New fav sushi spot: Nobu at One&Only Cape Town

23 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG recommends, cape town, drink, food, hotels, lifestyle, sushi club, 0 Comments

Am typically Capetonian in that am a total creature of habit who gets very stressed out when I can’t get MY table in Beluga and MY heater at Sevruga and if I can’t eat ALL the crying rolls I order at Minato (like, if you want crying rolls, will you just order crying rolls and not eat mine okay? cool) and also I don’t really trust any sushi that doesn’t come from either Beluga or Sevruga or Minato’s and DESPITE all the time I spend at One&Only Cape Town I have not actually eaten the sushi at Nobu yet. Shocking, I know. So Saturday was time to ‘live on the edge’, ‘take a risk’ and try something new. Since Nobu is Paris Hilton’s second home we reckoned it couldn’t be that bad could it?

You can watch the chefs making the sushi upfront

Nobu at One&Only Cape Town

First impression would be the space – LOVE that you sit in intimate booths and LOVE the double triple volume that makes it so spacious and honestly, you come to Nobu because their service is so incredible you end up having a collaborative eating experience rather than a meal. After lengthy chats with the hostess we settled on a selection of their menu’s finest rather than ordering specific dishes, with a focus on white fish – not something we’ve eaten very much of.

A selection of whitefish sashimi. Ask them what they have in - I could eat this all night. I basically did.

Softshell Crab roll - stop right here because I CANNOT recommend these enough! Softshell crab is my sushi future!

Sushi salads usually disappoint me but the Lobster Salad with Spicy Lemon Dressing was completely OUT OF THIS WORLD.

Lobster salad with spicy lemon dressing

We were served a really delicious 10-year old Saki with the Lobster salad and it was yummy. Very clean and fruity with banana flavours. Ask for it when you go – it’s the Hokusetsu Ongakushu Semi-dry 10-year old.

Dessert finished us. Passion fruit mousse jelly thing, chocolate fondant (best dessert on the menu IMHO), green tea ice cream, kelpers & pineappple sorbet (the other best dessert on the menu), malva pudding and a coffee mousse thing which was also delicious.

After all this eating, Priscilla and I really should have gone home. But we didn't. We did something else instead, which I'm not sure about blogging yet. Oh Cape Town... you offer 2 girls too much on a Saturday night...

A story for another time...

A huge thanks to Nobu for being so utterly gracious in hosting CTG. The service was truly out of this world! And you absolutely have opened my mind to whitefish. It is the way forward! Salmon seems so… pink in comparison! Click here to make yourself a booking at Nobu. You won’t regret it. You may also never eat sushi anywhere else, which could be inconvenient but well, the risk is yours to take.

xxCTG

one night in the Dirkie Sanchez Suite

16 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in BFFs, CTG recommends, Design, advertising, cape town, hilarious, hotels, lifestyle, music video, south africa, 1 Comments

CTG was invited to go out to Elgin to experience the Old Mac Daddy Luxury Trailer Park Hotel, cousin to the Grand Daddy Hotel on Long Street, prior to its opening. This was a wild experience, let me tell you. Firstly, CTG and PD took their sweet time heading out into the country, getting our makeup done at Estee Lauder first, dawdling around Vida and then, only then hitting the N2 out to Elgin. We were then informed that we were holding up the boat ride. Oh Lord! Only us. So we then spent 4 billion hours driving around trying to find the rest of the boating party, which we eventually did, which eventually made it worth it.

You can get a boatride at nearby Mofam farm for only R70 - very serene and lovely.

Sunset from the boat.

After the boat ride we then drove another 4 billion kms back to the hotel, which is designed like an enormous barn, with overturned buckets as lights, and all the staff wear Old McDonald checker shirts! Ah, it’s lovely to look at.

Barn vibes in the main dining room

But the driving left us feeling like this, I won’t lie. As did the denial of my request for a cappuccino:

Taken right after it was revealed to CTG that Old Mac Daddy does not serve cappuccinos, or any filter coffee of any kind at all. Bleak.

I mean, what kind of a hotel doesn't serve FILTER COFFEE? An unfinished one apparently. We were assured that cappuccino machines were arriving the very next day.Which we have chosen to believe.

