered himself for courses at the Cape Wine Academy at this own expense. Eric left the bottle store and joined Woolworths as a shelf packer. He requested to work in the food & beverage section, and eventually his path crossed with Alan Mullins, legendary wine consultant for Woolworths. Alan took Eric under his wing, and the rest is history. Today Eric lives in Woodstock with his mother and his children, and he’s studying for a Diploma in Wine through the Cape Wine Academy.”
How fantastic is that! Our gracious hosts, Etienne and Adele, informed us that first we’d have a brief tour of One&Only Cape Town’s cellar, which holds over 5 000 bottles - just think about that! It’s a collection that took over 7 years in the making, which makes it older than the hotel itself.
Into the cellar, Frances leading the way
The most expensive bottle of wine in the collection is the Cheval Blanc from France, which will cost you a cool R17 000. So we ordered 5 bottles of that, just to kick off the mood.We proceeded to taste 4 different types of wine, including a Pinot Noir, a Cab Sauv, a Gewurtztraminer and a Chardonnay. Eric really put the pressure on the tasting notes which caused Etienne and Frances Sauvage to giggle like naughty children in the corner.
The Glen Carlou Pinot Noir
For starters we all sampled various dishes including wood fired prawns (amazing), Kentucky Fried Quail and Coleslaw (delicious) and the ultimate dish from the starters if you ask me, the soft-shell crab claws, which we all eyed greedily (oh you have it, no no, please, go ahead through gritted teeth).
For mains I ate the roasted kingklip on crayfish risotoo with bouillabaise sauce on a bed of garlic and parsley mussels. It tasted as good as it sounds. The others ate from the impressive meat selection – I will most definitely be ordering a steak next time. maze is, in fact, a grill restaurant, so steaks are their speciality.
The fillet
We were then granted the special privilege of a kitchen tour by maze head chef Phil Carmichael. Frances could not control herself, and proceeded to ply him with a slew of questions, from ‘What do you cook for yourself when you’re at home?’ and ‘What’s your last minute backup plan if you stuff everything up?’. Phil handled her like a pro, citing ‘A cheese and tomato sandwich’ and ’spaghetti bolognese’ as his answers.
with Phil Carmichael, the head chef at maze
Post kitchen tour we were presented with a spread of various desserts. The maze breakfast was an unusual if delicious take on cereal (unbelievably good, you have to try it), while the chocolate orange fondant was just out of this world, as was the peanut butter and jelly ice cream bar. The raspberry sorbet was refreshing and delicious, and the vanilla rice pudding was gentle and creamy. With all that wine in us, there was little conscience left to stop us pigging out, which is exactly what we did. And it was awesome!
Mmmm dessert
With our coffee came these tiny moist squares of brownie goodness, as well as some handmade orange turkish delight jellies.
Brownie delights!
There wasn’t room in my stomach, but I made room. The service was out of this world! It also looks awesome. The triple volume ceiling and the oversized lightbulbs create a sense of drama.
Frances Sauvage holding a Baked Alaska also creates a sense of drama
I’m definitely going back! Who’s with me? Click here to book yourself a dinner at maze.
Just order your own Soft-shell Crab Claws. I’m being serious.
Meet S1mz. S1mz is CTG’s Restaurant Critic. S1mz can eat anything and still stay thin. S1mz looks like a chill bro but is also deceptively belligerent. S1mz likes his meat minced, not his words. And S1mz accompanied me to Mint, at The Taj. In his words…
“I’ve eaten in many hotels over the years, and so it was that Cape Town Girl and I entered Mint, the casual, all day dining venue at The Taj Hotel in Wale Street in Cape Town. The main feature, and one of the first things you see when entering, is a beautiful glass fronted wine cellar with stainless steel frame. Stark and contemporary, beautiful in its unapologetic display. The lighting is nice, imposing steel shades which hang like copper artichoke hearts from the double volume ceiling. But the furniture is a let down. There is no excuse for using oak veneer tables and chairs, even if the chairs are covered in a cream and olive damask. It just speaks of a lack of inspiration.
However, we were at Mint to eat and so we settled quickly into a bottle of Eagles Nest Merlot and a starter of truffle scented asparagus soup and glazed foie gras with berry compote. The soup was presented with great theatricality and poured at the table from a small carafe, steaming and impatient, into the bowl which had been primed with truffle oil. The delicate flavors had been handled with great respect and blended comfortably to complement each other, almost to the point of feeling under seasoned, but I couldn’t commit either way I’m afraid.