The food was at least delicious. We were served bobotie with banana, custard, coriander, basmati, almonds, green beans and chutney, which perked us up bigtime. Compliments to Siya the chef – he really did outdo himself. I could have eaten 2 servings, to deal with the emotional trauma of being denied cappuccino.

We then retired to our room – the specially requested Dirkie Sanchez Suite, whose development I have been following over at this blog since they started building the Old Mac Daddy. And this is when our evening really started. So inspired were we by this incredible take on hotel decor – the whole room is them Mexican Luchadore with the bed being a wrestling ring! - that PD and I decided to make a video, and spent the rest of the night doing just that. Please enjoy the fruits of our ass-shaking to our get-up-and-dance track of the moment, Beyonce’s Girl Anthem Why Don’t You Love Me:

The making of this was too much fun. We even took a break at midnight, and, starving, ventured down to the hotel to see if we could get a snack. Not only did we get a snack, but owner Jody totally went completely out of his way and opened his kitchen to make up toasted sandwiches, tea, rusks, milk tart and koeksisters. Unreal! That more than made up for the cappuccino debacle. So thanks for that Jody. And thanks for having us! Guys, Elgin is beautiful, and the Dirkie Sanchez Suite has a view of the whole valley. Go spend a night there. They should have cappuccino machines by now.  And take a camera.

BUT WAIT. Hidden in the back cupboard of the Dirkie Sanchez Suite is a pair of luchadore costumes. You know, Mexican Wrestler Nacho Libre vibe. We discovered these as we were leaving so took a few quick snaps but why don’t you use them in your video?

xxCTG & PD

PS video footnotes: CTG & PD wear sundresses R80,00 each by Mr Price, shades Roberto Cavalli, Ray Ban and Armani by Sunglass Hut, POA, makeup by Estee Lauder POA. Contact CTG for more specifics editor@capetowngirl.com

holiday in pictures

16 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in BFFs, CTG, cape town, girl stuff, holiday, hotels, lifestyle, south africa, 0 Comments

Had a good and lovely little mini break! And the weather played summer-summer too! Glorious. Think drinking Vida and swinging with the kiddies on the promenade

Trying on engagement rings with BFF (bridesmaid duties! so much fun!)

Mmmmm pretty sparkly stones

Lots of running, offset by eating LOTS AND LOTS of macarons! These ones are from Cassis. Vanilla and Pistachio are my two favourite flavours by far.

Eating LOTS AND LOTS of sushi. Frances pictured here at Sevruga

Picked up a pair of very unique Roberto Cavalli’s from Sunglass Hut at the Waterfront. Because WHAT is summer without a pair of statement shades? It’s a joke, that’s what.

Listened to David Bowie vinyls… on repeat…

“Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he’ll ever know
He’s in the best selling show..”

Went to watch Farryl Purkiss at &Union. Super chilled, super prego rolls.

Got a Flash for my Diana camera and took lots and lots of photos, still to be developed. This pic is taken using my iPhone and the Diana flash - you can literally track the flash as it moves. Quite a mission to take pics like this but still lots of fun, especially with all those pretty colour gels.

We got our makeup done by the lovely ladies at Estee Lauder. Ladies, have you tried the Advanced Repair Eye Cream? This is not a gratuitous product punt. As a girl who loves her eye makeup (like, if I’m going to lounge around in bed in lingerie all day, I’ll get up, put on makeup, and then get back into bed and lounge), I can honestly say that the Lauder eye cream product is amazing. I feel a whole lot less bad plastering on panda paint now that eyes are receiving some form of moisturising redemption.

We also spent a night at the Old Mac Daddy Luxury Trailer Park in Elgin, but that’s a whole other post, soon to follow…

Miss u holiday. You were awesome.

SLK shows us how to wear Summer 2011’s shades

22 Jul 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in BFFs, CTG, beach, bloggers, fashion, holiday, hotels, sponsors, 6 Comments

Shades by Salvadore Ferragamo, bikini by Aubade, beach by god

As I mentioned previously, CTG’s styling and makeup gets done by Samantha Laura Kaye, aka SLK. Sam recently jetted off to Mauritius for a little bit of sunshine in the wintertime, and CTG got Sunglass Hut to hook her up with a preview selection of this coming Summer’s hottest shades and basically show us ‘how to do Summer 2011′. Mauritius is not imperative to the looks she’s put together, but let’s be honest, it will definitely help.

A lady and her luggage. Shades by Salvadore Ferragamo, exclusive to Sunglass Hut.

This season's must-haves: Shades by Ferragamo, bikini by L'aubade, Kindle by Amazon.com, coconut cocktail courtesy of the Le Touessrok beach barmen

Sunglass afficionados, take note - these guys are employed to clean your shades while you're on the beach. Not kidding. That's all they do. Those who share the sunglass fetish will no doubt appreciate the utter awesomeness of that fact.

A close-up of the shade-cleaning action

Shades by Miu Miu for summer 2011, bikini by L'aubade, beach by Mother Nature

Shades by Ray Ban, bikini by Kulu, light dancing through the water in the swimming pool by some otherworldly power that is inspiring and beautiful

Shades by Ferragamo, green vest shirt by Diesel, white pleated skirt by Aca Joe, panama hat by Fabiani (imported from equador) bikini (under green top) Aubade.

Shades by Salvadore Ferragamo, bikini by Kulu

Swimwear (under dress) by kulu, dress by Melodie A, sunglasses by Ferragamo, earrings by Givenchy, watch by Fossil, sunshine by sheer awesomeness

Isn’t it just all a bit much in terms the of ‘holy crap that looks incredible’ factor? Don’t you  just want to book a flight RIGHT NOW? I’m trying to stop my mouse wandering over to TravelStart and booking myself an irresponsible beachy adventure, but it’s tough. It’s REAL tough. If you’re interested though, SLK stayed here for a total of 10 days, and I think one might conclude from these pics that she ‘had a good time’. Maybe.

****COMPETITION ALERT: Guys, mail me which of SLK’s outfits you liked the best and why, and you could win this pair of white Miu Miu’s for this upcoming summer. They’re not even in stores yet! editor@capetowngirl.com – go! You have til Friday 6 August 2010.

meet Dirkie Sanchez

06 May 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in BFFs, architecture, art, hotels, south africa, 0 Comments

Mark and Jo have been decorating a caravan for the Old Mac Daddy Elgin Hotel, the countryside cousin of the Grand Daddy in town, and theirs is called Dirkie Sanchez. Mark is pictured above. He’s a ‘method designer’. Below is the design Rikus did for one of the pull-down blinds in the caravan.

Rikus Ferriera for Dirkie Sanchez

It’s all looking pretty rad! Track their progress here.

Autumn in the city 2010

04 May 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, beach, cape town, hotels, lifestyle, photography, south africa, 1 Comments

Been getting around. Went to the Red Bull Street Style World Finals, which happened to coincide with the windiest storm Cape Town has had in years, which made it very dramatic. Our SA boy Kamalio came 2nd, which is pretty cool since the pressure was on bigtime – you’d never imagine how many tricks these kids could do with a soccer ball. First prize went to a Polish guy. Gazelle opened the show, which was rad.

Gazelle on th floor

Crowd and big screen

Been going on long scenic rides, eating leisurely lunches, soaking up the last of the sunshine.

From Hout Bay heading to town

About to hit Kloofnek

Been eating macaroons to deal with the blackness. They defs made it better.

Macaroons from Myatt. My macaroon heart still belongs to Cassis / One&Only Cape Town

I got shot along with a whole bunch of other smiling ladies as part of a Dentyne campaign that’s all about how lovely you look when you smile, but more about that later.

Not quite smiling yet but on my way there I think!

Had a delicious dinner at Mint at The Taj

Enjoyed a volcanic sunset

And watched kites fly on the promenade. See even thought CTG was black, the spirit of CTG lived on, through awesomeness, to blog another day.

It’s Macaroon Mania!

30 Mar 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, cape town, hotels, kindness of strangers, lifestyle, 6 Comments

And these ones are seriously contenders for the ‘Ultimate Macaroon’ title. I present One&Only Macaroons from One&Only Hotel Cape Town, which appeared upon my desk this morning as if by magic! That, my friends, is why One&Only is called a 6-star hotel – you get room service when you’re not even in your room!

What a fantastic way to start a Tuesday

If I were to describe these Macaroons, I’d say that their candy-brittle shells crumble into creamy, sweet vanilla-chocolate-jammy centres… close your eyes and imagine it. Taste the magic of the macaroons. Happy Tuesday! PS. Still not familiar with Macaroons (where have you been)? Click here to read up.