The glazed foie gras was delicious, a little more heat would have given it a crispier crust but the flesh was superb, pink and soft, with the texture of over-ripe camembert. I found the berry compote too sharp as an accompaniment though, it dominated the finish and cleansed my palate far too quickly. I personally like to savour this dish so avoided adding too much of the jammy sauce.
The service to this point was superb. I have to make mention of the maitre d’ Hilton and his team because they were perfectly on point. They were attentive and chatty without being over bearing. I love eating in a place where the staff are happy, it makes for 50% of the experience and Mint is no exception. They appeared genuinely proud of their menu, their kitchen and their floor.
Because Cape Town Girl likes a story she ordered the ostrich steak with mash and calvados sauce, as this dish was recommended by the restaurant earlier that day on Twitter. To be fair, it was very good. The meat was cooked to a perfect medium rare and the accompanying calvados sauce was so good we ordered another bowl. Calvados is an apple brandy from the French region of Lower Normandy and the jus which the spirit was added to had the required gentle meatiness adding a touch of salt. It was delicious and the kitchen had clearly taken their time on the reduction.
Not so lucky on the risotto though. It was over cooked and consequently stodgy and soft. It wasn’t a mess, and I wasn’t offended by it, but I mentioned it politely to Hilton and he clearly took it as an affront because he wrestled it away from me, insisting it was not even the smallest imposition to remake the entire dish. Mint is big on truffle oil by the way, they appear to use it wherever they can and the gentle scent was evident from the moment my meal was placed in front of me.
I expected the obligatory 30 minute wait, which is half the time I take to bumble my way through this dish, but amazingly I had a fresh bowl within 10 minutes. Small, firm little rice grains with a soft bite and a rich creamy parmesan sauce arrived, much better than the first. With the little shitake mushrooms entwined in an orderly heap under a basil leaf blanket. Cape Town Girl beamed with pride, and then she took a photo.
Hilton was clearly on a roll by now, because he would not allow us to order just one dessert. He delivered a platter of the entire dessert menu to our table. It was ridiculous. I will try to summarize the experience in the interest of brevity:
Cappuccino creme brulee: Don’t mess with creme brulee. I want custard with a crisp burnt sugar top. That’s it. This was covered in swiss meringue.
Chocolate mousse with Grande Marnier: Damn fine heavily laden cocoa bitterness. Recommended!
Cheese cake with berry sorbet and compote: I don’t remember eating this. Not a good sign.
Chocolate fondants: Too dry, fondants should explode in a mountain of hot chocolate. Avoid it, unless you enjoy disappointment.
Cappuccino ice cream: The highlight of the dessert trolley. Creamy, silky, smooth yummy deliciousness. I want some now…
Macaron: Cape Town Girl ate this. She was critical of it. That’s how she is.
To conclude:
Mint is a great restaurant with passionate people running it. I had a great meal at very reasonable prices. Cape Town Girl was scintillating company and that definitely allowed me to feel less dull, but all in all I will definitely go back because they run a happy space. It’s part of the inner city rejuvenation and it is well run. In a sea of mediocre offerings they deliver a great menu, well prepared food and at good value. For these reasons alone it deserves your support.”
To book a table at Mint call +27 (0)21 819 2000 or click here for contact details. To follow @S1mz on twitter, click here.
Introducing CTG’s resident foodie, the infamous Frances Sauvage. Frances used to write a blog called Food Interrupted, and now she will be writing it as a column for CTG every Thursday. In her own words: “I do so love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food.”
Without any further ado, I present to you Frances Sauvage’s fabulous recipe for Hot Trout Salad. Enjoy!
And so I’m back from outer space and I’m simply too thrilled to be here with you cherubs!
Hurrah for the gracious Cape Town Girl who plucked me from culinary obscurity. You see, after many moons of warbling about pots and pans, I felt I needed a sabbatical. There are only so many deflated soufflés and weary chocolate tortes one woman can handle. So I took time off from the pantry to try to find myself. And then luckily, one day, I went for a walk along the beach and there I was!
Darlings you have the misfortune pleasure of pondering my ramblings EVERY THURSDAY, for forever! And while there is much you need to know of me, as that old crone from that ghastly movie about the iceberg said, A Women’s Heart Is A Deep Ocean of Secrets so every Thursday when I have your undivided attention I shall extol one or two of my three pearls of wisdom.
But for now to the kitchen!
Darlings I bloody hate bloody Autumn, there’s zippo fabulous about it. Summer’s barely out the door in her Louboutins when Autumn comes thundering around the corner in a kaftan and trakkie-daks. It’s dreadful, is what it is, so we must cling, cling like Nag Apies to the remnants of the hot and happy season. There’s simply no better way to do this than to have a lunch. I LOVE a lunch.
Nothing says I’m barely alive quite like 3 bottles of Café Culture before 2:30 in the arvie, lounging about in the brown and decaying garden, gesticulating wildly whilst bemoaning your very existence celebrating life’s little pleasures. Like trout.
Darlings, not only is trout an excellent and fair name to call a woman who has not yet entertained the idea of plastic surgery but should have, it is also a source of great nutrition, taste and most importantly goes very bloody well with a G&T thank you very bloody much.
Darlings this weekend I urge you to throw together this Hot Trout Salad as a sort of sacrificial offering to the weather gods. It’s so easy you could go out and pay for lunch while allowing your cat to do it at home. Invite your friends darlings. They’ll love you for it, even if the last time you threw a lunch the chicken was like python and the wine the colour of morning pee. Go for it darlings!
Asparagus, celery and Buitenverwachting Buitenblanc
What you’ll need to ferret for:
1 fillet Rainbow trout, just bigger than the size of your outstretched hand and about an inch thick.
Carton of reduced fat cream (no one likes a fatty!)
Olive oil
2 onions
2 segments garlic
1 cup of white wine (for the pot darling, the pot, not you)
Seasoned flour
Pack of fresh asparagus spears
1 long celery stalk chopped into rounds
Black pepper
½ cup veg stock
Fresh rocket
1 or 2 satsumas or naartjies
Organic whole-wheat couscous (not the plain white one, the whole-wheat one. Because we care darlings, don’t we? We care about lunar farming and sustainable stilettos and overgrazed rivers and barefoot malnourished children in artsy black and white photos. We’re cool like that darlings, we care.)
What a perfect slab of salmon trout
WTF to do with it all
Turn a fairly deep pan (we’re thinking saucepan here, not a pancake number) on low-ish (if your heat dial goes up to 10 or so, then about 4 would be right)
While oil in pan heats, chop up onion and garlic. With a small sharp knife sommer rip shreds of trout off the thin silvery skin, whilst imagining it is the face of that bitch in PR.
When you have a pile of shredded fish, drizzle it in olive oil and then roll it in seasoned flour. All seasoned flour is, is a bunch of normal cake flour with loads of herbs and peppers and whatever-the-hell else you want in it.
Now chuck whole lot into pan and brown.
Meanwhile, sneakily, you will blanche the asparagus and celery in boiling water (with a bit of salt)
When soft (but not as soft as Snow Patrol) chuck ass (hahahah) and celery into the onion, garlic and fish pan.
Quick as Edith Venter to a photo opportunity, add a cup of veg stock and the cup of wine (I know it, was a sacrifice.)
Now stand over saucepan and grind enormous amounts of black pepper into it.
Allow to sort of, vibe for a while.
Boil a small pot of water (about 4 cups) with olive oil and salt. When boiling toss in the I’m Wearing Linen And Am A Responsible Earth Citizen couscous. Take off the heat and allow to expand.
Meanwhile chuck the cream into the sauce mix and stir well.
Once the couscous has sucked up most of the water you can drain the excess.
Set a heap of it on a plate; add rocket and a dollop of the trout sauce. You can then either squeeze a Satsuma over the sauce itself or peel the bloody thing and let people do the squeezing themselves the lazy bastards. Citrus is a must with fish darlings. Unexpected, but inseparable. Kind of like Woody Allen and that Asian daughter of his. Grind some pepper on the plate and…
Ta-da! Or rather as we say it here at Food Interrupted,
Pra-da!
Pra-da!
Till next week, I wish you satisfaction and slight inebriation.
Frances
CTG is exploding with thrills to announce that we will soon have a foodie column happening here every thursday, called Food, Interrupted. More details to follow later in the week, when I introduce you properly to CTG’s resident foodie, Frances Sauvage. In the meantime, please enjoy this sneak peek from our shoot on Saturday:
Frances will be dishing on all things on dishes, some of which she’ll be making herself. She’s killer in the kitchen – this woman bakes her own biscuits when she gets home from work and can rack up a roast on a whim. I look most forward to sharing her with you. Like a rich dessert. Stay tuned.
